As a bricks-and-mortar architect who received his training just as Alexander's ideas were being published, I can personally attest to what others have suggested about my cohort.
Namely, at the time "A Pattern Language" and "Timeless Way of Building" came out, Alexander was strongly criticized for: 1) attempting even to categorize built environments into sub-components 2) creating categories that were ultimately culturally bound, in spite of attempts to the contrary 3) reducing the act of design to applying cookbook style recipes 4) promoting the notion of "open source" architecture (not new to him by any means, but reduced to a practice for certain) that claimed to provide the essence of architecture through mechanical application of patterns. Oddly, Alexander's approaches came at the sunset of the modern period of architecture. A young crop of architects were just emerging who were rebelling (some might say revolting) against the established modernist dogma. Alexander's "patterns" were the completion of the modernist ethic: namely to create pre-assembled high-quality factory built components from which buildings could be inexpensively assembled. Alexander simply moved the notion up the chain to the act of design and creation. His work also speaks to the early social influences on modern architecture, egalitarianism, focus on users, access (from a design standpoint) and so on. With the emergence of post-modernist forms, a return to a more formal language of architecture, a rediscovery of architectural movements preceding modernism and in complete opposition to many of its tenets, Alexander's work is revealed as yet another expression of the soulless nature of the modern movement. Without waxing more poetic on the topic, from my perspective, the act of Architecture is perhaps the most complex design engagement human beings have undertaken. There's little about it that's simple. While there are fairly straightforward ways to put up structures, provide shelter and all of the practical trappings that we associate with buildings, that generally isn't what Architects are pursuing. Alexander's work is nearly anti-Architecture. That is not to say it isn't valuable. It's just not what many Architects desire to do. Leo ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
