Can a building learn while it is being built? Here we come into the realm of theorist/architect/contractor Chris Alexander. He insists that architects can’t really visualize how a building will look and feel, nor can anyone else—no matter how computer-enhanced they are—and so construction should be a prolonged process of cut-and-try. “Everybody wants to zoom,” he says, “and you mustn’t. You are constantly finding out about the building while constructing it, and what you will find out is inherently and necessarily unpredictable. You are watching a developing wholeness.”
