“A Project Language” and “A Center Language” as derived from “A Pattern Language” from Christopher Alexander. Thesis paper by Hajo Neis in 2010, with presentation slides (partially in German).
In earlier projects, patterns were used and applied in the original format and formulation of APL (i.e. Oregon Campus, Peru Housing, Multicenter New York, etc). A additional set of new patterns was created for each project. Because of the need for a more direct participatory process combined with lack of time and money, in many cases patterns and pattern languages took on a simpler format (i.e. Eishin Campus Japan). Also advances in theoretical understanding have modified the pattern approach itself.
Here, a key notion is that of adaptation in the design and building process for architecture and the built environment. The idea of adaptation originated in biology, especially in relation to evolution. However, the adaptation in buildings is very different from the adaptation in biology.
A small part of the process of building adaptation, like evolutionary adaptation in biology works by modifying the genotype (pattern). This kind of adaptation is in some ways similar to biological adaptation, but it is not coded through the genes. It is purely functional, and it is driven only by functional pressure. But it is also driven by geometrical considerations of coherence.
It is this geometrical-adaptive process that drives much creation and the making of a living environment. This process is also called the centering process. This centering process contains about fifteen geometrical properties that are helpful in this process. The geometric properties include properties such as centers, boundaries, sub-symmetries, levels of scale, deep interlock, etc
(translated) How can we organizations that constantly play like musicians dynamically forward and more and more are under pressure to change, better understand and shape? What strategies are the basis for innovation? What is constructive improvisation beyond crisis management and the role of patterns in the interdisciplinary work?
(translated) These are the questions the research team MICC (music – innovation – corporate – culture) of the University of Duisburg-Essen, headed by Prof. Wolfgang Stark together with cooperation partners from practice organizations and the musicians Christopher Dell after.
“Dokumentation “Pattern Language and beyond” MICC-Workshop 9.12.2010” | March 2011 | Music Innovation Corporate Culture | at http://micc-project.org/?p=928
This digest was created in real-time during the meeting, based on the speaker’s presentation(s) and comments from the audience. The content should not be viewed as an official transcript of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual. Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected. Questions about content should be directed to the originator. The digest has been made available for purposes of scholarship, posted by David Ing.
At PURPLSOC (Pursuit of Pattern Languages for Societal Change) 2015, Danube University Krems, Austria
[Norihiko Kimura]
New properties for capturing and relating wholeness
The wholeness of Lively Human Activity
Have been creating pattern languages on human activity
Finding wholeness in people’s activities, hard to separate into parts
Beethoven composed while walking
How can we capture the wholeness?
In Nature of Order, defines a basic unit of “center”
Liveliness in centers that activate each other
Beethoven: composing and walking
Mutual helping centers
Will focus on 3 of 24 properties
1. Bootstrap: Centers that radiate their own energy
e.g. boy becomes interested in Milky Way from book in library.
Finding the library is the bootstrap
2. Source: Overwhelmingly strong center
Social entrepreneur
Entrepreneur becomes the key source of energy
6. Togetherness
Small centers strengthening each other
e.g. conferences on pattern languages, community
How were Behavioral Properties found?
Investigated pattern languages
Alexander says a Pattern Language is a way defining centers
1. Find the mechanism behind the patterns
Read
Group
2. Refining and revising the properties
Verified
3. Expressing behavioral properties
What is the usage of behavioral properties?
Pattern mining
Pattern writing
Designing
Relation between behavioral and Alexander?
Geometric at a point in time
Behavioral properties over a series of time
Possible future
Alexander talks about color properties in Book 4, essential part of wholeness
In human activity, emotions are important to create a lively wholeness
Anticipate that can reach a comprehensive theory of wholeness
This digest was created in real-time during the meeting, based on the speaker’s presentation(s) and comments from the audience. The content should not be viewed as an official transcript of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual. Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected. Questions about content should be directed to the originator. The digest has been made available for purposes of scholarship, posted by David Ing.
At PURPLSOC (Pursuit of Pattern Languages for Societal Change) 2015, Danube University Krems, Austria
Introduction by Hajo Neis
Howard Davis researched buildings, focused on social and cultural capabilities in cities
The Culture of Building, not only by architects, but also by coordinating systems
New forms of urban economy
Combining commercial and residential uses
Needs of low income groups, and sustainable regenerative buildings
Coauthor of Production of Houses
Mexico and India participatory design
[Howard Davis]
Invitation asked to talk about pattern language, general issues
Current research interests
Pattern language
How approach to pattern language will impact research
Course of career
First educated as scientist, high energy physics
Then decided to study architecture, like Alexander
Student before Timeless Way was written
Worked in Burbank, Mexico, Omaha, San Francisco, Israel, California
All work was experimental
Philosophy has roots in that
Since leaving Alexander’s office, focused on spatial structure of cities, and their economic wires
e.g. housing project in India, similar to Mexico
Influenced by Henry Glassie, who sees configurations with historical roots
Also influenced by architects in System B
Even System B architects have some of System A
Cracks in the concrete pavement, where little flowers grow, and need to be fed
Boundary between System A and B is not sharp, doesn’t mean that they have to be separate
Alexander said, a long time before System A and B: there are two kinds of the people in the world, those who think there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don’t
Working with Bill Hilliard, space syntax
Now seeing that some people criticize Bill Hilliard, in the same way that some criticized Alexander
Full range of cultural manifestations
A few years ago, Living Over the Store
Social and geographic contexts
Economy of local cities, with building inside
Latest interest: industry in the contemporary city
Nature of globalized structure
Collapse of building in Dhaka, Bangladesh 2013, over 2000 workers killed
Work has moved from United States to other countries, in a race to the bottom
Profound impact on American cities, and elsewhere
How cities and business would change
Several factors:
Globalization has changed cities into places of consumption, rather than production
Then workplace regulation in Bangladesh, that increases their costs
New York garment workers were producing for local and regional
Question global production systems and cities
Globalization does have a positive side: cheap labour, creativity, production techniques, product will improve
Workflow production will have impacts, with global production and local startups, artist studios, greenhouses
Emerging cities of production
Importance of connection to things, and making things
Surrounded by things with more permanence that the things that build them, and potentially also the people that own them
Arguments based on biological systems, compared to urban systems with social systems
City as complex adaptive system
In the realm of function that is most important
Production and manufacturing is important, adds value
Higher level of organization, analogous
Input-output flows, contracts, social systems
Added value to materials in the process
Materials become more organized
Biology and material production becomes more order
Manufacturing through craft expertise, setting up tools, complex supply chains
Cities are changing, manufacturing is returning
Production is small
Won’t replace globalization soon
However, is reasonable to ask what type of urban form, what types of buildings would help this
A new pattern language for urban production and manufacturing
New city of production
Talk first about pattern language in general
Doesn’t have status amongst architects, as they do in software
Main criticisms:
Overly nostalgic view of the past
Iconoclast, divorced from modernism and contemporary moements
Not science
A-cultural and a-historical, although some recognition of anthropology
Responses
Overly nostalgic?
Reinforced by photographs
67 Common Land
Be wary of automobile
Key photograph doing 2 things: physical relationship (building playing together, sharing something in common on land), also specific with row houses and church (which invoke people to think the past, not necessarily desirable).
See also: 33 Night Life, 92 Bus Stop
Asked why patterns with leisure and enjoyment, not labour
Was struck by this
Some misunderstanding
Formal relationship represented, can be tested
Something else: allows interpretation that it is archaic.
Images give erroneous bias
Divorced from contemporary?
In 38 years from The Timeless Way of Building to The Mary Rose Museum, very few footnotes
Yet ties to systems science, biology, etc.
Environment, human behavior
Gerald Weisman, Jenny Young and others
Empiricists
What people say about their own desires
Correlate with physical environment
Pattern is physical
e.g. light on two sides of room helps against glare
Has been used in building science
Other
Typology
Not a natural building, but an idea
Courtyards Which Live: all spatial, appealing to people
Courtyards are also a type
Idea of life may be unique to Alexander, but should recognize as having a different value
Science?
Not systematic investigation?
Four story limit: High people make people crazy
Connected buildings: Disconnected building
High degree of variability of research attached, so critics say not good science
However, science has different stages: hints, conjectures, hypotheses, experiments and observations, provisional conclusions
Provisional
Pattern language allows a systems of hints and conjectures, then hypotheses
Allows coexistence of variety of patterns at different stages
e.g. Long Thin House, privacy, hasn’t been studied specifically
Light on Two Sides, Accessible Green, have a lot of empirical work
Not the same as * and ** used in pattern language books
Instead of bad science, it sets up a program of research in paced
Universality versus specificity
Even Newtonian physics shown limited by Einstein’s time
Some patterns are more universal than others, but shouldn’t be taken for granted
Range of applicability
Cultural difference patterns: Edge of Building, with activity both with space in house and outside, but different in India and Amsterdam
Range should be limited, so pattern can be used appropriately
Specific pattern languages for specific cultures
Now can discuss how pattern languages can be used to shape cities with industry
Should be different from 19th century, when had pollution and separated from other parts of the city
Pattern languages are not universal, and not timeless
Pattern language for next stage of industrial formation
Industry more integrated than other urban functions
Now 30 patterns, very provisional
Patterns not of past, may not have seen before
e.g. zero-energy building, industry regenerates natural systems
Didn’t exist during industrial revolution
Emerge from contemporary
Some have been seen before
Local food production
Fine grained zoning: Small industry linked with dwelling
e.g. neighborhood in Berkeley, where zoning has been changed so that industrial and residential are combined — but still unusual in the U.S., where has been separated for the last 100 years
This kind of zoning more coming in the U.S., e.g. Prague
Combine patterns that have been seen before, and those that haven’t
Reflects as science
Evidence that supports from patterns can come from other disciplines
To validate Daylight in All Workplaces, need environmental behavior studies
To validate Depth in Local Street Network, will need space syntax literature
Across disciplines that otherwise look unconnected
Science at different levels of development
List is provisional
Some are reliable
No Pollutants: All Pollutants Captured is well studies
However, Showing Off Industry hasn’t been validated well, need qualitative or quantitative show of success
To be a pattern need to a strong reason, a problem if the pattern didn’t exist
Political process might tell which patterns are important
History of land use and zoning
This pattern language is thus only beginning
Tentative in nature
Beyond the city as a playground of consumption
When pattern language was firs devleoped in 1960s and 1970s, two concerns:
1. Inadequacy of built environment in serving human purposes
2. Lack of a commonly-accepted knowledge system concerning the built environment
Have had reductiveness
Now have seen social inequality increasing
Global climate change impacts life in city
Urban production related to both of above: understanding is scattered, without shared knowledge in other shared fields e.g. medicine, engineering
City-making has been fragmented since the 1900s, e.g. traffic engineers, zoning officials
Professions are important, but they need to understand the big picture
Can be done through a shared pattern language
Answer:
1. Renews respect for the institutions and expertise that build the city
2. Development of new pattern language that are relevant to new problems that face systems …
Plenary panel at Purplsoc: David West, Peter Baumgartner, Christian Kohls, Helmut Leitner, Hajo Neis, Till Schummer.
This digest was created in real-time during the meeting, based on the speaker’s presentation(s) and comments from the audience. The content should not be viewed as an official transcript of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual. Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected. Questions about content should be directed to the originator. The digest has been made available for purposes of scholarship, posted on the Coevolving Innovations web site by David Ing.
At PURPLSOC (Pursuit of Pattern Languages for Societal Change) 2015, Danube University Krems, Austria
If think outside of architecture, there’s a conflict
Everyone is a designer
Hundreds of contexts
[Till Schummer, FernUniversität in Hagen] As computer science, ethics from pattern definition
Most computer people read solution to a problem in context, and they’re done
Without ever doing the same way twice?
Taking the intelligence of the business seriously.
When we think aobut creating reality, remind us of our limitations
[Christian Kohls, Cologne University of Applied Sciences] Responsibility to the design, or to push the design?
[Till Schummer] Can get a new start to communications
From people, to people
Better for describing their needs
Patterns as an ethical solution method
See all viewpoints, then see most important
Would be better as wholistic
[Helmut Leitner] Responsibility is shared, in higher or lesser degree.
How to codevelop, be co-responsive in processes
[Hajo Neis] Alexander was pushing the building to better, beyond limits, where clients didn’t want to go
Pushing the envelope for fantastic buildings
One for the homeless people
Cutting edge of new technologies, pleasant designs like fountains, trees
Dining hall with truss, in the middle of concrete that was shotgun, never done before, not expensive
Was done in ways for only rich clients, but in this case, was building for poor people
Chris was pushing: is that ethical to push clients to the limit?
In the end, building is unique
[Christian Kohls] Was hearing about participation, everyone being a designer
What if conflicts are not resolved?
[Hajo Neis] In architecture’s office, of 10 projects, only 2 get built
Chris pushed, beyond client’s wants
Chris refused to work with developers, it’s contention
Success came with multiple projects, always pushing the envelope in some direction
[Peter Baumgartner] Push the envelope, stick with ideals
Way to success in the long term
[David West]: Recent
Computer science is 60 years old
Psychology is a bit older
Political theory is maybe 100 years old
Everyone wanted to be like physics
Wanted to be computer science, not computer arts
Wanted laws
Unfortunately, they are still stuck on pure science, the fact that they blast people out of the sky doesn’t matter
Computer science the same: it doesn’t matter if I build a system that will be hacked, I was just doing my job
Computer science is inward-looking, only interested in the computer, not interested in the domain
Making everyone’s life miserable
Work with a friend who is creating programs who put tweets out in the world that are created by machine; clients are governments and corporate; he says he’s just doing pure science
Everyone is a designer, has a responsibility
[Christian Kohls] Can you really say something is ethical or not?
[David West]: Studied cultural anthropology, understand there are not absolutes
However, we can recognize Quality Without a Name across cultures: it’s beautiful or ugly
Suggest there some similar things in the ethical realm
Amongst friends, know when someone crosses the line (including the person that crosses)
Don’t have to bring a standard, just work as human beings on what makes us happy and sad
[Till Schummer] Computer science students seem to be getting more disconnected from ethics
See this in physics-driven attitude
Just doing what is asked, not looking at values
Wish it had been more explicit
Alexander’s last book: some passages become very personal, very religious
If had put this in the first book, it would have made a big difference
[Audience] As soon as split matter and mind, ethics is something you add on
[Hajo Neis] Physicists working within their framework
Christopher Alexander would say doing this, trying to get to a higher order
Might take a risk: someone might not get paid
Was never going that direction implied
[David West] Often wished that patterns had gotten a wider audience, outside of computer science
It’s a lot of an issue with computer science
Education system is a problem: almost all universities have abandoned their pre-1900 principles (while Europe still hides it)
Ethics doesn’t come from me, it comes from us
Alexander says this: people build their own houses
Few work on complex problems alone
[Helmut Leitner] In worst case, people could take pattern language for profit, rather than quality without a name
Search problem: need a way to figure out which are better, and which are worse
Most patterns are found, not written
Heritage doesn’t belong to a single person
A tool can be used in the way intended, or misused
[Audience] Early in Alexander: value is not outside the world, apart
Turnstiles at BART station
Value of country?
Work is not a process that is relaxed, often conflictual within the group, and with forces outside the group.
This is something that is welcome, and important
Truth gets out
Alexander got accepted at Cambridge, for an experiement everyone else was fudging the result
[Christian Kohls] Is there a truth?
Not my quality?
Both sides are wrong, in a small way. Just not smart enough to accommodate, in another solution out there, that no one else is searching for.
[Peter Baumgartner] A common objective, we are torn apart
The issue of wholeness
Agenda; wholeness and decision isn’t important
This may be important in the future
Correspondence from Alexander: he opens the door, and asks to explore
We have to explore what wholeness really is
[Audience] Responsibility
Work at IBM, are situations where responsible acting is difficult
Higher bureaucracy makes it less important
It’s a character of large organizations, e.g. military or government
If acting on a business basis, easier to hide responsibility in large organizations
[Audience] Things that are value-free, and the value comes from the culture?
Don’t think that that’s true
In any object, there’s value
It’s not the truth, it’s a truth
Could have many truths
When talking about a project, we are superficial and convenient to find a result for the value
We need fast results, we forget about the search for truth
We are very convenient, and pressed to be fast
It’s still worthwhile to look at these things
e.g. financial systems: what is the material, what are they doing, it’s not just about quick fixes and wins
What is money for? It’s not a simple thing
There is a truth, not just one truth
There are things worth searching for
[Christian Kohls] Culture or situation?
[Audience] Hard to find one truth
Was looking for the quality without a name
A piece of work, health, in building a time
Bring in more life: keep within this?
Easier to test for life, than for truth
Comparison
Not enough in ethics in the pattern language
We don’t have to discuss ethics?
Does it create life, or foster life?
[Dave West] The truth is not a fixed thing
Not only is it contextualized
First called fit, then quality without a name, living, then unfolding wholeness
Unless have a history of ideas, then it’s easy for Alexander to say that this was the truth
Christians and Muslims gradually elevated women from property to individuals, but if don’t know that history, then will read it wrong
[Hajo Neis] Modify the question?
In buildings we do, rank it as four-star building?
A lot of people respond to buildings
They may think it’s old
[Audience] Money or help the world?
People criticizing the machine, the game
It’s hard to be part of that system, but are still in it
Alexander was outside the system
As philosophers say leadership that doesn’t come from the outside, it comes from people who are willing to play.
Trying to bring in money, rather than saying just won’t be involved
Are we really playing the game we espouse?
If not involving self, don’t have the right to change
[Audience] Comment on book
When making the money, pushing the envelope or pushing the system?
Deterministic or holistic value
From computer, everything as numerically defined
From architecture, wasn’t as well described, except for Alexander
The value systems switch from time where controlling more and morea about the natural world, and consuming more is part of the natural world?
Producing ever more with ever less
We’re stuck inside systems
[Till Schummer] it’s all about fixing the separatness
Estrangement, hope to be fixed
Would like to see toolkit
No universal truth, there’s individual culture
Patterns could very personal, e.g. type of world that I’m associated with
[Audience] Changing philosophy
Alexander shift over the years
When Quality without a Name was being presented, the idea presentended the idea that human of a whole
Patterns not telling you what to do, it allows you to do what you want
Cities were build for people to make money, and also live life
Need a primary motive
[Audience] Role of System A to destroy the foundations on earth
Not relativistic
Role of System B has to be broken for systems to survive
Easy to get eaten up
Hard to get system A and system B to cooperate
Needs a place to grow, outside of a system A
Things can grow without permanent properties
[Helmut Leitner] Thoughts about truth as a concept
Philosophy is 100s of years old
Nature of society, Karl Popper can’t
Truth is what you write down
[Audience] Alexander asked, what are you good at?
Good at listening
Then asked, what makes you feel good?
Know what the truth is
[Hajo Neis]: Asking a question outside scope
System A goes to large projects, it’s started to destroy the world
Then can argue with good or evil
e.g. climate change has a different set of values
[Audience] People have flown from all around the world to this conference
Can’t separate from the world
[Audience] System A and System B will be with us for a long time
Question of balance
At Berkeley, was doing a class in software development
Highest investment
Wrote a paper, had to do a development project
Did a design that seemed reasonably whole, then did calculation
But wouldn’t get acceptance
e.g. 15% to affordable housing
[Audience] There are people who will take less than 5%
Don’t have to say developers don’t exist, they should be okay with less thtn 205
[Audience] Basic rule of management, every project begins with a divergent system, ends iwht convergent.
No system works by itself
[Audience] Don’t believe young generation has less cultural force
[Dave West] Questions shifted to human and social systems, which are complex, and easy to destroy
How do you know if the systems changes will destroy the system, or improve
Case where replacing stone axes with steel axes destroyed the culture
Utopia societies don’t survive 3 generations, some survived 2
[Till Schummer] Utopia, not as a total world system, it’s a potential being in this life
Related to the personal environment
Doesn’t require top-down change, can be bottom-up
Started off thinking about patterns as recipes, could quickly follow and make good software
Then, discovered it’s about communications towards learning
Now, even learning is not the main focus
it’s a catalog towards developing a personal utopia
Not a fixed utopia, it’s an interest that you’re moving towards
[Audience] Human beings are an invasive species
It’s great to try to improve systems, but it will take some destructive force to bring us back to equilibrium
Life will become harder
[David West] Try to figure out how to rise from the ashes?
[Audience] Believe in intentional community, we are the children of a great community of 20 years
Community has taught strategy-seeking
May not have freedom that I used to, but to have choices
Pattern language was an educational and interactive tool
Should go back to pattern language development projects, and ask if the people living there are happy
Think about generating choices, not just designing choices
[Audience] How do you influence a complex system? It’s a living thing, like a child. You don’t direct it, you influence its environment
In sustainability, money hasn’t been part of the solution, it’s taboo
[Christian Kohls] How can Christopher Alexander help the world? Wholeness?
[Till Schummer] The invitation to believe the world doesn’t have to be perfect
Connection between people, and with environment
[Helmut Leitner] Christopher Alexander gives us a way to think about systems
Could take some time, maybe generations
Basic orientention given by Christopher Alexander, supporting life as best we can
[Hajo Neis] Best from Christopher Alexander: go off by yourself, and find out for yourself
Deep structure
[Peter Baumgartner] Community growth is important.
[Dave West] Challenge
Christopher Alexander was conflicted
Scientist, and Catholic mystic
Can you really understand Alexander, without understanding the mystical order?
Can you attain the experience of truth and he saw it, and then hear him say “everything I told you was wrong”
This digest was created in real-time during the meeting, based on the speaker’s presentation(s) and comments from the audience. The content should not be viewed as an official transcript of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual. Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected. Questions about content should be directed to the originator. The digest has been made available for purposes of scholarship, posted on the Coevolving Innovations web site by David Ing.
At PURPLSOC (Pursuit of Pattern Languages for Societal Change) 2015, Danube University Krems, Austria
[Hiro Nakano]
Worked 30 years ago on construction of the Eishin high school
Talking today about deep structure in pattern language
Japanese spirituality, but could mean any culture
Gauguin: From where to we come from? What are we? To where are we going?
Had issues with government officials in tsunami area
Christopher Alexander started career with question: What causes beauty?
Part of movie by Kurosawa
Beauty comes from a spirituality
Japanese Spirituality, A Zen Life, D. T. Suzuki
Every object, either organic or non-organic, has a life essence
Difference is only more or less of the degree
Have to take a look at the way of making language
Project language:
From pattern book and patterns
Mix with local patterns
Call this a project language, which becomes a center of the whole
Pattern language is a part of the whole
Project language leads to an actual realization
Why do we need centers?
e.g. a hand is a kind of foot
A fist is also a hand, which is also a center
If can make a good narrative story out of patterns, like a centering process
Aggregate to make stronger and stronger
Can start at any moment
Two sides: from the side of process; from the side of form
Vision to Pattern to Centering process to Quality Pattern Language to a Project Language
In projects:
Center 1 natural environment
Center 2 gate to shopping street
Center 3
Center 4
Centering process is a path, oriented towards form
Idea isn’t the battle
It’s a big stream at present
Could have branches off the side
Should be able to reconcile or compromise between System A and System B
This digest was created in real-time during the meeting, based on the speaker’s presentation(s) and comments from the audience. The content should not be viewed as an official transcript of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual. Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected. Questions about content should be directed to the originator. The digest has been made available for purposes of scholarship, posted by David Ing.
At PURPLSOC (Pursuit of Pattern Languages for Societal Change) 2015, Danube University Krems, Austria
Introduction by Richard Sickinger
Translated A Pattern Language
Alexander translated pattern as German word muster
A few German words with muster don’t mean pattern (e.g. ideal husband), but most translate as pattern
Muster-Sprache as Pattern Language, without hyphen in German would mean Perfect Language
Alexander’s, The Linz Cafe
The only one that was simultaneously published in German and English
Alexander himself chose the photographs
Ornament
At first, seems like wallpaper, but each ornament was handpainted
119 Arcades **, two stars mean pretty sure it’s a valid pattern
Paragraph starts with description of larger scales (and at bottom, will describe smaller scales)
Middle paragraph of how people with interact with the pattern
Then some diagrams
Therefore … what you’re advised to do
At the very end, the patterns at a smaller scale
Book has this character
Covers of American version of the book has an imprint, like the bible in a hotel
In German edition, couldn’t get the soft cover as per American, it’s stiff in the German style
Older than the work on the pattern language, is work on the nature of order, “A City is Not a Tree”
Perception of properties of things overlap
Not a pure tree, has crossovers
Perception is also attributed to society, which also has never been argued strictly hierarchically
In Notes on the Synthesis of Form, designs are so complicated that can’t be solved all at once, even with computers
Elements are design problems
Inter-related in different rates
Preface: The idea of a diagram, or pattern, is very simple …..
“I use aesthetic criteria for the validity of a theory all the time”
“Design methods” and theory — but theory is not separated from design
Photo of hotel bathroom
Architectural drawing
Levels of design thinking leads to questions of design
Earlier work by Rose: who looks out for the whole?
Philosophy deals with objectivity and realism
Architecture doesn’t deal with uniformity and homogeneity, it deals with heterogeneity
Central Pavilion, 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, designed by Rem Koolhaas with collaborators
Can compare Rem Koolhaas with Christopher Alexander
With Alexander, A New Theory of Urban Design
Can separate decisions, e.g. can’t decide now, should wait until later
With students, development of a not-reality city core
Challenge of working individually or together: design decisions by one peron or many
Jim Coplien (Cope), Gertrud & Cope, and the Scrum Foundation.
Keynote presentation at the 4th Asian Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs, Waseda University, Tokyo
This digest was created in real-time during the meeting, based on the speaker’s presentation(s) and comments from the audience. The content should not be viewed as an official transcript of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual. Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected. Questions about content should be directed to the originator. The digest has been made available for purposes of scholarship, posted on the web by David Ing.
Presentation with participants seated in a circle
Jim Coplien was at first Asian PLoP conference in Okinawa in 2001
At 2009, was at a conference about Christopher Alexander, talked about Scrum movement
Started movement to introduce Scrum movement to Japanese
A little ashamed for coming here for just one hour
That’s not a PLoP
A PLoP is a family
Commitment to the event, or 3 or 4 decades
Grateful to be invited
An introduction to an introduction to a talk that isn’t a PLoP
Will be using Powerpoints, there isn’t Powerpoints at a PLoP
Today, explore what a PLoP is, starting from a mountaintop in Colorado at the beginning
Talk about patterns in Japanese culture
Talk about some PLoPs that have have involved with: ScrumPLoP
Where are we going as a community
Have participants done the rain storm game? Yes
Parachute game? (Not here)
Pattern community is over 20 years old, want to wind back 20 years for a vision
Had worked with Christopher Alexander, who is concerned about our community
The concern is that the pattern community doesn’t have outreach
We’re a wonderful community in ourselves, but we’re incestuous
It’s dangerous, in becoming a culture internally-focused
We’re trading amongst ourselves
Have kind of become a club
Does have the advantage of being a nurturing community
The goal is to have a vision
Patterns are about healing the world
People were excited about dream building
If we were green activists, we would have passion not as a club, but would protest against dead architecture, dead social practices
We get to travel here to beautiful Japan (or beautiful Allerton)
Back to Christopher Alexander: what is a pattern?
What does it have to do with what we do here?
The whole
The dao that can be named is not the dao
Patterns are not not about writing
What do you do about forces? You feel them, not shallowly, but in who you are, and how you are connected to the universe
Then use writing as the gate through which we pass on the way to enlightment, says Alexander
Patterns aren’t the end, they’re on the path
Wholeness has to do with geology, with space
Some properties of geometry
Space
Echoes in a face, wrinkles
City-country thinkers, deep interlocking
Alexander says to use more and more of these, and as it becomes more tightly coupled, there’s the potential for creating this great sense of wholeness or peace
Want to create more and more of these configurations in the world
To Alexander, this is literal
It’s about our identity
Alexander says that people come together in the community to find these patterns within themselves
In Japanese culture, we learn this, year after year after year
In industry and academia, we have been taught to predict these things
Industry, academia, technology, is the evil world system
Academia is definitely in the bad world system
Are patterns objective? What does objective mean?
Objective means a property of the object
Alexander says beauty is an object
So, how to measure beauty? It’s not something from applying makeup, it’s in the essence itself
Academia is formal, and distances itself
We need to consider the objective by itself, outside of people
Alexander says the objective is in the people
There’s an “ahh”, sense of wonder
It’s obvious, how we see it
From our upbringing, we can’t see it
Came to Japan 15 years ago to work with Nakano
[Nakano just arrived, sits close enough to Cope to hit him]
A chair is alive, in the sense that we are alive, there’s not much life in this chair or in this room
On the train, looking at the trees, they’re alive in their geometry and configuration
They’re an architecture that makes a Meiji shrine alive beyond the tree
In patterns, looking for a notion of alive
Start from the larger world
Come together in a community, so those who have forgotten the pattern can remember them
Some patterns are written like IEEE papers
Alexander says that a pattern is something I can draw
A process is needed to create a pattern than comes into existence
If Alexander came in to this room, he wouldn’t look at the paper
He would look at ceiling heights, door entries
This room is pretty dead
A pattern is something that you should be able to tell your mother-in-law (or a Martian)
This is what we were looking for at the hilltop in Colorado [when the pattern language movement started with the Hillside Group]
The architect from Carnegie Mellon, Mary Shaw was there
Doug Schmidt was there
50 people, no idea of what we do
Richard Gabriel said we should come together, and see what happens
Came together to look at Alexander’s vision
Originally 7 people
Then Richard Gabriel joined us, and someone else, became 9
George Platts brought with the games
Also look at PLoP today
Also look at ScrumPLoP
ScrumPLoP started 7 years ago, formally 5 years ago
August 15, 1993: Here are the 5 P’s of pattern
1. People: has survived
2. Programs, from Ward Cunningham, not programming — programs are the things we build; since then we do more than software
3. Pictures: Alexander says need pictures, big on geometry. Not an algorithm, a procedure, a way of building
4. Process: The dual of geometry
5. Patterns: The recurring in culture that we see over and over again, e.g. parenting is different in Japan as compared to India, etc; but there are commonalities in the pattern in deep interlock, e.g. does the mother play father, and the father play mother, sometimes alternating making meals
[Cope referred to tables projected as 2 slides in Powerpoint. The content is reproduced below, with the talk added in bullet points. Read left to right, then down]
Alexander
Ben Lomond Hillside
Scrum PLoP
Other PLoPs
The first thing in APL is a sequence
APL [A Pattern Language] starts with universe, world, shows how to apply the pattern in sequence
The way to build pattern language is to collect thousands of sequences, and factor that into a generative pattern
Don’t write patterns; write generative pattern languages by looking at whole sequences
A pattern doesn’t make sense outside of its context
When a pattern forms a grammar (as in English), there’s a well defined ordering of words that will generate a system
A pattern alone doesn’t mean anything
e.g. fire is a pattern, no context, doesn’t mean anything
Tacit
We knew this when we came together, but didn’t know what to do about it
Sequences are explicit
When Jeff Sutherland created the first pattern, had the sequence
The pattern can grow the whole, or refine the whole
The refinement is always local, small, because want to be able to erase the ugly and try again
Almost no sequences
How many sequences have been published this year at PLoP? None?
Languages Generate Sequences
“Anything short of a language is a dead end”. Languages come after patterns.
John Vlissides said anything short of a pattern language is a dead end
John actually didn’t write a pattern language in the Design Patterns book, but understood this
Co-Development of the Language in the PLoP
Write lots of patlets, then try to put them together
Hardly any languages. Those that succeed evolve outside of PLoP.
A pattern language is always evolving
How many have AsianPLoP created, and then discarded?
In ScrumPLoP have created and published 60 patterns
In AsianPLoP, probably haven’t created 60 patterns yet
POSA is kind of a pattern language
Organizational patterns were a book
None of these works were developed in a PLoP, as the PLoP has become a club
In 20 years, can count the number of pattern languages that come out of PLoP on two hands
Piecemeal growth + local adaptation
Piecemeal Growth
Focus on Adaptation (e.g. going outside SW)
Go outside of software
Alexander believes in collective consciousness, a Buddhist feel of things
First met Alexander, when invited into community, spoke at OOPSLA
When read Timeless Way of Building, it uses the same language as Tao De Ching; Alexander said it’s obvious
Out of scope?
Japan is at the roots of this, or at least the parents where
Geometry: the importance of driving into the unconscious
Not really
Value stream, organizational geometry
Concern
Vary rare
Community
Alexander’s regret: at U. of Oregon, they insisted he operate a command-and-control leader
Our primary concern. The origin of Wikis
WikiWikiWeb was invented to support patterns, to build an online community
Community works together on patterns
Community contributes to Scrum
Jeff Sutherland is now using Scrum patterns in his training of 10,000s of people
There’s a company here in Japan using Scrum patterns, don’t know Christopher Alexander or patterns
Vibrant internal community, — no outreach.
Haven’t seen outreach
Body of literature
The goal
Our focus
Vision from the Beginning
Anthology only
Long term refinement
Not really
Sometimes 4 years to publication, web-based
Started with org patterns –> Scrum
Usually one-time publication after weeks of work
Quality bar: Rejected many patterns (no ….)
The vision was right
Have rejected 60-100 patterns
Rejected more than have published
Lowering the standards to support attendance
Why did Cope stop attending PLoPs?
Program chair wanted a big confernce
Compromise: BATTLE, no; Oregon, yes
Alexander didn’t compromise with the Eishin school in The Battle for Life and Beauty on the Earth; he did compromise in The Oregon Experiment.
Distance ourselves from academia
Academic publication is corrupting
Want nothing to do with false economy
Our standards have to be higher than academic, have to have shimojitsu, no compromise
Doing Scrum rather than what the Scrum Alliance enforces
Sometimes difficult to differentiate from IEEE papers
A working community
Alexander beat on his students
Adamant about no Powerpoints, no “talks” or keynotes
Don’t want to be higher up
Not standing up in front
ScrumPLoP has a working community
Cope and Sutherland each spend half time on ScrumPLoP
Some contributors spend one month per year, others spend more
Starting to look more like normal conferences; co-location with SPLASH for survival
In 2015, are moving outside of SPLASH
Last 2 years, PLoP has been at Allerton
Community authoring and maintenance
Ne-mawashi, Yoriais and Mikoshi, Wikis
Come together to discuss
Didn’t want academics originally, as a pattern can become a cheap way of publishing
Community authoring, review and publication
A way to come
Swarming
Started with an academic model where one person comes with a model, but now starting to use wikis
Still community review
At ScrumPLoP, will have a struggle, as some people will say that “this is my pattern”, because they need an academic approach
Individual authoring, community review
See a lot of patterns not socialized in a community
In Chicago, used to have a group that would meet once a month
“Language of Harmony” by Masanari Motohashi (2010): probably the best pattern language ever written
Hiroshi Nakano, Center for Environmental Structure
Keynote presentation at the 4th Asian Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs, Waseda University, Tokyo
This digest was created in real-time during the meeting, based on the speaker’s presentation(s) and comments from the audience. The content should not be viewed as an official transcript of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual. Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected. Questions about content should be directed to the originator. The digest has been made available for purposes of scholarship, posted on the web by David Ing.
Call him super-Hiro (as opposed to normal Hiro, the conference chair)
An architect, not a software developer
Not an expert on explaining Japanese spirituality, it’s part of being Japanese
Gauguin painting: From where do we come from? Where are we? To where are we going?
Taisetsu Suzuki, Buddhist philospoher, book: Japanese Spirituality
Every object either organic or non-organic, has its own life in itself
Some are clearly visible, others are hidden it only show up when some indicators effects upon it
Indicators
Patterns
Centering
Zen teaching:
A is not A, therefore A is A
When A is denied, you have to reflect about why it is not A
Look for another way to look at A
Get a new paradigm
See A from a new paradigm
Then you know what is A
You have to look for the new way of looking at things
Christopher Alexander:
Seeking the answer to: What is beauty? What is good?
Kurosawa movie (pre-war)
Two men come to shrine, see lady praying at shrine
Master asks: what makes the beauty?
There’s nothing more beautiful
Where does that beauty come from?
It’s from her ego
She’s praying, giving up herself, throwing away her ego, concentrating on her praying, then the beauty comes out
You may not have religion, but praying for something, concentrating on it, without thinking yourself in it, then beauty comes automatically
By concentrating on the process, then beauty comes automatically
What Alexander found was patterns
First started (at Notes on the Synthesis of Form) with mathematical logical processes through hierarchical decomposition
At this point, patterns was rational
Divided pattern into tiny elements, combined them to solve problems
Later, he added semi-lattice of real world, changed to illustrate as A Pattern Language
Each pattern in itself has almost a completely presently shared patterns
Each pattern shows a different seeing world
A story that gives motivation, why to use this pattern language
Patterns are a simple structure that everyone can use and learn them
Context: Forces hidden in the related field, not just inside the pattern but also from outside the pattern (could be human) as well as internal
Form: By what kind of geometry of relations
Conflict between forces: How to set forces equilibrium
So each pattern is combined or fused by the aid of forces context indicates. here patterns funcdtoin are integrated
Now call project language rather than pattern language: a specific goal
Project languages add up to become a history of pattern languages
Not simple
#197 is Thick Walls — not just Walls
Thick means to change the way you think about walls
Pattern gives the motive to see the world differently
Without such force, patterns are weak
Alcove
Not a dent in the wall
Private work in a small room with community work on the large room
Doesn’t separate out the private from the community
Presented as visual
All have visual forms
Patterns came from how to build buildings, but can use in human world
To make a pattern language, have to use technical stuff
Language is a complex way of expression
Pattern language makes a story
Selected good patterns give a motivation to move
A collection of patterns give strong motives, with a narrative story
Idea of repair, fixing a broken system
From Oregon Experiment: an injury healing system as an example
When have an injury in the hand, will have automatic fix, but don’t know how it works
An injury is monitored by the whole body
Skin injury has contact with the brain, order will come on how fix it
Before injury, have a scheme to fix
This is a healing process
All processes in the pattern language are healing processes: we must fix something, change something
The whole process is changing the world
A repair system is a centering process in the nature of order
2011.3.11 had a disaster
How to fix?
Four years have passed, nothing has changed
Problems are the same as before it happened
These villages were already dead end villages
They lived in dead end houses
People don’t have have funeral ceremonies in the temporary houses
Story: young mother threw newly born baby over the top of the hill, as tsunami chased right after her
She survived, the grandmother and father died in car
How to get a new recovery of human life should be the first thing in the morning
Photography of concentration camp train in WWII, sending Jewish prisoners, where mother threw baby out of train
Auschwitz tragedy similar to Japanese tragedy
Have to change the situation
Global situation, people are suffering, how to live on?
Pattern language is how to solve conflicting forces into the balanced situation
Make good stories to change the world
Step by step of generating the pattern language is critical to change
Patterns are found through direct people’s communications
Sometimes can be found in local culture, traditions, history, daily lives, and sometimes through logics
Real good patterns are extracted from strong visions
A is not A, then can see what A is A
Two perspectives:
Disaster victims (landowners) and office bureaucrats (who have procedures, seeking written applications)
People are dying, most people are over 70 years old
Some officials are also victims, they know what the disaster victims are saying, but they are following the bureaucratic red tape
Made a plan after 3 months, but bureaucrats said no.
Road first, then houses
Have to figure out how to pay
Why do the bureaucrats keep giving some terrible answers to a mother who threw her baby to the hill?
Bureaucratic response: flatten the mountain, work against nature
The relations of a human network has a visual form configuration: sub-symmetry
Landowners <–> Intermediate Aid Organization <–> Disaster Victims
Proposed 6 months after disaster
Said okay
Just formal organization didn’t work
They lack a vision
They lack a whole
They lack to get back a life.
What is important is how to repair a life
Get a house
Proposing a project language, as an intermediate aid organization doesn’t work, what should we do
First, need a clear, healthy vision
Where is a healthy body, then will know how to repair
Japanese spirituality clearly insists how to see this vision
Only though this spirituality we may have be able to grasp this vision
We tend to see the world based on dualism, in a Cartesian way of thinking, from philosopher Descartes
Hard to deny Descartes these days
Today, schools are based on dualism: subjects, objects
Make things as far away from emotions
Cool attitudes
We must stop this
In order to understand this idea, the center is useful
In the Nature of Order, it’s described in a complicated way
Could read again and again, won’t get it.
Easier way: a center has properties
e.g. hand is connected the body, not isolated
Center is not isolated, it’s connected to the other world
Connected, the hand is alive
The center is alive
At the same time, it’s the one whole
Hand and fingers come together as a whole
This is a way of synthesizing parts all together as a whole
A is not A
Each hand is a center
This idea of center is different from Cartesian
Have to see the whole and part at the same time
In the development of the world, this emerges
A pattern itself can become a center, but the pattern is a repetitive entity
Can generate a process of centering, so that get objects with life
Everything has life in it
Have to create or generate life with the aid of a centering process
Can we give life? Be a Frankenstein?
Diagram of plant
Every pattern is a leaf
Forces comes from the outside
Some leaves gather in a same place
Context is an outside forces with push each pattern towards a certain direction
Centering process: (a manual for a centering process)
First episode is ambiguous
Second episode is connect with the first, and then enhances the first
This can be repeated endlessly, aggregation goes on — which is the timeless way
Good movies are made of several chapters or stories, but they are all correlated with each other
This is a process
Try this
Each centering episode can be a project language
It has life
Patterns are selected for a certain vision, aiming at repairing the existing world to a world with life
Could be a paradigm shift
In the book Battle for Life and Beauty, everything is a fight
Such battles may not be necessary, if have piecemeal growth
Create a project language
Helping a lady on a bus, or homeless people into a shelter
Small acts will add up to a whole world
Another diagram: project language for goals
From the side of Process
From the side of Form
Vision
↘
Pattern
↙
Centering process
↘
Pattern language
↙
Project language
Eight houses in Okayama prefecture
Hot springs
Ocean view
Had preserved trees, didn’t cut one pine
Shape of the house is strange, as it avoids the trees
Designed bath house for community
All designed with pattern language
This group was succeeded through interesting media
After making pattern language for homes and shops, wrote an imaginary future letter, as if sent 10 years after the project: a whole story of a town in the future
Not just form, can appreciate the town
Read this imaginary letter to the future town at a meeting, and they understood the story made of patterns, without understanding a pattern language
Dream letter became a great motive to move on, make a new town
12 years ago, this town was deserted in the summer, and even in the winter despite being a hot spring center
Made walkways around town, to visit many hot springs
Now, the town is active, can’t make an appointment at a hotel, so busy
Centering process and making vision sounds difficult, but can imagine a reality with a strong message to change people’s motives
Photographs of houses and shops
Pension hotel
Houses have similarity, but different: roofs, windows, facades in hidden order coming out
Each house has a different pattern language
In order to change the stream, it’s like a big river
One small stream will branch off
Then can have another breakthrough
Will have more branches off the main stream
This is what I want you to demonstrate
The world is full of tragedy, each person should make some effort to create a strong message with life in it
Have to know what is life in an object: can read a difficult book
Whole world, whole nature, whole human
We are all connected together
We should seek order, peaceful life
Change the world with beauty, step by step
Some day you can change the whole world
[Questions]
Repairing the world requires effort. How can we make bureaucrats see?
Taking pictures of town
Which ones have life?
Make something that makes me feel?
Changing bureaucrats?
Pattern language as a strong tool
First, have to change own awareness
Now getting old, next year may not be able to see you, so want to see you take action now
Read Oregon Experiment and Nature of Order
Some artists know which ones are alive: this town is dead, this hotel is dead
Intuitively know, but not at a continuous level
Where can find more material on centers?
From workshops
When you see the hand, how do you organize the hand? By vision, by hand, by wisdom, by knowledge? My hand is alive, it’s connected
A center is a way of looking at the world
When someone speaks, how can you tell it’s her voice? It’s by looking at her as a whole.
In the Battle for Life and Beauty of the Earth, would you describe that as a project language rather than a pattern language?
In 2011, Christopher Alexander was 75 years old, and fighting jet lag to talk about the book to would be released in 2012. The pace of this lecture is slow.
This digest was created in real-time watching the recorded web video, based on the speaker’s presentation(s) and comments from the audience. The content should not be viewed as an official transcript of the meeting, but only as an interpretation by a single individual. Lapses, grammatical errors, and typing mistakes may not have been corrected. Questions about content should be directed to the originator. The digest has been made available for purposes of scholarship, posted on the Coevolving Innovations web site by David Ing.
Berkeley 1963-2001, where Alexander taught, connecting art, math, computer science
It makes no sense for all chairs to be the same, because we’re all different where we sit, so we should all have dining chairs that are slightly different to accommodate sizes and style.
Literature: Notes on a Synthesis of Form 1968; A Pattern Language; Timeless Way of Building, Nature of Order
[06:00] Pattern Language:
People will say they will use pattern 23 to figure out an architectural problem
I’m going to use pattern 56 to solve my computer science problem
I’m going to use pattern 21 to solve something like Facebook
The pattern was not the message, the message was to find patterns, and to look for patterns, and to think about patterns.
And to see how patterns gradually emerge from the organic life that unfolds between form and intention and context and function.
Can look as buildings as well
Has created 200 or more buildings
Tokyo, Berkeley family houses, Albany, Oregon campus, Eishin campus in Tokyo
Object oriented programming asks how methods exist independently of the space that they are created for.
Versioning: how many versions have you seen in the past?
Software, cars, products, things that you buy
Things always will change, we just have to admit they change, and embrace the change
Another path: awards
[08:20] In Siena, there’s a wonderful plaza, valley of streets lead to the Piazzo del Campo
[09:20] Please welcome Professor Christopher Alexander
[Christopher Alexander comes on stage, puts microphone in pocket
[10:45] Topic is so confusing, so complicated
At Berkeley, didn’t give a talk prepared in advance for 4 years
[12:15] The discipline known as architecture has gone off the rails with some momentum, for 80 to 90 years
[13:15] [Asked for pictures on mass production, takes a few minutes to organize]
B17 hangars in Seattle, 1940, not the first time mass production was done
[14:50]: An erector set for kids made around 1915
Since then, the attempt to build buildings has been swamped with the use of mass-produced components
Seen as a blessing by some
Claims that it will be efficient and cheap are overblown
Nevertheless, it’s taken over the whole field of architecture
The way that architecture is transmitted is through drawings
Architect doesn’t know how to make things
He or she draws, and some other organization makes buildings from the drawings
We’re so deeply into this way of thinking, it doesn’t sound like a blunder, it sounds like a practical thing to do
[17:30] I’m bit wobbly. [sits down]
The organization of nature is essentially not modular, in a sense that architecture has been made modular
Molecules and atoms? They’re different, from a quantum level
The reality of things — dwelling on reality — comes from structure of something, which at every level, is highly complex and unique.
The idea that things can be made by assembly is a crackpot idea which does not work
It’s simply an idea that has swelled and expanded
From the child’s erector set, one gets a whole vision of the world, and how things in the world are to be made, and are made
They are made this way now
[19:50] From the structural point of view, you can have this assembly, or arrangement of prefabricated parts — which to many architects is a gift from heaven, in a weird and meaningless intellectual pattern.
[requests a picture of the 6 blossoms opening]
A spray of flowers
Buds opening [showing 6 slides]
In a situation like that, the whole is being transformed by many many processes that are going on roughly at the same time
And because of the way that that continuous unfolding is taking place, you have the beauty of the hawthorne bush coming about, as result of the unfolding process where everything develops together, and where its detailed organization is created by transformations that occur in the wholeness in the branch or plant
Architecture used to be like that, up to a couple of hundred years ago
The complexity that a building needs and can be enjoyed and loved by the people who live there, or by the people who look at this or that window or rail … all has been cut short
You go out on the street and see nothing but crap
Large scale crap and small scale crap
It’s all be pieced together by simple-minded methods
The ability of a building to work as a whole, and as something that is nurturing to human beings who live there or work there, or use it — all of that has been damanged collosally.
No one has had the courage, or the common sense to recognize this difficulty
There are a few visionaries, or seers, who understand this, but can’t really find a way in contemporary society to earn a living in this way
The whole vehicle of construction does not have the capacity to deal with type of context-dependent creation of part and wholes and parts and wholes, and wholes nested within other wholes
The vast majority of metropolitan areas are blackened by this disease.
Mental health is plummetting
The capacity to love — not necessarily one person to another — to love a dandelion or a mouse, or the front steps of the remnant of a building that might have been built 100 years ago, with the steps built by hand
The stairs, the treads, the risers, the lip, the overhand were all shaped in such a way that each piece precisely fit into the context that was being created with this evolving structure.
[27:30] I am a person that builds
Some people who I have trained are doing their best to work this way
The question of large scale production on society has really not been tackled at all
We are prisoners of this calamitous situation
The environment that we live in plays a colossal role in our lives
[27:45] The main subject of this lecture is a project that we undertook in Japan in the early 1980s to build a campus outside Tokyo
Unless one turns the methods and processes and production methods around, there is no way that human life on Earth can maintain itself or be a success.
[31:45] The methods by which the human environment are built are damaged to an extreme and extraordinary dimension.
I first began work on this issue in 1958.
If you live in a systems of boxes, as most people do, you can barely struggle to achieve an effective life
[33:50] Saint Francis, who loved animals and birds, built a little chapel outside Assisi
It’s a tiny building, a marvellous place, made by Francis and his brethren over a number of years
In around the end of the 16th century, people thought St. Francis was so important that they would do the ultimate honour of building him a large baroque church, in which the tiny chapel was literally encased.
The baroque church was massive and ugly as hell, and rarely visited.
It was a foretelling of the forms of production which now exist in our society
This was a crackpot and unsuitable way to deal with Francis’ loving created
[37:50] Can we, at all, hope to create a world in which things are made with judgement, with love, with adaptation, with continuous modification, with everything than transpires in what I have come to call System A.
Systems B is the production world of B17s, computers, prefabricated houses, supermarkets, factories, all of which we benefit from in a material level
But it does take away our birthright and heritage, and makes it almost impossible to be a full human being
[39:50] I’m just going to show you some pictures that will run without my comments.
You’ll see this place which my colleagues and I have built, but still not finished
After you have looked at these pictures, I will tell you about the conditions under which these things can be done
[42:45] Of course these buildings were not built from drawings in the normal fashion
[photos shown in silence through to about 0:56:15]
[57:30] The tea bushes with the white flags
The size of this campus is about 9 city blocks
After we had worked with our clients to produce a pattern language (which I won’t go into any detail on), what happened next was to lay out the buildings
We walked that site, dozens if not hundreds of times over
We tried to place ourselves in such a way that one could visualize very simple questions: where is the best place to enter this campus; what is the first thing that you might want to come to
The flags were mostly about 6 foot high, bamboo stakes
We planted these flags and looked at them
We then planted them some more and looked at them again
We continued that operation until we felt comfortable walking the whole
There were virtually no drawings at that time
There were some doodles
We paid attention to the position of the buildings, the height, the width
We were creating the space between the buildings with equal care and intensity
Gradually, we collectively formed a vision of what kinds of places there were, where they were
Our client client, Hosoi, was quite stunned, by the time we were finished — the flagging out phase was several month
He said, several times, in the months that had been passing: we could see the buildings standing there — there were no buildings, at that point — but the situation was so real, he could see exactly what was happening, and what did happen
[63:30] The staking out of these complex buildings would have been completely impossible in System B
If you were the employee or owner of a large planning firm, and were placing pencil to paper, or CAD-lines to printout, there would have been no possibility of creating the feeling that happened within any one single building of the whole lot
It would not have been conceivable to create a drawing
You can only do that kind of work with your own body, your own heart, with communications with the building crews
This is already one example of the huge departure from the current way of doing architecture
Currently, architecture is a discipline that has to do with making drawings, which are then transmitted to construction companies
The idea that one could actually inject profound feeling into such a process is quite funny
It’s the most commonsensical thing you could possibly do, if you really want to lay out some buildings and build them
[66:20] Once were we done the flagging, we began work on the individual buildings
Rudimentary paper and cardboard models, once we had the position and general dimensions from flagging out
Had hundreds of models, you don’t have to do them over or use an eraser
You can use glue and paper and balsa wood
Sometimes you can make one of the models in a day
They are extremely rough
The buildings follow this rudimentary models, so that the feelings that are being carried by each of us on the project, went all the way through to the execution of the buildings
[69:00] We were the builders of this place, although we had some help, as we needed Japanese crews
The number of architecture students in the U.S. or England that could do this are probably 2%
What we did, did succeed, to a large degree
Of course, during the course of construction, there were changes being made continuously
We were prudent with the money
We were skilled enough, so that when something came along on the site, and it because it was obvious it was too long or too short, or where were the windows, or the roof pitch — these were all being tested as they were going along — changes were made along the way, consistent with the budget that we carried
[72:00] The yakuza, the Japanese mafia were connected with the large construction organizations
The companies are huge, larger than American construction companies
It was said that they could swing a motion in Japanese parliament, on almost any issue
Mr. Hosoi, our chief client, was called to a meeting in Shinjuku, and sat down with some of the Japanese contractors and their representatives
They wanted him to get Alexander out of Japan
The reason wasn’t because we were doing better work
The reason was our work was lower in price than the going rate
It was a colossal potential embarrassment for the Japanese construction industry.
The failed to get me out of Japan
They were not incompetent from an engineering point of view
They feared the whole industry would collapse from its present form, if they were not able to stop the types of activities were were engaging in.
They knew we were responsible people
We had to make a number of political deals to continue and complete the work
It wasn’t quite completed, as there were 2 college buildings and a library that were not built
[79:20] We had been writing a book — it’s about 500 pages — describing this production system we created, and how it worked
They did manage to force us to a compromise
This book might have the effect of altering the path of construction companies in all of the countries of the world
It’s possible, but I doubt that I’ll see it in my lifetime
[81:40] The real issue is life is the only criterion for the construction of the environment
That’s not what is happening today
[82:20] I’m getting tired now
I’m going to read you a short page
The creation of life and of the living is and must be the fundamental criterion for our activities when we build the environment
Whether they be freeway building, housing projects, tracts, etc.
Now, can we truthfully say that the Eishin campus is a living structure, and that any structure that is living (like the Eishin campus) is a very rare event, difficult to achieve in practice, a kind of structure not easy to replicate?
The theory of replicating this structure, an achievable structure, can be made actual, practical, and workable.
We must make this available in our present day society
Even though it is hard, it is useless for us to see it only as a target, not realizable in practice
The non-living structures which have surrounded us on earth for about a hundred years have undermined human society at a gigantic cost to us, our fellow beings
The paradigm of the robot, or simulation of living structure, do not have the attributes of living structure, and are not and cannot be living environments.
This must be achieved, now.
Social disorder, mental illness, failure to keep pace with spiritual understanding, children, animals, plants form a rich fabric. This rich fabric does not its own bill of rights
Although artificial, complex layered structure of our environment are forms of life, and useful semi-living machines are helpful in medicine.
But we are not yet living as living soulful creatures and will not be until the necessary structures of living society and living environments are soulfully present.
This is not only a criticism of the physical structure of buildings and towns.
We have the information to reach this state.
Many books written in the last 100 years have by now spelled out detailed information about living structure, how the structure must be supported, cared for, regulated, how the structure can be maintained in vibrant and living state of hell.
We have no excuse for neglecting our knowledge.
We must act on what we know, and we must make use of the rich field of architecture with the information that is now available.
I’ve tired myself out.
[Questions]
I was curious about how can buildings create unconditional love.
Did I say that? I said some pretty crappy things, but I don’t think that I said as bananas as that.
Unconditional?
When a building is being properly made, its internal organization — its human organization — that means that whoever the people are that are working on that building, are in a position where they speak and make from love.
This does not mean some soupy romanticism.
If we love honesty, our fellowing beings and the places where we are, then the kinds of things that you see on the screen will arise.
It’s not magic, it has to do with the intensity and dedication to which you do your best
I had a girlfriend that I loved intensely, and it went horribly wrong. I wish for something passionate and lasting.
Of course it can go wrong. You think I’m a magician?
In computer programming and in art, to get people to spend the time with passion, it will be a type of spiritualism? I hear what you’re saying, it’s hard, we’re trying.
Trying takes certain forms.
It just depends how far you’re willing to go.
People who have experienced this way of making things won’t give it up
Where do you see the next 200 years?
Attention to detail.
If you want to make a room — a livingroom in a house — can you concentrate enough to make that room a nest or something.
It’s a real task
It’s not nonsense
It’s not, generally speaking, being taught by architecture professors
It’s a perfectly feasible and practical venture
[96:00] Examples of how the campus was built with love? Materials or design?
Fairly ordinary, but put together in somewhat unusual ways.
Structural plan, different for each environment? Carry over to architecture.
In an organism, there are wholes at many different levels.
There are wholes within those wholes.
It’s not possible to attempt to build a structure by just arranging these things
They butt up against their context, they butt up against the container. If the container can not give up flexibly, you’ll be looking at a monkey’s ass.
You need the positions of the doors, and the windows, and the nature of the floor: there is give-and-take between the larger wholes, and the wholes you’ll fill them up with.
If you say, let’s have the container be a rigid factory-made entity, the size of a house, then how are going to place the front door, given this lunatic shell, because this isn’t where the door wants to be.
The small wholes and the large wholes have to be in a give and take relationship.
In brief. David Ing. 