Christopher W. Alexander’s Followers (362)

Christopher W. Alexander

Born

in Vienna, Austria

October 04, 1936

Died

March 17, 2022

Genre

Science

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Christopher Wolfgang John Alexander (4 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) was an Austrian-born British-American architect and design theorist. He was an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His theories about the nature of human-centered design have affected fields beyond architecture, including urban design, software, and sociology. Alexander designed and personally built over 100 buildings, both as an architect and a general contractor.

In software, Alexander is regarded as the father of the pattern language movement. The first wiki—the technology behind Wikipedia—led directly from Alexander's work, according to its creator, Ward Cunningham. Alexander's work has also influenced the development of agile software developm ...more

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Christopher W. Alexander’s books

Average rating: 4.36 · 9,366 ratings · 728 reviews · 26 distinct works • Similar authors

	A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series) by Christopher W. Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein 4.42 avg rating — 4,936 ratings — published 1977 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Timeless Way of Building 4.36 avg rating — 2,288 ratings — published 1978 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Notes on the Synthesis of Form 4.04 avg rating — 680 ratings — published 1964 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Phenomenon of Life 4.47 avg rating — 333 ratings — published 2002 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A New Theory of Urban Design (Center for Environmental Structure Series) by Christopher W. Alexander, Hajo Neis, Artemis Anninou 4.18 avg rating — 229 ratings — published 1987 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Process of Creating Life 4.47 avg rating — 151 ratings — published 2002 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Oregon Experiment (Center for Environmental Structure Series) by Christopher W. Alexander, Murray Silverstein, Shlomo Angel 3.88 avg rating — 170 ratings — published 1975 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Luminous Ground 4.44 avg rating — 111 ratings — published 2003 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Vision of a Living World 4.51 avg rating — 102 ratings — published 2002 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth: A Struggle Between Two World-Systems (Center for Environmental Structure, 16) by Christopher W. Alexander, Hansjoachim Neis (Contributor), Maggie Moore Alexander (Contributor) 4.27 avg rating — 78 ratings — published 2012 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Christopher W. Alexander…

Series by Christopher W. Alexander

The Nature of Order (4 books)
by

Christopher W. Alexander

4.47 avg rating — 697 ratings

Quotes by Christopher W. Alexander (?)

“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.”
― Christopher W. Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building

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“fundamental view of the world. It says that when you build a thing you cannot merely build that thing in isolation, but must also repair the world around it, and within it, so that the larger world at that one place becomes more coherent, and more whole; and the thing which you make takes its place in the web of nature, as you make it.”
― Christopher W. Alexander, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction

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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 W. Alexander, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction

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