The Timeless Way of Building

by Christopher Alexander (Author)

58 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0195024029

ISBN-10: 0195024028

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The theory of architecture implicit in our world today, Christopher Alexander believes, is bankrupt. More and more people are aware that something is deeply wrong. Yet the power of present-day ideas is so great that many feel uncomfortable, even afraid, to say openly that they dislike what is happening, because they are afraid to seem foolish, afraid perhaps that they will be laughed at.

Now, at last, there is a coherent theory which describes in modern terms an architecture as ancient as human society itself.

The Timeless Way of Building is the introductory volume in the Center for Environmental Structure series, Christopher Alexander presents in it 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.

Alexander writes, "There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. And as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form as the trees and hills, and as our faces are."

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Editorial Reviews

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"Excellent text for architectural theory and design--a must for design students."--Brad Grant, California Polytechnic State University

About the Author

Christopher Alexander is a builder, craftsman, general contractor, architect, painter, and teacher. He taught from 1963 to 2002 as Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and is now Professor Emeritus. He has spent his life running construction projects, experimenting with new building methods and materials, and crafting carefully articulated buildings--all to advance the idea that people can build environments in which they will thrive.

Acting on his deeply-held conviction that, as a society, we must recover the means by which we can build and maintain healthy living environments, he has lived and worked in many cultures, and built buildings all over the world.

Making neighborhoods, building-complexes, building, balustrades, columns, ceilings, windows, tiles, ornaments, models and mockups, paintings, furniture, castings and carvings--all this has been his passion, and is the cornerstone from which his paradigm-changing principles have been derived.

Series: Center for Environmental Structure Series (Book 1)
Hardcover: 552 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press (1979)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0195024028
ISBN-13: 978-0195024029
Product Dimensions: 8 x 1.2 x 5.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 58 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #22 in Books > Engineering & Transportation > Engineering > Reference > Architecture > Study & Teaching
- #51 in Books > Arts & Photography > Architecture > Criticism
- #86 in Books > Arts & Photography > Architecture > Urban & Land Use Planning

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Dan Woodfin

This is the most significant book on architecture

December 9, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This is the most significant book on architecture. Christopher Alexander has written a number of books. This is the theory text. It provides enough explained theory for a person to "practice" the "timeless way of building", vernacular architecture. I know it "works" from my experience as a practicing architect and as a professor of architecture. The companion book is "A Pattern Language." Without the theory the patterns in this book will be of extremely limited value.

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Michael Hurd

Most profound book on building i know of

August 23, 2018

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This trilogy is brilliant. It's the most important written work on the art, artistry, spirit and practical wisdom of designing spaces that I know of. A must-read (or better a must-consult) resource for anyone with anything to do with designing spaces that humans inhabit.

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December 7, 2013

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

i'm a software designer/developer and was referred to this book by a colleague (a senior architect that i have a lot of respect for.) I finished reading a few months ago and the main impression that lingers is how much i loved the way alexander talked about the implicit goal we have when we're building things: to accomplish something "wonderful." that's my own verbiage, and by "wonderful" I mean something that endures, that humans want to interact with, and that achieves the goal you originally set out to design a solution for. in software, that's something maintainable that's easy to extend and understand and that is well thought out and well intended for the problem at hand.

if you're an aspiring software architect, you would do the community around you a big favor by perpetuating this book - the more of us that speak and understand the "pattern languages" that pervade this book (and his other related works), the more we can build and aspire to build really really awesome stuff.

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steve kennedy

February 18, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Classic and insightful; highly recommended. It's unfortunate that most of the construction industry/developers/home owners don't apply these principles.

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February 4, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book renders a poetic viewpoint to our build environment. The attempt to generate a vocabulary for this culture of designing a space is applaudable. The authors' enlightenment to the process of learning and unlearning is refreshing. This book is a timeless classic, one that every planner/architect must read, once every year if not just once!

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November 22, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book is a spiritual experience in the guise of an architecture book. Non-dualist thought in action.

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Kris L. Holt

The Etymology of Software Architecture

September 30, 2003

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I found this book so mesmerizing that I read it twice. During the first pass, I was surprised that the book was so philosophical and poetic in describing architecture. I expected something more technical. Later during the second pass, my goal was to find derivatives and analogies in software architecture. Based on what I found, I think every software architect would enjoy this book.
The writing style that I noticed in my first read of the book made me feel like I was reading an architecture bible. I hesitate to describe the book as religious, but the book's description "the power to make buildings beautiful lies in each of us already" and the description of the word "alive" giving architecture "the quality without a name" triggered an epiphany when recalling that the Bible says "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." and, "So God created man in his own image." This is why I'd say this book has a primal, sacred aspect, and this is why we like to build. Additionally, the book especially moved me so my mind's eye was opened to see "alive" patterns and to think about the morphology of architecture filling voids and generating towns.
On the second pass of reading, I was struck by this software architecture analogy in the table of contents: "16. Once we have understood how to discover individual patterns which are alive, we may then make a language for ourselves for any building task we face. The structure of the language is created by the network of connections among individual patterns: and the language lives, or not, as a totality, to the degree these patterns form a whole." Could this be the guidebook for designing enterprise software architecture?
Obviously this book was the inspiration for the philosophy and vocabulary for software architecture, and I thought some of the following excerpts were noteworthy paradigm shifts.
"The patterns are not just patterns of relationships, but patterns of relationships among other smaller patterns, which themselves have still other patterns hooking them together---and we see finally, that the world is entirely made of all these interhooking, interlocking nonmaterial patterns." This sounds like the difference between patterns of software architecture and object-oriented software design patterns.
"Each pattern is a three-part rule, which expresses a relation between a certain context, a problem, and a solution." Deja vu for software patterns.
"You may be afraid that the design won't work if you take just one pattern at a time...There is no reason to be timid...The order of the language will make sure that it is possible." Likewise in software architecture design, as one design pattern is considered at a time to see how it fits needs into the large picture of design. If this pattern is later deemed to be dead, it can be replaced by an "alive" design pattern.

"Next, several acts of building, each one done to repair and magnify the product of the previous acts, will slowly generate a larger and more complex whole than any single act can generate." This correlates to software refactoring.
"It is essential, therefore, that the builder build only from rough drawings: and that he carry out the detailed patterns from the drawings according to the processes given by the pattern language in his mind." When I read this, I thought about the metaphor to the software architect's vision and design. The software architect's design needs to be abstract enough to accommodate change easily, but yet simple enough so software programmers can understand it, finish the detailed component design and build the component to fit the architectural whole.

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January 30, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

FANTASTIC BOOK, CONTAINS A LOT OF INFORMATION ABOUT CITY PLANNING AS WELL AS ADVICE FOR DAY TO DAY LIFE.

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Most recent customer reviews

Dennis

Five Stars

Great price. Shipped quickly.

Published on August 23, 2016

Stephen Muires

Evidence of what we all can recognize when we see it

I am full of admiration for Christopher Alexander's writings, work and choice of life path. That path is architecture. Which sounds like a career, not a life path.Ordained: Part I Denmark (Volume 1)Read more

Published on October 31, 2015

HKS

Five Stars

excellent

Published on June 26, 2015

Shutterbug35

Timeless classic!

A timeless classic that crystallizes the process of creative synthesis based on patterns.

Published on June 1, 2015

John L. Kerr

A Timeless Way of Thinking About Patterns

I can't remember where I found out about this book, but I was able to find a copy at the local library to read some of it more than a year ago.Read more

Published on May 10, 2015

Alison Delahunt

chris rocks!

great philosophy

Published on April 2, 2015

Leandro López

and perhaps that's why I'm a little disappointed by it

The book is clearly very well written and its concepts are marvelous, don't get me wrong, but the tone... meh.Read more

Published on February 11, 2015

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