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The Timeless Way of Building
In The Timeless Way of Building Christopher Alexander presents a new theory of architecture, building, and planning which has at its core that age-old process by which the people of a society have always pulled the order of their world from their own being.
He writes, “There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always b ...more
He writes, “There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always b ...more
Hardcover, 552 pages
Published
August 23rd 1979
by Oxford University Press, USA
(first published December 12th 1978)
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Community Reviews
(showing 1-30)
May 01, 2014
Maryam Shahriari
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
معماري-شهرسازي
ساده بود و عمیق. به خوانندهاش احترام گذاشته بود و نحوه خواندن کتاب را هم برای کسی که میخواهد سرسری نگاهش کند و هم کسی که میخواهد کل کتاب را بخواند توضیح داده بود. دنبال خودنمایی و نشان دادن علم و سواد و دایره لغاتش نبود. و همهی اینها باعث شده بود که بتوانی به راحتی بخوانیاش؛ بتوانی آن را نه یک کتاب آموزشی، که یک رمان یا داستان تصور کنی که میتوانی درازکش هم بخوانی و به اینکه آخرش چه میشود فکر کنی!
اما کتابی نبود که مثل رمانها یک بار بخوانی و وقتی فهمیدی آخرش چه میشود به کتابخانه برگردانی. با وجود ...more
اما کتابی نبود که مثل رمانها یک بار بخوانی و وقتی فهمیدی آخرش چه میشود به کتابخانه برگردانی. با وجود ...more
I found this book both wonderful and a bit frightening. The book is not a literary masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but the images it paints in the mind are quite beautiful in its discussion of what we use to be and what we've lost. As a designer, I find Alexander's proposed solution a bit scary as it reject contemporary architecture practices almost completely, even after 40 years of publication. But the ideas behind that rejection, about architecture being a common language and d
...more
One of my all-time favorite philosophy books. It has lots and lots of picturs and the unusual feature of a fast-track design that allows people to skim the book in a day. I read the whole book and it made me cry and changed the way I look at everything.
This book is essential reading for anyone involved in making things for use by other human beings. Part Taoist philosophy of architecture, part systems thinking for the way people and the spaces they inhabit interact, it explains why some places are vibrant and alive, others decaying and dying. It's impossible to look at buildings and towns the same way after reading this.
Alexander's Design Patterns give a way to capture the knowledge about how parts of a system (building, town) take their place ...more
Alexander's Design Patterns give a way to capture the knowledge about how parts of a system (building, town) take their place ...more
In this thoughtful book, Chris Alexander takes an approach to architecture that understands it through the filter of human (and non-human) agency. He understands that the most useful buildings are ones that are created by the maximization of agency of the people involved, with the utilization of language based patterns that we inhabit to organize our behavior. He writes this book almost as if talking in a dream. Reading this book is a visceral experience of stepping into the a shower.
It's quite ...more
It's quite ...more
My friend and poet Jen urged me to read this, telling me it is one of her favorite and most influential books. It was written over fourteen years in the sixties and seventies, published in 1979, and has the feel of a "back to the garden" romanticism. That sounds like I am dismissive of it, which isn't true. It just feels like what he said then is almost hopelessly truer today. Other books like it include Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, or Seeing Like a State by James
...more
If I were to summarize this book in a single sentence, I would say that it applies taoist philosophy to architecture. However, that is not giving either this book or taoism the the attention they deserve.
The Timeless Way of Building describes a natural way of building. However, when I say this, I do not mean natural in terms of materials or aesthetics, or even neccisarily the methods of construction. But rather, in an aproach to design and building that creates living environments. The Timeless ...more
The Timeless Way of Building describes a natural way of building. However, when I say this, I do not mean natural in terms of materials or aesthetics, or even neccisarily the methods of construction. But rather, in an aproach to design and building that creates living environments. The Timeless ...more
May 26, 2013
Howard Mansfield
rated it
it was amazing
Recommended to Howard by:
howard@howardmansfield.com
The architect Christopher Alexander says that we can immediately feel when a place makes us feel more alive. “We become happy in the presence of deep wholeness,” he says. “When a building works, when the world enters the blissful state which makes us fully comfortable, the space itself awakens. We awaken. The garden awakens. The windows awaken. We and our plants and animals and fellow creatures and the walls and light together wake.”
In his masterful, poetic book, The Timeless Way of Building, ...more
In his masterful, poetic book, The Timeless Way of Building, ...more
I would give this book 6 stars if possible. Christopher Alexander's approach to architecture is so natural and comforting. I don't doubt that the world would be very different if everyone fully embraced his approach, especially since, as he argues, it's the same approach that had been used for thousands of years until the past few decades. But the thing that I liked so much about this book is that his approach is broad enough to apply to other areas of life instead of just architecture. He is co
...more
Alexander's books are as much about community--what it is, what it might be in other times and places, what it could be--as they are about architecture. Here's one of my favorite passages from The Timeless Way of Building:
"There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit of [a person:], a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named.
The search which we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central search of a ...more
"There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit of [a person:], a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named.
The search which we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central search of a ...more
The pictures in this book, the prose style, everything works together to contribute a sense toward the timelessness that he talks about, the "quality without a name"... it's a very Zen book, or perhaps Daoist actually, and in many ways it comes across as a philosophy of life, not just a philosophy of building. Which I like--connections between things.
The companion volume is A Pattern Language, which has all the juicy details of how to build things better.
I took almost a hundred pictures with my ...more
The companion volume is A Pattern Language, which has all the juicy details of how to build things better.
I took almost a hundred pictures with my ...more
Perhaps it should have been called 'Zen and the Art of Building'.... I hadn't come across this book before, although I think it may be required reading for architecture students. Having come from a design background myself I found it interesting.
It's long winded and often waxes lyrical, but the basic premise states that buildings are not for enhancing the egos of architects, but instead, they are for the people who use and live in them. So far, so good. Alexander also reveals how the patterns of ...more
It's long winded and often waxes lyrical, but the basic premise states that buildings are not for enhancing the egos of architects, but instead, they are for the people who use and live in them. So far, so good. Alexander also reveals how the patterns of ...more
If you want inspiration, want guidance on how to move from a nihilist perspective on life into a place of positive statements, this book may lead you there. -- I know, I know it's about architecture and building, but really, if you just let go of those hard boundaries you have set up in your head, you may find that this book gives you spiritual guidance on how to live and be, how to make life and become more yourself. You may find that as you read this you discover energy to make a meal, sew a q
...more
This book and its companion volumes changed the way my wife went about design and architecture. For as long as I have known her (17 years), she has created spaces that make you "feel" a certain way when you're in them. This way you feel can be elicited only when the spaces created have the "quality without a name." This quality is achieved only when the designer is egoless.
Some practical people who disdain thinking too long about any one thing might find this book frustrating. Yet, as Alexander ...more
Some practical people who disdain thinking too long about any one thing might find this book frustrating. Yet, as Alexander ...more
واقعا کتاب عالی بود،تا الان تو کتاب های معماری اصلا کتابی به این سادگی و روانی نخونده بودم،البته بخش بزرگیش بر میگرده به مترجم خوب کتاب مهرداد قیومی.
ای کاش همه ی کتاب ها مثل این کتاب روش خوندنش رو اول کتاب ذکر میکردن و برای کسانی که فرصت مطالعه ی همه ی کتاب رو نداشتن به نوعی هر فصل رو خلاصه میکردن...
ای کاش همه ی کتاب ها مثل این کتاب روش خوندنش رو اول کتاب ذکر میکردن و برای کسانی که فرصت مطالعه ی همه ی کتاب رو نداشتن به نوعی هر فصل رو خلاصه میکردن...
اگر زبان از مفاهيم تهي باشد خط كشيدن در روند طراحي بيهوده است .
This is a very important book for me. I read it regularly. Design and structure, and the development of systems that are alive. Great stuff!
Great book.
this is a fascinating book. I love it. I thought it would be a book that describes how to make buildings, but in reality it is a book that describes a thesis on how to make beautiful things that are natural and reflect the people who use them. I recommend this book as it presents a novel viewpoint which can be applied to the work we do here on building services. We need natural and appealing services that work for people. Learning in this area is always valuable. Would love to hear what others t
...more
Although Christopher Alexander writes about architecture, what he is saying can so easily be extrapolated to describe theatre. I’m reminded in his writing of John Berger’s description of the poetic as a “shelter to the experience which demanded, which cried out” (c.f. And Our Faces). There has always been a resonance between theatre and architecture, between the poetic and building—my mentors’ teacher Jacques Lecoq pinpoints this when he says that as theatre creators, we must be “architects of t
...more
This book must be read with a bit of charity, in the same way as similar books like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. That said, I am extremely glad I read it, and would strongly recommend it. There are many different areas in which Alexander's viewpoint can provide value. The most obvious is in architecture, where it demonstrates and fleshes out the alternative to the authoritarian high modernism decried in Seeing Like a State. Another area it has been applied is in software (cf. Desig
...more
After seeing this book in Charette's windows and carried by architecture students in the 70s, I always assumed this and v.2 "Pattern Language" were classics. "Most important book on architectural design...this century" says the back cover.. However, what a shock to find after 450 pages that Berkeley Professor Emeritus, Christopher Alexander’s “timeless way” was to put sticks (and later pillars) in the ground to mark out the building, and then pour concrete between pillars to make a wall. No cons
...more
an inspiring book, honestly though. And i hate using the word inspiring to describe a book because oftentimes everyone is so full of such different opinions its hard to apply such a vague word to a book that will surely resonate differently with such different people; BUT this book is different than a standard book. It's obviously meant for those people with an interest in architecture, myself personally I study political science and can say I've never even thought twice about pursuing a career
...more
pattern language as design instrument, helping people and architect designing pure and honest plan in naturalistic view.
beautifully written, easy to read.
some early chapter may be skipped, due to its focus in saying: 'there are exist a timeless way of building' (yes sir, thats what the title is)
analogy that being use are general but appropriate. pattern language and its growth act like organism, proportional yet unique. pattern language are organized thinking from our collective memory of buil ...more
beautifully written, easy to read.
some early chapter may be skipped, due to its focus in saying: 'there are exist a timeless way of building' (yes sir, thats what the title is)
analogy that being use are general but appropriate. pattern language and its growth act like organism, proportional yet unique. pattern language are organized thinking from our collective memory of buil ...more
While I do not in anyway begrudge the time taken to read this book, I have to conclude it is not for me. It is deeply mystical in places, which just makes me impatient. It is very nostalgic, and I do not trust nostalgia. It is deeply subjective and I do not find subjective evidence compelling or convincing. The book explains how Alexander's patterns (sort of a loosely-goosey version of the archetypes of Plato's Theory of Forms (or maybe Weber's Ideal Types)) for building are derived, used, and c
...more
While I'm not a student or master of architecture, this book still had a lot of insights to bring to me. I was suggested to read it by a coworker as it forms the basis of design patterns in computer science as well. As such, it does a great job at introducing the concept of patterns, searching for "the quality without a name" in architecture, and discovering and forming a universal language for how to design everything from the smallest corner in a room to entire neighborhoods and cities.
There w ...more
There w ...more
This is definitely a weird book, especially coming to it as a software engineer. This book was the inspiration for the software engineering classic "Design Patterns", and it's interesting considering Alexander's points in light of what it means for building software. Some analogies just break down completely, some fit quite nicely, and some fall somewhere in between and are intriguing to contemplate. The book itself is much more hand-wavy than I expected, but still written as if the ideas expoun
...more
Awesome. Thought-provoking. Timeless.
I got interested in this book after attending a software development patterns training, which refered to it as a source of the concept of design patterns. Though the book itself has nothing to do with software development it goes so deep into architectural patterns analysis and pattern language for architects that it can be applied universally across many disciplines.
But even usefulness of patterns aside, Christopher Alexander's vision of the future buildings ...more
I got interested in this book after attending a software development patterns training, which refered to it as a source of the concept of design patterns. Though the book itself has nothing to do with software development it goes so deep into architectural patterns analysis and pattern language for architects that it can be applied universally across many disciplines.
But even usefulness of patterns aside, Christopher Alexander's vision of the future buildings ...more
Nov 17, 2007
Mary
rated it
it was amazing
Recommends it for:
People dissatisfied with what architects do to us now
I've revered this book for several years and swooned over the photographs.
yet could never read very far into it before I gave up. But I finally gave it a
serious try, skipped over the awkward terminology, said "OK, lead on," and the
author did. The photos he chose do tell the story, but not the whole story as
you can get it all by slowing to his pace, listening, and pausing often for your
own side-trips. To the vacant lot where at 6 or 7 you outlined rooms with rocks.
To the tent made by throwing a ...more
yet could never read very far into it before I gave up. But I finally gave it a
serious try, skipped over the awkward terminology, said "OK, lead on," and the
author did. The photos he chose do tell the story, but not the whole story as
you can get it all by slowing to his pace, listening, and pausing often for your
own side-trips. To the vacant lot where at 6 or 7 you outlined rooms with rocks.
To the tent made by throwing a ...more
This is a wonderful book on architecture which doesn't concentrate on technical details or specific styles, but instead on a more organic, holistic approach to building - not in the currently popular "green" sense, but in the sense that buildings are best when they grow from the way people use them. The basic philosophy is based on patterns of use, and patterns that define parts of buildings, as the basic elements of architecture. It also talks about how patterns, once identified, can form a who
...more
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“Within this process, every individual act of building is a process in which space gets differentiated. It is not a process of addition, in which preformed parts are combined to create a whole, but a process of unfolding, like the evolution of an embryo, in which the whole precedes the parts, and actually gives birth to them, by splitting.”
—
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