Christopher Alexander Quotes

• Most of the wonderful places in the world were not made by architects but by the people.

  Christopher Alexander

  People, World, Wonderful

  Christopher Alexander (1975). “The Oregon Experiment”, p.206, Oxford University Press, USA

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• In short, no pattern is an isolated entity. Each pattern can exist in the world only to the extent that is supported by other patterns: the larger patterns in which it is embedded, the patterns of the same size that surround it, and the smaller patterns which are embedded in it.

  Christopher Alexander

  World, Patterns, Size

  Christopher Alexander (1977). “A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction”, p.13, Oxford University Press

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• There is a myth, sometimes widespread, that a person need only do inner work...that a man is entirely responsible for his own problems; and that to cure himself, he need only change himself....The fact is, a person is so formed by his surroundings, that his state of harmony depends entirely on his harmony with his surroundings.

  Christopher Alexander

  Happiness, Men, Facts

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• The more living patterns there are in a place - a room, a building, or a town - the more it comes to life as an entirety, the more it glows, the more it has that self-maintaining fire which is the quality without a name.

  Christopher Alexander

  Fire, Self, Names

  Christopher Alexander (1979). “The Timeless Way of Building”, p.10, New York : Oxford University Press

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• We are searching for some kind of harmony between two intangibles: a form which we have not yet designed and a context which we cannot properly describe.

  Christopher Alexander

  Two, Design, Kind

  Christopher Alexander (1964). “Notes on the Synthesis of Form”, p.26, Harvard University Press

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• People are deeply nourished by the process of creating wholeness.

  Christopher Alexander

  Creating, People, Process

  Christopher Alexander, Center for Environmental Structure (2004). “The luminous ground: an essay on the art of building and the nature of the universe”

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• To work our way towards a shared language once again, we must first learn how to discover patterns which are deep, and capable of generating life.

  Christopher Alexander

  Patterns, Way, Firsts

  Christopher Alexander (1979). “The Timeless Way of Building”, p.12, New York : Oxford University Press

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• In an organic environment, every place is unique, and the different places also cooperate, with no parts left over, to create a global whole - a whole which can be identified by everyone who is part of it.

  Christopher Alexander

  Unique, Different, Environment

  Christopher Alexander (1975). “The Oregon Experiment”, p.11, Oxford University Press, USA

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• All space and matter, organic or inorganic, has some degree of life in it, and matter/space is more alive or less alive according to its structure and arrangement.

  Christopher Alexander

  Life, Space, Degrees

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• Los patrones específicos de los que está hecho un edificio o una ciudad
  pueden estar vivos o muertos. En la medida en que están vivos, liberan nuestras fuerzas
  nuestras fuerzas interiores y nos liberan; pero cuando están muertos, nos
  en un conflicto interior.

  Christopher Alexander

  Alive, May, Patterns

  Christopher Alexander (1979). “The Timeless Way of Building”, p.10, New York : Oxford University Press

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• Drawings help people to work out intricate relationships between parts.

  Christopher Alexander

  Inspirational, Relationship, Art

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• High buildings have no genuine advantages, except in speculative gains for banks and land owners. They are not cheaper, they do not help create open space, they destroy the townscape, they destroy social life, they promote crime, they make life difficult for children, they are expensive to maintain, they wreck the open spaces near them, and they damage light and air and view.

  Christopher Alexander

  Children, Light, Air

  Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein (1977). “A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction”, p.115, Oxford University Press

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• But in practice master plans fail - because they create totalitarian order, not organic order. They are too rigid; they cannot easily adapt to the natural and unpredictable changes that inevitably arise in the life of a community.

  Christopher Alexander

  Order, Practice, Community

  Christopher Alexander (1975). “The Oregon Experiment”, p.18, Oxford University Press, USA

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• When they have a choice, people will always gravitate to those rooms which have light on two sides, and leave the rooms which are lit only from one side unused and empty.

  Christopher Alexander

  Light, Two Sides, People

  Christopher Alexander (1977). “A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction”, p.747, Oxford University Press

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• There is one timeless way of building. It is a thousand years old, and the same today as it has ever 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.

  Christopher Alexander

  Home, Men, Past

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• Every place is given its character by certain patterns of events that keep on happening there. These patterns of events are locked in with certain geometric patterns in the space. Indeed, each building and each town is ultimately made out of these patterns in the space, and out of nothing else; they are the atoms and molecules from which a building or a town is made.

  Christopher Alexander

  Character, Space, Events

  "The Timeless Way of Building". Book by Christopher Alexander, 1979.

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• Speaking as a builder, if you start something, you must have a vision of the thing which arises from your instinct about preserving and enhancing what is there.

  Christopher Alexander

  Vision, Instinct, Arise

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• It is possible to make buildings by stringing together patterns, in a rather loose way. A building made like this, is an assembly of patterns. It is not dense. It is not profound. But it is also possible to put patterns together in such a way that many patterns overlap in the same physical space: the building is very dense; it has many meanings captured in a small space; and through this density, it becomes profound.

  Christopher Alexander

  Space, Profound, Together

  Christopher Alexander (1977). “A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction”, p.41, Oxford University Press

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• To seek the timeless way we must first know the quality without a name. There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in a man, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named.

  Christopher Alexander

  Men, Names, Roots

  Christopher Alexander (1979). “The Timeless Way of Building”, p.9, New York : Oxford University Press

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• The structure of life I have described in buildings - the structure which I believe to be objective - is deeply and inextricably connected with the human person, and with the innermost nature of human feeling.

  Christopher Alexander

  Believe, Swag, Feelings

  Christopher Alexander, Center for Environmental Structure (2004). “The luminous ground: an essay on the art of building and the nature of the universe”

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• La diferencia entre el novato y el maestro es simplemente que el novato no ha aprendido, todavía, a hacer las cosas de tal manera que pueda permitirse cometer pequeños errores. El maestro sabe que la secuencia de sus acciones siempre le permitirá cubrir sus errores un poco más adelante. Es este conocimiento sencillo pero esencial el que confiere al trabajo de un maestro carpintero su maravillosa sencillez, suave, relajada y casi despreocupada.

  Christopher Alexander

  Mistake, Simple, Differences

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• I believe that all centers that appear in space - whether they originate in biology, in physical forces, in pure geometry, in color - are alike simply in that they all animate space. It is this animated space that has its functional effect upon the world, that determines the way things work, that governs the presence of harmony and life.

  Christopher Alexander

  Believe, Origin Of Life, Color

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• Aun así, existen esos momentos secretos especiales en nuestras vidas, cuando sonreímos inesperadamente, cuando todas nuestras fuerzas se resuelven. A menudo una mujer puede ver esos momentos en nosotras, mejor que un hombre, mejor incluso que nosotras mismas. Cuando conocemos esos momentos, cuando sonreímos, cuando no estamos en guardia en absoluto, ésos son los momentos en los que nuestras fuerzas más importantes se muestran; sea lo que sea lo que estés haciendo en ese momento, aférrate a ello, repítelo, porque esa sonrisa certera es el mejor conocimiento que tenemos de cuáles son nuestras fuerzas ocultas, y dónde residen, y cómo pueden desatarse.

  Christopher Alexander

  Lying, Knowledge, Men

  Christopher Alexander (1979). “The Timeless Way of Building”, p.52, New York : Oxford University Press

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• In my life as an architect, I found that the single thing which inhibits young professionals, new students most severely, is their acceptance of standards that are too low.

  Christopher Alexander

  Acceptance, Students, Architect

  "Patterns of Software: Tales from the Software Community". Book by Christopher Alexander (Foreword), 1996.

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• When you make something, cleaning it out of structural debris is one of the most vital things you do.

  Christopher Alexander

  Cleaning, Debris

  "To be a good builder, you need a feel for what surrounds you. Christopher Alexander knows." by Kenneth Baker, www.sfgate.com. February 3, 2006.

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