Christopher Alexander was an architect and design theorist known for his work on patterns and wholeness in design. He believed that space has an inherent capacity to be more or less whole, and that structures with certain geometric properties can profoundly glue space together. His work proposed 15 fundamental properties that contribute to this wholeness or "life" in designed spaces and structures. Alexander felt that as architects and builders, understanding this deeper level of order in space should be the true basis and reason for how we shape function, ornament, and all aspects of design.

1. AN OPPOSITE TRUTH

3. THERE’S NO
RIGHT WAY
There Are Good Ways

4. IT’S ABOUT WHAT USERS WANT
AND YOU ARE NOT YOUR USER

6. Christopher Alexander, Eishin Campus (1986)

8. A
single,
solid, objective
basis for the
difference
between
good and
bad

10. The
picture of the
physical universe
that’s prevailed
since Descartes
is wrong

12. There is a kind of
egalitarianism
which holds that any two things equal in price
are equal in value, and that nothing is better
than anything that may profitably or fashionably
replace it.
Forest = field = parking lot; One place is as good as
another, one use is as good as another, one life is as
good as another — if the price is right.
Wendell Berry (1981)

13. On the
level playing field
of [Cartesian]
cosmology
we are
nowhere special
because
the very definition
of relativistic space
guarantees that
there is no place special
to be
Margaret Wertheim (1999)

14. Venice (9th - 17th C)

15. Christopher Alexander, West Dean (1994-6)

16. Christopher Alexander, Julian Street Inn (1990)

17. Christopher Alexander, Julian Street Inn (1990)

18. Philip Johnson (1976)

20. All
matter/space
has some degree
of life
in it

21. …something
within space and matter
can be awoken

22. wholenessbeautylife

23. So that’s what I’m really getting at is
the existence of a level of thought or
a level of reality where order in
space is such a deep phenomenon
that it’s capable of generating all
our activities as architects or as
builders and that function, ornament,
and what have you will all come into
play as byproducts of that level of
observation and thought.

24. Inherent value
is empirically
testable
through a
“mirror of self”

26. http://bit.ly/mirrorofself

27. Somebody could say, well what’s so great about
those, anyway? Or you happen to like those, and I
happen to like these.
So I want to just mention an empirical criterion which
happens to correlate with some of the artifacts that
I’ve picked out here.
This is a peculiar criterion.
...it is intended to transcend personal likes and
dislikes, attitudes, trips, and so forth.
And you simply say:
okay fine,
which of these two objects is,
if I have to pick one of them,
a picture of my true self.
And when I say a picture of myself, I mean all of
you... The whole thing
the agreement is extremely strong and it also is
cross-cultural
Christopher Alexander, Unpublished Speech at Harvard GSD (1982)

28. How’d We Do?

29. All
matter/space
has some degree
of self
in it

30. Detail, West Dean (1994-6)

31. Space in an absolute sense can be
either more whole or less whole.
When structures have these kinds of
properties you can get a progressively
more and more profound gluing together
and that that’s the thing that we recognize
in these great works.
Christopher Alexander, Unpublished Speech at Harvard GSD (1982)

32. 15 GEOMETRIC
PROPERTIES
01. LEVELS OF SCALE
02. STRONG CENTERS
03. BOUNDARIES
04. ALTERNATING REPETITION
05. POSITIVE SPACE
06. GOOD SHAPE
07. LOCAL SYMMETRIES
08. DEEP INTERLOCK & AMBIGUITY
09. CONTRAST
10. GRADIENTS
11. ROUGHNESS
12. ECHOES
13. THE VOID
14. SIMPLICITY AND INNER CALM
15. NOT-SEPARATENESS

33. I mean we can’t make things
like that anymore.
I mean all of that would
suddenly become totally
unacceptable if what I have
just said were true.
Because if it’s true that space
has the capacity to be more
whole or less whole, and there
are real structural properties
that have the capacity to glue
it together more or less, both
in a functional sense and in a
deep sense. I mean then of
course in some way one
would start to confront a kind
of moral imperative that that
is what we’re supposed to
be doing when we make
something, to glue space
together like that.
Speech
Transcript
Christopher
Alexander
(1982)

34. The Design Success Ladder serves as a benchmark
for assessing the value your product provides now,
plus ways to take it to the next level. Each rung
represents a unique stage in the product
development process. By moving from one rung to
the next, you’re not only better meeting your users’
needs, but also increasing your company’s likelihood
of success.

36. an
ordinary
way

37. for
everybody

38. What would it be like
to live in a mental world
where one’s reasons
for making something
functionally
and one’s reasons
for making something
a certain shape,
or in a certain
ornamental way
are actually coming
from precisely
the same place
in you –
precisely the same place
Christopher Alexander, Unpublished Speech at Harvard GSD (1982)

39. Christopher Alexander Select Chronology
1958 - Dual degrees in Mathematics and Architecture, Cambridge
1962 - PhD in Architecture, Harvard
1963 - Professor of Architecture, UC Berkeley
1965 - The City is Not a Tree
1967 - Founder: Center for Environmental Structure
1970 - Notes on the Synthesis of Form
1972 - AIA Gold Medal, Research
1976 - A Pattern Language
1977 - The Timeless Way of Building
1985 - Eishin School: Tokyo, Japan
- Best Building In Japan Award, Japanese Institute of Architects
1990 - Julian Street Inn: San Jose, USA
1990 - The Nature of Order (1st Draft)
1993 - A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art
1994 - West Dean Gardens Visitor Centre: East Sussex, England
1996 - Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2002 - The Nature of Order
2009 - Vincent Scully Prize
2012 - Battle For The Life and Beauty of the Earth