Synopses & Reviews
The theory of architecture implicit in our world today, Christopher Alexander believs, 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, is a coherent theory which describes in modern terms an architecture as acient 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. 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."
Review
"Excellent text for architectural theory and design--a must for design students."--Brad Grant, California Polytechnic State University
About the Author
Christopher Alexander, winner of the first medal for research ever awarded by the American Institute of Architects, is a practicing architect and builder, Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Center for Environmental Structure.