Christopher Alexander: The Search for a New Paradigm in Architecture

by Stephen Grabow

Discusses the influential theories of the English-born architect, analyzes his philosophical ideas, and looks at the resulting architectural designs

Genres: Architecture

326 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1983

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grabow paints the development of Alexander's theory of architecture with the brushstrokes of Thomas Kuhn's 'paradigm shift' in scientific communities. We find clear and interesting parallels throughout the course of Alexander's work to the model developed by Kuhn. And a few points of departure from Kuhn's examples that illuminate the unique challenge that Alexander's work faces in becoming an accepted paradigm.

When this book was published, a large portion of the work going into the Nature of Order was under development and well-formed. It's rich background—much written in CA's own words—for anyone already working on the Alexandrian path. It's a nice introduction that does an admirable job of showing the genius, humanism, and dogged (overbearing?) single-mindedness with which Alexander approaches the search for an objective theory of architecture that will let us generate beautiful architecture wherever we may be building.

And the drama is still unfolding: Alexander's approach to unifying science and art in a generative theory of architecture has a small foothold, even as the crisis of modern architecture continues to litter the earth with plastic expressions of artistic ego, and financially-driven development treats building as throwaway commodity for the extraction of rent. Will we see, in our lifetime, the seeds of this architecture begin to flower and bloom where now there is only wasteland?

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearly written despite fairly abstract subject matter. Amazing number of parallels to software product management.

[Richard Fabian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a surprising insight into Christopher Alexander right in the middle of his research. It doesn't say anything new about his theory that you can't find in The Nature of Order, but I found it interesting to read an account of his journey to his conclusions. It felt like being invited in to have a chat with him about it all. In all, I enjoyed the book and found a few take away thoughts on how to address bringing the elements of The Nature of Order into other domains as the regular reference to Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions guided me in understanding what parts of his journey would need to be transplanted into another domain looking for its own luminous ground.