While many outside of the field of architecture like the #ChristopherAlexander #PatternLanguage approach, it’s not so well accepted by his peers. A summary of criticisms by #MichaelJDawes and #MichaelJOstwald@UNSWBuiltEnv is helpful in appreciating when the use of pattern language might be appropriate or not appropriate.
A distinction is made between Alexander’s first theory of architecture (1964), and a second theory (1975-1979) for which he is mostly widely known, and then a third theory (2005-2007).
Christopher Alexander’s ‘first theory’ of architectural beauty was presented in his Harvard doctoral thesis and later published as Notes on the Synthesis of Form (Alexander 1964). The inspiration for this work is Alexander’s belief that the buildings of traditional societies are inherently more beautiful than contemporary architecture. [….]
When applied in practice, Alexander discovered that this process was too demanding for all but the largest design projects.
Alexander’s second theory, itself a collaborative process, was developed across three canonical books; The Oregon Experiment (Alexander et al. 1975), A Pattern Language (Alexander et al. 1977) and The Timeless Way of Building (Alexander 1979). Collectively these three works constitute one of the 1960s and 1970s most sustained criticisms of modernism. [….]
… intuitive and unconscious processes were vital components of traditional and vernacular architecture … [and] the importance of cognitive cohesion, vitality and piecemeal growth as part of a vibrant built environment … All of these concepts were central to Alexander’s second theory of architecture, which again focused on the inherent beauty of traditional urban spaces and buildings.
The third theory has been less popular, but well known to disciples following Alexander’s work.
Ultimately however, Alexander rejected his second theory of architectural beauty as he felt it had too little generative power and too little focus on geometry. Three decades later he proposed a ‘third theory’ of beauty, which replaced patterns with the generic concept of ‘centres’ and their transformations, in addition to removing much of the neatly packaged social and architectural content that makes his second theory so compelling (Alexander 2002b, c, 2004, 2005; Adams and Tiesdall 2007).
The second theory, particularly A Pattern Language, has had the most influence outside of the built environment. It is on this work that the criticisms are analyzed.
Following the publication of his second theory, Alexander bemoaned a lack of engagement from architectural and design professionals which might be partially explained by criticisms of the development and documentation of this theory (Kohn 2002). The barriers preventing architects from engaging with Alexander’s theory can be broadly categorised into three groups (Table 2).
Fig. 3 Criticism connections and groupings of Alexander’s second theory of architecture: Implementation and outcomes. Numbers correspond to criticism numbers in text and tables, dotted lines indicate groups and sub-groups of criticisms, arrows point from antecedent criticisms to secondary criticisms or groups of criticisms
The first group [5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12] arise from Alexander’s idiosyncratic understanding of ‘science’ (4) and subsequent issues including an absence of explicit definitions which makes practical engagement with the theory difficult.
The second group [9, 13, 14] focus on Alexander’s ambivalent use of the term ‘empirical’ to describe his theory, the progenitors of which include both his definition of ‘science’ [4] and belief in one ‘right’ way of building [3] (Fig. 2).
The final group [15, 16, 17, 18, 19] contains criticisms primarily related to the development of Alexander’s theory, including issues such as faulty reasoning that arise primarily from his argument that there is only one right way of building [3]. The problems identified in the second and third groups contribute to further criticisms of the implementation and outcomes of Alexander’s theory.
The pursuit of beauty is admirable. The science behind it is difficult.
Reference
Dawes, Michael J., and Michael J. Ostwald. 2017. “Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language: Analysing, Mapping and Classifying the Critical Response.” City, Territory and Architecture 4 (1): 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40410-017-0073-1.
Plenary panel with @HajoNeis #SusanIngham #YodanRode #RichardSickinger at @PUARLuo 2018 Conference.
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Commentary by the panel, expanded out to other conference attendees
Panel, PUARL 10th Anniversary Conference
[Moderator: Wolfgang Stark]
Yesterday, started with World Cafe
Today, panel on the future of patterns, once we realize the potential of patterns not just in the book
Susan: Architect’s perspective, what is the actual physical environment?
In what environment do I have my best ideas, where am I most creative?
I spent most of time in a place where it’s not good for me to have my best ideas.
For best ideas, usually need a hot beverage, or a view of nature.
Challenge people to notice when they have a moment of creativity, track that.
We’re disconnected from where we are, in the moment.
Yodan: Pattern language group is small core, around Purplsoc and PUARL
On one hand, it’s a problem, a little bit of inbreeding
Important, level of discussion could be higher, not just of pattern language
Perhaps we could change venues, we pick up more people while maintaining the strong core
Doubts about travelling a long way, already know some of the people, but conversations raised good questions, lighting up the bulb
Can do in 5 minutes of conversations, what would take days online, so annual conferences are important
Need to develop more institutions within the pattern language movement, maybe a journal, maybe an exhibition, that will increase the number of practitioners
Richard: Importance of reaching the end users of the pattern languages, that are effected, that helps them
Finding a pattern ideal that fascinates, inspires
Hajo: This year is the 10-year anniversary conference
Wouldn’t have started a conference at CES, because clients wouldn’t talk about the work
As academics, something can come out
The future is pattern language, but then there’s the advanced pattern language that takes in the Nature of Order
Interdisciplinary work, connects
Huge range of possibilities
Could be relevant in regenerative process and design: world has a lot of problems that we can’t comprehend
Some hope, maybe we can come together and solve a huge problem, tackled through pattern languages
The way we use the pattern languages in architecture
Can appreciate how important they are
We have developed enough projects, and tried to create with participation of users
Beyond these, pattern languages relate with centers and create space
Many next steps, book was written and developed in the 1970s, patterns may not be implemented
How to future develop, put in new contexts
Yodan: Origins of patterns has strong connections with social change, people’s republic of Berkeley
Houses generated by patterns was in the context of U.N. Competition on Social Housing in South America
Process of coming up with patterns, some work with clients, is social-changing
It’s a different way of doing social science, on the other hand
Tying social science to planning and building
Sometimes ourselves, we’re not so aware of how we should do this work carefully.
Not careful about the statements, they’re not good patterns
It’s hard to create a good pattern, as hard as creating an experiment
Did political change, came up with solutions, the big challenge
It may not work
[Wolfgang] Reading Alexandrian writings, would like to see a good social science
[Hajo] Adventures into other disciplines, dealing with tsunami problems and energy problems, not used to doing that
Fascinating, doing something that is expanding horizon
Feel sometimes loosing the base, doing what we should do
Not doing projects in architecture that I used to
Two faces, Janus head
Asian project language was a fantastic experience, with 100 people, successful
Missing that
Richard: Need patterns that serve people, that moves people, or want to live this pattern
Patterns in human action
We should start living patterns
Pattern depends on context
Problem is generated with context, what’s around
How to live with one pattern, don’t understand that
Richard: One topic, moving the world
For immigrants, could be open to different people
Have selected that context as the most relevant
Wolfgang: Not just one pattern, for a language, take a few patterns
Not whole language, it’s too big
[Gary]: Diversity that of individuals that have embraced patterns, with wicked problems in their fields
Life takes place, as Alexander’s genius, talking about the unity of life and place
Used to urban design, then urban planning, has little to do with the physical world, dealing with abstractions
If held to the notion that we have to ask about how places would be shaped
Pattern language for NASA site, sustainable agriculture, halfway-house to real world
Developed a pattern language, interviewed staff there, developing meta-patterns (place as community, integrative places)
They were stated much more as social patterns, then could say physical changes, would have to go back to see how a pattern would support a meta-pattern as a vision
More grounded
Weren’t talking about architecture and meta-patterns
Vision of education, etc., went further
Tried to rejoin social patterns to the physical
Challenge groups, those from social and entrepreneurial: what does this have to do with place?
Could have meta-patterns for places.
One step more: could architect planners, physical designers, how does it support more egalitarian society?
If we follow the genius of Alexander’s work, then what kind of places does this create? Particular places that manifest the whole
Keep the multidisciplinary
[Wolfgang]: Need to educate, train each other, in different disciplines
If take a serious pattern approach, would need some help, or information, some more ideas
How to make sure the tradition maintains, and goes to the next step
Besides place, there is time
[Gary] That’s in David Seamon’s work, place as process
[Eric] Video that mentioned story
Poem, the Speed of Darkness: the universe is made of stories, not atoms
We’re good at talking to each other
We need to become better at telling our stories
Where is our Leonard Bernstein, or Richard Feinman — the engaging storyteller who has a deep wealth of knowledge, but can communicate the profoundness and love of the pattern
[Gary]: Maybe it’s not just one person
Need to be able to communicate, in better ways with audience who aren’t in-house
Need to listen to clients, then can find the patterns
Can frame those stories to physical design and placemaking
Place makes a difference, if you hire the right architects
[Takashi] Often participate in pattern-related conferences
Many people struggle in professional towards social change
People who engage in pattern language are in some change
This conference is wider: pattern language for behaviour change is microscopic
Talked with Richard Gabriel about regional A Pattern Language
Jenny said originally with U.S. government, well-being of society
[Gary Black] First PUARL conference
In the architecture department at Berkeley, Chris Alexander isn’t mentioned
Studios: whatever the student comes up with is okay, teacher is supposed to comment on a tweak
No rigour
At PUARL, patting self on back, in future, collaboration is awesome, but somethings need need someone to come into office with dissention
Like preparing a brief, someone feels free to question if a pattern language is even applicable
Would be good to include in new conferences
Getting people who distrust can advance the cause
[Wolfgang] What is the next step for the future of pattern language, in one sentence?
[Yodan] Trying to find a communal project — we’re not that many people
Proposed a project to rewrite the A Pattern Language for the 21st century
[Hajo] Need to look to next generation, teach them a way to continuing in a better way than we did.
Our generation screwed up the world
Have the chance to make it over again
[Gary Coates] Whatever exists is possible
Need more projects rooted in a pattern-language based approach, that also integrates the encompassing wisdom in the Nature of Order, then communicate
Have to create better and more beautiful places
Richard: Need a pattern language story
Challenge, response
Old patterns are losing validity
[Gary Black] Group should find projects where you can bring the theory to bear, see it to the end, and show that it’s better
[Susan] Embedding patterns, archives is one way, making connections with the larger body of research
Brain research
[Eric] Future of patterns is in the youngest people in the room
If there is to be a future, youngest students should have a voice in determining the conference
The future is the young people, and the future is the buildings
Need patterns adopted and used by the younger people
[Takashi] Want to incorporate pattern language thinking in education, in elementary and middle school levels
Includes listening to others, and then writing down for others
Common language
Dialogue
Building better futures
Need more teachers in the school
Pick a voice for someone under 30
From this conference, felt that we need to not confine ourselves to the established definitions and formats
Clinging onto the definitions doesn’t allow us to explore more possibilities
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.
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.
Plenary by #SusanIngham, on behalf of co-presenters in audience at @PUARLuo 2018 Conference.
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Copresenters: Maggie Moore Alexander, Sergio Porta, Yodan Rofe, Susan Ingham, Christopher Andrews, and Duo Dickinson
Plenary Christopher Alexander Lecture by #DavidSeamon of Kansas State University at @PUARLuo 2018 Conference.
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Introduction by Howard Davis:
Gary Coates: Experience comes first.
Learned from Chris Alexander, human experience has to come first, then relationships to places we make.
David Seamon has this idea central to his work
David Seamon, Department of Architecture, Kansas State University, since 1983
Has authored many books that bring together people and place
Artemis, earlier today, said how Alexander’s perspective has shifted
However, there is a commonality in work
Will start talking about wholeness, where the whole remains whole.
Have been writing about this as synergistic relationality
Alexander could be called a phenomenologist
Alexander, Nature of Order, vol. 1, p. 98:
Reproduces 4 self-drawings by Henri Matisse had generated over time, with photographs of Matisse
Even though we see differences, there is something in common
Wholeness is the overall vector, the overall qualitative structure … Wholeness is a global thing, easy to feel, hard to define.
Phrasing of wholeness, over time
Quality without a name
…
Wholeness extending transformations
Relates with density, comfort, robustness … life
Life of the material, through good design, that enables place, robustness, healing
Phenomenology for Alexander
Description of phenomena
Careful description and interpretation of human experience
Phenomology of homeness, homelessness, …
Phenonemological attitude
Lifeworld
Last 2 decades, movement in looking at environmental and architectural phenomenology
Defining wholeness
A system of parts and connections
An ensemble of relatedness
A gathering grouped in belong
The gathering together of what already belongs together even apart
(The last three move towards phenomenology)
Different understandings
Analytic relationality: whole as interconnected parts and relationships
Synergistic relationship: whole is an integrated, generative field sustaining and sustained by collective belonging
Analytic relationality: in General Systems Theory, from von Bertalanffy, reductive and piecemeal
Henri Bortoft is leading in trying to understand wholeness
The key weakness of analytical relational is that it loses sight of how parts already belong together
Synergistic relationality: Whole is self-organizing in that each part enters into the constitution of every other part
Integral mutuality between part and whole
J. Malpas 2012, p. 239: The relation is itself dependent on what it relates, but also in the relation…
How do we do this?
e.g. reading a poem, don’t understand it, and then there’s a single word where the meaning of the poem lights up
Place as synergistic relationality
Place: any environmental locus in and through which individual or group actions, experiences, intentions and meaning are drawn together spatially and temporally.
Some important works on phenomenology of place that resonate with Alexander
Relph, Place and Placelessness, 1976, most approachable
Robert Mugerauer, Interpretations on Behalf of Place 1994
Edward Casey, Getting Back into Place 1993/2009
Jeff Malpas, Place and Experience 1999/2018
Lived emplacement, from Ed Casey
Can place be described generatively?
Places do change over time
Question: are there a set of integrated, underlying processes that might help us see?
Six place patterns, a different view of Christopher Alexander
Place interaction
Place identity
Place release (place serendipity, unexpected encounters)
Place realization
Place intensification: by 1985, Alexander moved beyond pattern language towards geometric, less towards human world, with centers
Place creation
All of the six feed or weaken the others
Eishen School: students and teachers could see what is possible
Seamon has trouble with this: generalizes from Turkish carpet patterns to place patterns
Place may be unremarkable geometrically
Still, trying to balance human world with physical world, in intimacy of relationships
Centers are strong in scale, a criticism of postmodernism
The place processes can also undermine
Processes link through temporal and spatial limits (place tubes) David Bohm
Borloft
Belonging together as analytic relationality
Belonging together as synergistic relationality
Alexander’s “real kindness”
[Questions]
Speculate on implications for practice in architectural and urban?
Don’t start with practice
How do we facilitate the whole?
Goethe way of science, student of the natural world, theory of colours (phenomenology of light and colours)
Need to find educational ways to find other ways of looking and seeing
Our current system emphasizes the analytic, so much
Ian McGilchrist, The Master and the Emissary — right brain and left brain
Ward Cunningham, Yodan Rofe and Michael Mehaffy at PUARL 10th Anniversary Conference
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.
Want to put some effort in writing patterns, that led to discussions about how programming would change (towards agile)
After Xerox PARC, Internet and PLoP conferences came along, the same time
Set up with a goal of a new literature of computer programming
Should be more human, not formalistic mathematical
From this experience, emerged agile
But Internet isn’t like it was, 20 years ago
Wanted to try to create an environment where I could create my own pages, and come back a month later
Also, I like your stuff, but I want to change a little bit
Prefabricated experience: why Facebook and Google have taken over
Bucking this experience
Ownership is complicated: doesn’t mean you need a server, but maybe you do
[Demo through graphs]
[Yodan Rode: Examples of urban planning and transportation patterns]
Boulevard Patterns (2002)
Final chapter is called Guidelines for building boulevards (which are really patterns)
Created as case study designs
Other examples of pattern language use
Duany, Speck, Lydon: The Smart Growth Book — they used the pattern language format, without justifying
NJDOT and PennDOT: Smart Transportation Guidebook, A Pattern Language for Major Road Design
A few years ago, tried to start a group with a programmer in Israel
On the Internet, the medium isn’t so important, it’s the community
We have to start collaborating in this group
It starts with politics, economics, ecological
Problems are social
[Michael]There are institutions (e.g. UN Habitat) that don’t want the original patterns (e.g. ring roads)
[Ward]
Hard to get people working on a project, if there isn’t something in it for them
Could publish a book, but could still have some content online … and publish small books.
[Michael]
New forms of publication
Need better ways to use the printed word
[Question]
Marvin Minsky, Society of Minds, as beginnings of AI, going up and down hierarchies. Then gaps in urban design and analysis, problems with geometry. How to make bridge to complex geometry?
[Michael] e.g. process patterns, we don’t really have them in the architecture world
Alexander project, would like to focus on topological. Alexander has used geometry, but it’s really topology.
[Michael] It’s about language. Not to get wrapped up in clutter.
[Ward] Took a year to write the wiki, and have been working for 6 years. Now have been working on new data types, e.g. graphs. Should be something that works with other people.
[Michael] Maps about what’s important to people in a neighbourhood. Are we going to learn the technology, as opposed to have technology driving us.
Management and labour divide. If we want to change the built world, we need to pay more attention to people who will change that world.
Need to form a community. There’s a pattern science Facebook group, which is a small start.
Boulevard book has had influence, and see other books. But then, we’ve failed? Maybe they know what they’re doing, and we don’t?
[Yodan] Success of something is not only up to you. Sometimes you say things, and it becomes unheard. Other times, people are ready to hear. Boulevard book came out at CMU around the right time, on major arterials. Solution was there, abandoned 50 years ago.
There’s a lot of political work that has to be done, to move from theory to reality.
Pattern language had a lack of social movement
[Michael] Don’t have to come up with new knowledge, just have to come up with a form that people can see, like Wikipedia.
Ownership. Working with urban communities and individual clients, it’s one thing to get a client to commit to pattern language, but hard to get them to address patterns about you that you don’t own, and downstream from people who can’t tell you what to do. Wholeness has to look above you, and downstream.
[Ward] On the original C2 wiki, maybe 1000 patterns. But only a few books made it there. We want to encourage people to write careless patterns, we don’t have to read them. The 2 or 3 that are gems might find a way to the volume. Have to make it easy to write something that doesn’t disappear on your hard drive.
[Yodan] Mass mind doesn’t necessarily show the best. Don’t know process of curating. When we have 5,000 patterns, we can work these things out.
Jeremy Swartz and Hajo Neis, PUARL 10th Anniversary Conference
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.
Jeremy Swartz is NSF/HHMI Scientific Teaching Fellow and Courtesy Research Associate in the School of Journalism and Communications at the University of Oregon.
Gene do not contain information like envelopes or emails …
Neil Postman: A medium is a technology within which a culture grows
Swartz dissertation rethought idea of medium as curation (as care and repair)
Oregon Experiment is built on diagnosis, moves to treatment
Ronald Arnett and Annette Holba: Pattern permits practices to become meaningfully apparent
McLuhan: Pattern recognition
Patterns as possible future recovery or repair
Recovery as regenerative design (Neis, 2014), can’t use Alexander generative (in a world before bombs) to regenerative (now improving
Repair as curation, and meliorism, making things better (Swartz, 2016)
Steven Jackson, Media Technologies 2014: repair
Dewey 1925: Not mere ends, but ends-in-view
Regenerative design
Health and wholeness
…
Federated wiki
Mark Johnson, The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics
We need a philosophy [of communication, architecture asthetics as not just about art, beauty and taste, but rather as about how human beings experience
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.
Bin Jiang is a professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Sustainable Development, Division of Geoinformatics and Computational Geography at Högskolan i Gävle
Has been hooked by Christopher Alexander, and Nature of Order in particular
Wholeness
Two fundamental laws: scaling law and Tobler’s law
Two design principles: Differentiation and adaptation
Wholeness accounting by other theories included
Motivation:
City rebuilding based on a foundation of nonsense — Jacobs 1961
Urban design accused of being pseudoscientific
Alexander realized this back to the 1950s, so devoted his career to develop a scientific foundation of wholeness
Wholeness is pervasive, but hard to see
No mathematics is powerful enough to capture the definition of wholeness, so he used pictures
15 properties are hard to understand
What is wholeness, life and beauty?
Wholeness is a recursive structure
Alexander says it’s real structure, not just appreciation
Wholeness is made of many centers
Life or beauty is a quality of space
Alexander’s view of space and 15 properties
Spaces is living structure
15 properties
Physical character of living structure: A piece of paper with a tiny dot (that induces centers)
Scaling law (also called spatial heterogeneity)
More small things than large things
Tobler’s law on spatial dependence: everything is related to everything else, by near things are more related than distant things
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In brief. David Ing. 