× Introduction
Basic Questions:
-who (CA)
-what (the theory: its holistic nature, unification of art and science,)
-where (theory and relationship to other relevant theories, traditions and paradigms),
-when (relevance to contemporary culture),
-why (needs of world, paradigm shift) and
-how(methodology comparison and analysis)

× The Theory
Wholeness, Unity, Interconnectedness=Beauty, Life.
-Zen, Islam, Christian, philosophical issue, Romantics, outline of historical
evolution of current cosmological dualism, importance of human : nature
realtionship, reintegration of science and art.

Geometry, Patterns, 15 Fundamental Properties, Centers
-derived from Nature, pre-industrial societies
-examples of 15 properties: 3 each from a variety of scales and from both human
made and nature.

Structure Preserving Transformations, The Fundamental Process
-centrality of process over concept, image

Mirror of the Self Test
-objective judgement system - value, common reference for

Ca biography/bibliography to run in parallel
-importance of geographic/cultural moves and influence.

× West Dean Visitor's Centre
Introduction, background history

Uniqueness of approach/process
-attitude, asprations - moral intent - to make a beautiful building and to provide an example -unification of design/procurement -flow of money -necessary contractual modifications -involvement of students

Analysis/Critique
-Using theories, Pattern Language, 15 Properties, Structure Preserving Transformations
-wall section, cieling and attic space, room shape, cornice, arches, landscape prospect, facade, materials

Comparison to Fountain¼s Abbey Visitor¼s Centre
-intro. info., Cullinan and his influence
-commonalities and distinctions in attitude, process, geometry and cost
and time

× Conclusion
-relevance and issue of paradgm shift
-possibilities for appliation of the theories

× Appendix
-Sala Baganza
-Sturton -by Stow
-Lebanon
-Examples of my own work: carpet design, istanbul, Paris sketch...
-terminology, etymology

Introduction

Christopher Alexander's buildings are not unattractive.

This essay attempts to convey a critical understanding of the work of the architect, builder and theorist Christopher Alexander.
CA was born in 1936 in Vienna, Austria. He grew up in England where he studied chemistry, mathematics and architecture (winning a top scholarship to Cambridge University). After post-graduate studies at M.I.T. and Harvard. In 1964 he joined the faculty of the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. Three years later he established the Center for Environmental Structure, a multi-disciniplinary professional and academic organization which, in the last 30 years, has published an influential series of books, most notably A Pattern Language1 and The Timeless Way of Building2, and built a number of buildings in countries all over the world. In 19?? he was awarded the first ever Award for Research by the American Institute of Architects (?) for his work on A Pattern Language. He is currently finishing The Nature of Order which presents his åunified theory¼ of architecture.3
It is this thoery which is the subject of this essay. Developed over the last 30 years, Alexander¼s work represents a unique and compelling vision for the future of architecture and it is this author¼s belief that these ideas deserve a wide audience.
Alexander¼s work is rooted in a strong sense of compassion and responsibility. Rather then accept the percieved limitations and helplessness of humanity, Alex. has choosen to make an effort to save the world. Some call this naive. (Quote?) But for others this attitude is seen as a courageous one and one which not only gives people some hope by breaking the grip of nihilistic philosophy but also provides a sense of direction that they themselves can follow in order to do some good. This ånaive¼ belief that there is something good to be done is one of the key distinctions that seperates Alex. from most of his contemporaries. However, it is not simply naive goodness that marks Alexander¼s contribution to architectural culture. As Stephen Grabow has illustrated in his exposition of Alex., there are a number of key aspects of Alexanders work which make it notable. These ideas come at a critical point of transformation in the history of man and in architecture as the expression of human beliefs. Grabow argues that Alexander¼s theory represents the first cohesive and decisive step of a major paradigm shift which is dawning in the culture of architecture - and perhaps, in culture generally.4
Because Alexander's theorey is fundamentally holistic in nature, it extends from the culture of architecture and engages virrtually all facets of life. While this essay will attempt to illuminate many of these connections, due to obvious limitations we will focus primarily on the culture of architecture (and the forces that shape built environment), all the while carrying the notion that 'art reflects life' and that architectural culture might be seen as a metaphor or mirror of the state of human culture as a whole (the human experiment).
But just focusing on the culture of architecture it is obvious that we are in the thros? of a deep crisis. A brief survey of the architectural media in the last ten years reveals a deep sense of uncertainty and desperateness. Numerous articles in a variety of periodicals have decried the shallowness of current stylistic debates and indeed of many of the buildings illustrated in those periodicals. The following letter to the editor sums up nicely these sentiments (PA Quote)
Despite the clearheaded voices of a few courageous architects, the level of denial which exists is at times staggering. Motivated largely by a desire to protect their interests, the professionals of architecture have sold themselves to the wealthy at the cost of the welfare of the ordinary citizen. (Twombly) As a result, our public environment - society's common ground - has eroded seriously. This is an age old story but has now reached levels that even the wealthy are beginning to recognize as horrible. (Twombly quote?)
HRH The Prince of Wale¼s was one of the first publc figures to step forward with criticism of contemporary architecture. (Quote) That a figure of such a public nature would challenge the English architectural establishment is certainly notable. The fact that this figure is the future head of one of the most exclusive families in history is amazing and a comment on The Prince of Wales's depth of character. It also points to the seriousness of the problem. Here is an educated man, with a view of history and culture who realizes that even with the protection of wealth and privlige, no one is safe from a deteriorating environment and indeed that we all have a responsibility to one another to work for a common good. (Quote?)
Our current situation has all the characteristics of the dawning of a new paradigm. in architecture. (see Thomas Kuhn/Grabow)
In the epilogue to his survey of Western philosophy Richard Tarnas lays out a vision of possible future directions for phlosophy and in so doing describes much of the core structure of Alexander¼s theory:
"The collective psyche seems to be in the grip of a powerful archtypal dynamic in which the long-alienated modern mind is breaking through, out of the contractions of its birth process, out of what Blake called its "mind-forg'd manacles," to rediscover its intimate relationship with nature and the larger cosmos." 5
As we will see, Alexander's work is not isolated but is in fact coincidental and parallel to many streams not only in architecture but in a variety of other fields, including the sciences...

The essay that follows is divided into two main parts: (1) a survey of the theory and it¼s relevance to contemporary architectural culture and (2) an examination of one of Alex. recent buildings - the West Dean Visitor Centre in West Sussex, England. A number of apendixi follow, each illustrating a project undertaken in the context of Alex. theory and illumnating aspects of it.

Section one: The Theory and its Context

Alexander¼s theory needs to be understood as both a return to and continuation of the lessons of history and as a new step into the future which incorporates new understandings of science, technology,psychology and social/political/economic structure. The following pages attempt to illuminate Alex. work in terms of not only the ancient, pre-industrial, pre-Enlightement cosmology which informs it but also in terms of the post-Industrial, post-Enlightenment, and post-Modern cosmology which are its context and which it seeks to influence.

A New (Old) Idea of Beauty:

Architects strive to create the beautiful. [See encyclopedia for def. of beauty, see Scruton, Roger Aesthetics of Architecture] Commodity, firmness and delight was Vitruvius¼ dictum. In addition to meeting the functional needs of its users and to staying stable and standing, buildings need to appeal in some way to the human need for aesthetic satisfaction. [Jung] But just what that need is and how to fulfill it is not entirely clear in today¼s world. Indeed, as explored in the introduction[?], there is widespread agreement that beauty is increasingly lacking in the built environment - being replaced by the drab and ugly. This must be at least in part due to the lack of a clear conception of what beauty is as well as our proclivity for subjectivity - i.e. there are so many different ideas of what beauty is. [Must go beyond semantics].
The fundamental cornerstone of Alexander¼s theory is his development of an idea of beauty which he at various times refers to as åwholeness¼,¼life¼, or, due to the difficulty of coveying it in words, åthe quality without a name¼. [See phenemonolgy] This conception of beauty is understood as a structure existing throughout reality in varying degrees of intensity. Things and experiences of great power and beauty have more of this quality then those which we recognize as ugly or ådead¼ which have little or none.6
„...life, is not a limited mechanical concept which applies to self-reproducing biological machines. It is a quality which inheres in space itself, and it applies to every brick, every stone, every person, every physical structure of any kind at all, that appears in space. Each thing has its life.¾7
Alex. arrived at this theory, which he labels åThe Phenomenon of Life¼, as the result of his own search for beauty. He began his search while at Cambridge where theories of modern art - Mondrian, VanDoesburg in painting and Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier in architecture - were taught as exemplary examples. Despite his efforts to produce this work, efforts for which he was praised, Alex. never felt satisfied with these models and went so far as to hire his own tutor in aesthetics.
„There were a lot of intellectual games going on there but I was only a boy and felt both inadequate and frustrated because no one was willing to deal with the question of how to make something beautiful. But I read a great deal, including psychology. My concerns were not just with buildings. In fact, it was mainly painting and music. But I was looking for properties rather than skills.8 It was when he continued his education at Harvard and wrote his doctoral dissertation that Alex. first began to recognize the disparity between the modern built environment and those of traditional societies which seemed to have a level of beauty unmatched, generally, in the efforts of the contemporary world. As the subject of his thesis had to do with understanding ågood¼ design and as the forms of these pre-industrial culture were generally regarded as ågood¼ design they were used as illustrations
„[NOTES quote on beauty of tradtional environ].¾
This noting of the lack of ågood¼ design or beauty in the contemporary architectural culture was Alex. first suspicion that something was deeply wrong in modern society. As he continued to study traditional environments it became clear that there existed a perception (by whom) - primarily in the realm of feeling - of a quality of beauty which was a real structure of reality.
„For example: if you imagine a brick wall that has been standing for one hundred and fifty years, and that some of the paving stones around its base have shifted slightly with the shifting of the earth¼s surface, and that there are mosses and grasses growing in between the stones, that the wall itself is essentially a disciplined wall and probably has a rather carefully made capping to it, and the bricks are almost perfectly regular, although not perfectly regular, and you imagine the tree that has grown against the wall, and that there has been a kind of progressive interaction between this tree (which might have grown over a period of fifty years) and the sun warming the wall and bringing the tree to fruit - I think it is quite clear that all of that has a particular feeling to it, if you....just pay attention to the feeling.¾9
It is this feeling - generated by the actual physical structure of material reality - which is recognized as ålife¼,¼beauty¼ or åwholeness¼. As we shall see, in Alexander's conception. this perception, translated internally into feeling, is one which has an objective basis it is generated by pheneomenon 'out there' in a definable, measurable structure. It is possible for people to objectively record, communicate and make agreements and value judgements about this external structure, and, further, about the internal feelings these structures generate. This feeling, in us, is a direct result of the inner state of the creators of this structure and is in marked contrast to the motivations and results of much of modern architecture:
„...too many architects rub their hands cynically, foisting images on the public, creating works which are not friendly to man, or the human spirit - but are friendly mainly to the developers who make the huge profits from these buildings - and which do much to bolster those architects with financially rewarding glossy images in important public magazines.¾10
[Need also visual example of ugliness]
åLife¼ or åwholeness¼ is (qualify) an actual structure to reality which causes a feeling of wholesomeness and belonging. It is the recognition of the total interconnectedness of life - of the Unity of reality. [more on belonging, see Bk 3, pg 31,32]
It is important to note that in CA's theorey these ideas are not limited to the man-made world but are a quality of all of life - reality taken as a whole with no division beween man and nature. While human consciousness does make us unique in nature it does not make us seperate from it. For Alex. the appearance of sepearateness is at the core of the modern human dilemma. When people are able to ask themselves what sorts of environments truly make them comfortable and are able to answer themselves honestly, the answer is remarkably straightforward and more importantly it is largely shared among different people. Now, to get an honest answer to this question we must feel some level of connection - sensory connection - with a given thing, building or place. We must feel something about it. It makes us feel 'good', 'happy', 'sad', 'afraid', etc. But if we feel seperate from reality outside ourselves, our ability to make these sorts of judgements becomes severly impaired. It is still there, to be sure, it is our humanity, but it is numbed and feeble. This is the problem: we imagine (in our own minds) that we are seperate from the universe, and this belief translates into a sort of numbed perception of reality and this in turn translates into - among other things - dead architecture .
(Alex. Quote)
All of this might be relegated to the world of individual subjectivity if it weren't for the high level of agreement among people about what is whole...fact. The word 'whole' is an important one in CA¼s work. åWhole¼ comes from the Old Germanic? hale and is the same root as åholy¼ and of åheal¼. These two words have important implications to Alexander's theories and a brief inquiry of these follows:
What is whole is holy. It is no accident that many of the most beautiful buildings of the world are ones in a strong spiritual context. It seems that the idea of wholeness has a strong spiritual association and indeed it becomes evident that many of the great spiritual traditions of the world have strikingly similar conceptions of the unity of reality. [See Book 4, also Huxley, Aldous The Perrenial Philosophy]
In the Christian tradition...Christianity: "God" as symbol of wholeness, God as creator and manifestsation of the totality, all pwerful, eternal, beautiful, Christ as symbol, Virgin..?, other..? [See CS Lewis]
Islam: One of the traditional models that has influenced Alexander¼s theories is that of the Islamic world, which has developed with a degree of independence from the West and, at least until recent times, has retained much of the traditional culture that generated its beautiful cities, buildings and artifacts over the millennia. Central to this culture is the conception that all acts are performed in the context of the Islamic revelation and all acts, especially those of the sacred arts, are an expression of the Unity of Divine Reality - also known as Allah (God).11, 12 This Unity is, I believe, the same conception of wholeness which Alexander recognises - that of the profound inter-relatedness of the universe: „By refusing to distinguish between the sacred and the profane, by integrating religion into all facets of life and life itself into the rhythms of rites and patterns of values determined by religion, Islam creates a wholeness which is reflected in its architecture.¾13
Furthermore, because the Islamic doctrine forbids icons or images representing Allah, Islamic art (including architecture) has developed other methods to express the metaphysical principle of Unity. Two methods are of concern here: arabesque pattern making and the making of the åvoid¼. The void expresses „...the transient and insubstantial character of all that is other than God and therefore the whole of the created order - of which the material is the most insubstantial of all.¾14 and, simultaneously, „...the truth that God is completely beyond all that the ordinary mind and the senses can conceive as reality...¾15 The arabesque „...through its extension and repetition of forms interlaced with the void, removes from the eye the possibility of fixing itself in one place and from the mind the possibility of becoming imprisoned in any particular solidification and crystallisation of matter...Therefore, man must concentrate his mind within himself and remain collected inwardly, for only through this inward collectedness and contemplation can he gain an awareness of the Divinity.¾16 Alexander has recognised the fundamental primordial power of these elements of the Islamic tradition and has integrated them into his theoretical models and projects. Alexander has a great passion for Turkish carpets and has a significant collection which has been published in his book A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art 17. For Alexander, these carpets - which he sees as „pictures of God¾ - embody much of what he is trying to achieve and convey in architecture - namely, wholeness, life or åthe quality.¼ He considers them important teachers in the evolution of his understanding of what makes something beautiful and specifically in teaching him about the importance of geometry and color which are essentially the ingredients that give the carpets their power.
[Quote - see A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art].
The idea of Void is also an important one in Buddhist thought where it is understood as ånot-knowing¼ - „...a dynamic living voidness, ungraspable and timeless, the true nature of which remains unknown...[It] is sensed, not thought, and when it is apprehended its Void nature is revealed.¾18 . In Zen Buddhism, this understanding attained through sensing is named satorii „...a specific state of awareness in which the mystery and beauty of life in this very moment is perceived wholly and directly and with pure objectivity.¾19 [see also D.T. Suzuki]
These ideas, which developed long before the West¼s åenlightenment¼ and have thrived until recent times, have strong parallels in Alexander¼s methodology which places great importance on the unconscious, intuitive mind as the best guide toward the deep, blinding beauty of Divine Reality. It is his contention that this perception of Unity is an objective one shared by all peoples in all cultures.20 [Hinduism: [see Perennial Phil.]
[Taoism: I ching/Tao de ching/ The Tao of Pooh.]

We now come to a need to understand the second word related to 'whole' - 'heal.' In Alexander's theory the 'whole' of the reality is in increasingly desperate need of repair - of healing. To make something whole is to heal it. To heal something is to make it whole. [CA Quote]
If indeed the modern world is as confused and off course as Alex. suggests, serious endeavors to find alternatives should begin with questions about the root causes of our dilemmas. In Alexander's view the basic problem with society at present is a cosmological one - our confusion lies in how we view reality. It stems from what has become known as a 'dualist' perspective. Our world view seperates mind from matter, spirit from body, man from nature. We are essentially fragmented. [see F. Capra, Tarnas] Our relationship to nature was an integrated one in traditional cultures. Man and the natural world were one and while we may have percieved ourselves as unique in nature we did not see ourselves as seperate. At the core we saw ourselves as part and parcel of God¼s world21 Religion, in the view of the theories discussed here, can be seen as a vehicle that enables humanity to respect and follow the wholeness of reality.22 So in the modern world , with our loss of religion, and spirituality in general, our world picture has been replaced by a fragmented one. This has resulted in a fragmented and distorted view of architeture:
„I have come to believe that architecture is so agonizingly disturbed because we - the architects of our time - are struggling with a conception of the world, a world picture, that essentially makes it impossible to make buildings well...I believe that we have in us a residue of a world-picture which is essentially mechanical in nature: what we might call the mechanistic-rationalist world-picture...even when we consider ourselves moved by spiritual or ecological concerns, still, most of us are still - I believe - to a greater or lesser extent in the grip of some residue of this mechanical world-picture¾23
Alexander traces this mechanistic view back to Descartes in the mid 17th Century. Descartes formulated a way of analyzing the world whereby one pretends that what one is looking at is a machine made up of individual parts which can be analyzed in an isolated, and thus simplified, context. Alexander believes that this way of analyzing reality eventually became how we actually saw reality:
„...after people had used the idea to find out almost everything mechanical about the world from the 17th to the 20th centuries - then, sometime in the 20th-century, people shifted into a new mental state that began treating reality as if this mechanical picture really were the nature of things: as if everything really were a machine.¾24
Alexander¼s account of the origins of the modern cosmology are shared by a number of historians and philosophers, many of whom also share his belief that the Cartesian method of isolation and fragmentation of phenomenon has become a way of actually viewing all of reality.
„Tarnas quote¾
Capra
Whitehead
Toulmin
See foonote 1, Theory of Centers, N.O. Bk 1, pg28.
Despite the fact that there is widespread agreement that The Scientific Revolution marked the major turning point toward modern cosmology, there are those that suggest that the roots of this cosmology actually lie much further back in history. Some believe the problem is essentially one of organized religion - Christianity in particular:
(Perhaps because it was and cotinues to be this culture which ha created and propogated much of our problem)
[see White (Whyte?), Lynn, Jr.]
„The benefits of the ecological view seem patent to me, but equally clear are profound changes which espousal of this view will effect. The Judaeo-Christian creation story must be seen as an allegory; dominion and subjugation must be expunged as the biblical injunction of man¼s relation to nature. In values it is a great advance from åI-it¼ to åI-thou¼, but åwe¼ seems a more appropriate description for ecological relationships.¾25
Still others place the origins of modern dualogy with the ancient Greeks:
[Ash, Maurice]
[Sherrard, Philip The Rape of Man and Nature?]

Scientists too are begining to see the flaws in Cartesian analysis which contributed significantly to the development of the atomic view of matter. This view - which, again, seperates reality into parts - has become suspect in light of developments in relativity and quantum theories which suggest that there is a level of interaction in matter on levels beyond that of atoms or even their constituent parts - electrons and protons- or even their constituent parts: quarks and that this interaction and influence must be understood in terms of a universal flux of events and processes. The noted? scientist David Bohm shares particularly congruent ideas with Alex:
„...I would ...call attention to the general problem of fragmentation of human consciousness...It is proposed...that the widespread and pervasive distinctions between people (race, nation, family, profession, etc.) which are now preventing mankind from working together for the common good, and indeed, even for survival, have one of the key factors of their origin in a kind of thought that treats things as inherently divided, disconnected, and åbroken up¼ into yet smaller constituent parts.¾26
„...it is crucial that man be aware of the activity of his thoughts as such; i.e. as a form of insight, a way of looking, rather than as a åtrue copy of reality as it is¼.¾27 Bohm has developed a theory of wholness very much in keeping with Alex.:
„The new form of insight can perhaps best be called Undivided Wholeness in Flowing Movement ... The proposal for a new general form of insight is that all matter is of this nature: That is, there is a universal flux that canot be defined explicitly but which can be known only implicitly, as indicated by the explicitly definable forms and shapes, some stable and some unstable, that can be abstracted from the universal flux. In this flow, mind and matter are not seperate substances. Rather, they are different aspects of one whole and unbroken movement. In this way, we are able to look on all aspects of existence as not divided from each other, and thus we can bring to an end the fragmentation implicit in the current attitude toward the atomic point of view, which leads us to divide everything from everything in a thourough going way.¾28
What is essential in all of these views is the common understanding that the human estrangement from the world -from Nature - is one of the primary factors to be considered in trying to understand the current human cosmology. In the last 30 years there has been quite bit of focus on this subject and the field of ecology has grown enourmously. There are many striking parallels between the ideas emerging in ecological thinking and Alexander¼s formulation of wholeness.
[Gaia hypothesis.]
[Christopher Day - Lecture and Disc. atPoWIA date? and book.
-sustainability: to pass on a world at least as good as the one we¼ve inherited.
-¼resources¼-?, petroleum - how much longer?
-cradle to grave: where things come from and where they end up.
-denatured materials seperate us from åplace¼
health: threats to immunities, decreasing fertility: pollution, stress;
-tries not to design or to have ideas, but to work with users: start with place, journey in meeting of place, understand sequence, gesturing with the body, soul moods, feeling, in human terms how would place describe itself, how would place like to express itself: spirit of place affects how people are in themselves and how they will act.
Underlying principles:
-every act should have multiple benefits - material, health, social, spiritual
-life (cyclic) generating processes vs. life (linear) destroying processes
-opening oneself up to listening process so that what wants to come into being can - dropping personal baggage.
Making places with heart
Metamorphosis principal:
-manifestations of formative forces (spiritual forces)
-matter bound thinking is dead, unflexible
-living things manifest rythmic fluidity
-Growth of building/project
-models, working cardbd. models
[Pearson]
[Tarnas for ref.]

But how exactky does this cosmological dualism affect us? How is it making our world so ugly? For Alexander the answers to these questions have to do with our limited understanding of order. Although we have an intuitive understanding of the order of nature and we create order ourselves daily, Alex. believes that we don¼t have a very clear or deep understanding of what order really is:
„...we hardly even know what the word „order¾ means. Our present idea of „order¾ is obscure.Although the word is often used informally by artists and biologists and physicists - usually to stand for some deep regularity we cannot quite define - we need a better understanding of the deep geometric reality of order. If we are honest we must admit we hardly even know what kind of phenomenon it is. Yet we build the world, producing its order, day by day. Thus we go on, willy nilly creating order in the world, without knowing what it is, why we are doing it, what its significance might be.¾29
While the search for an understanding of order has been an important one in the sciences and is a crucial element of modern views of the universe and has even been the subject of inquiry of many philosophers [see Foucault, Sennett], an understanding of order has not been the explicit subject of any strictly architectural inquiry [see Joeell, Marques, Thomas Order in Space and Society].
Alex. inquiry into these subjects thus represents an exploration of new territory - an exploration, it should be noted, that goes against the grain of recent philosophic inquiry where the search for an objective and holistic picture of the universe has been mostly abandoned in a sea of subjectivity. As we will see later, this issue of the subjective/objective nature of the order of the universe is an important one. But before explorig this issue it is necessary to understand more fully what Alex. means by „the deep geometric order of reality.¾ Alex. believes that his idea about order have potentially profound implications beyond the realm of architecture:
„It modifies our view of the physical universe and the way it is put together. Thus, what starts out as a way of understanding architecture, ends up, also, as a view which may affect our understanding of physics and biology.. When we understand the art of building from this point of view of order, it not only changes our understanding of the building process, but also has the capacity to change our cosmology....I found that I was able to construct a coherent view of order, and one which deals honestly with the nature of beauty, but only by formulating new and surprising concepts about the nature of space and matter.¾30
This new concept of the nature of space and matter has at its core the concept of ålife¼ or åwholeness¼ as discussed above. All physical reality - all things and processes - exist in a continum of spatial unity which is fundamentally geometric. It is at this point, then, that an understanding of Alexander's conception of how geometry orders reality becomes necessary.

The Style of Life [Style as fundamental props carrying cultural/regional influences.]

Alexander has from the beginning of his career had a particular interest in understanding the organization of space in explicit geometrical terms. This appears in part to be the outgrowth of his early training in mathematics. In his doctoral disertation - exploring the nature of desgn he analized form in geometric terms:
„Every aspect of form, whether piecelike or patternlike, can be understood as a structure of components. Every object is a hierarchy of components, the large ones specifying the pattern of distribution of the smaller ones, the small ones themselves, though at first sight more clearly piecelike, in fact again patterns specifying the arrangement and distribution of still smaller components.¾31
These ideas led led directly to The Timeless Way of Building and A Pattern Language where this mathematically structured understanding of a design process was melded with an evolving appreciation for the unified and integrated nature of reality (wholeness). These books introduce the concepts of patterns and pattern languages. These ideas also are related to Alex. work at the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard University where he was in touch with developing linguistic ideas of the structure of languages. In the world of the built environment, patterns are generated by certain events and processes which call for a specific spatial configuration to support them. Like words which are generated by the need to express. Space and place are created by the interaction of various patterns as sentences are created by various combinations of words. And like a sentence which can convey the same or similar meanings with different words and different combination of words, space and place can be made of similar patterns but have distinct differences in actual configuration due to the uniqueness of context, culture and of the personalities of the creator(s). These combinations of patterns (words) into space (sentences, paragraphs, etc.) and its transformation - through human use and perception - into place (story, meaning, knowledge?) essentially constitute a language. Patterns can be interconnected in infinite possibility to form a rich and complex world. Indeed, it is Alex. hypothesis that traditional cultures used, unconsciously, what amounted to a pattern lanuage when they created the beautiful buildings and towns of history.
„Pattern Language quote¾
The Pattern Language published by Alex. and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure lists some of the more common patterns that humans have used in recent times. It contains 253 patterns which are organized in a hiearchical arrangement and which cover a large range of scales. Patterns are at their core about relationships. While a pattern might describe a particular spatial configuration which can be named - a courtyard for example - APL is arranged such that each pattern is made up of smaller patterns and contributes to larger patterns. No pattern can exist on its own as a åthing¼. A few examples from APL are illustrated in Appendix No. ?.

Hillier, Bill and Hanson, Julienne The social logic of Space Cambridge Univ. Press: Cambridge, England (1984)
space : social life - „Space provides the material preconditions for the patterns of movement, encounter and avoidance which are the material realisation - as well as sometimes the generator - of social relations¾ p.iv
„[Current} paradigm...conceptualizes space as being without social content and society without spatial content.¾?
„The aim of The Social Logic of Space is to begin with architecture, and to outine a new theory and method for the investigation of the society:space relation which takes account of these undelying difficulties. First, it attempts to build a conceptual model within which the relation can be investigted on the basis of social context of spatial patterning and the spatial content of social patterning. Second, it tries to establish, via a new defnition of spatial order as restrictions on a random process, a method of analysis of spatial pattern, with emphasis on the relation between local morphological relations and global patterns. It establishes a fundamental descriptive theory of pattern types and then a method of analysis...it establishes a descriptive thoery of how spatial pattern can, and does, in itself carry social information and content.¾ p.xi
Different from CA in that concern here isn¼t so explicitly activist. No generative thoery and no use for laypeople.
„...the åpattern language of Christopher Alexander, while appearing at first to be close to our notion of fundamental syntactic generators, is in fact quite remote, in intention as well as in its intrinsic nature. For our purposes, Alexander¼s notion of a pattern is too bound to the contigent properties of configurations to be useful for us, while at a more abstract level, his preoccupation with hierarchical forms of spatial arrangement [surprising in view of his earlier attack on hierarchical thinking in åA city is not a Tree¼] would hinder the formation of non-hierarchical abstract notions of spatial relations which, in our view, are essntial to giving a proper account of spatial organisation.¾ p.xi
Above seems overly defensive and insecure. Pattern Lang. attempts to provide generative system. This is much more diificult then just trying to describe existing conditions and might explain necessity of hiearchical organization, which is what the hiearchy does here - organizes the patterns in sequential structure mirroring the process of formation. It does not limit spatial relations to certain fixed patterns but is very flexible. And it certainly has nothing to do with creating power imbalances in space, as above implies. To the contrary it gives people power to shape their own environments.
[ref: Stiny, g. and Gips, N. Algorithmic Aesthetics (1978)]
-artifacts have logic, practical use/social use - function then style, style - meaning, cultural identity, way in which cultural identities are known and perpetuated p.1 -buildings somewhat different then artifacts. yes, they assemble elements into a physical object with a certain form; but they are incomparable in that they also create and order the empty volumes of space resulting from that object into a pattern. This ordering is the purpose, not the physical object itself.
„The fact of space creates the speial relation between function and social meaning in buldings. The ordering of space in buildings is really about the ordering of relations between people...Society enters into the very nature and form of buildings. They are social objects through their very form as objects. architecture is not a åsocial art¼ simply because buildings are important visual symbols for society, but also because, through the ways in which buildings, individually and collectively create and order space, we are able to recognize society: that it exists and has a certain form.¾ p.1-2
-difficult to understand/talk about buildings in these terms - not as objects but as åsystems of social relations.¼
„...the discourse about architecture that is a necessary concomitant of the practice of architecture is afflicted with a kind of permanent disability: it is so difficult to talk about buildings in terms of what they really are socially, that it is eventually easier to talk about appearances and styles and to try to manufacture a socially relevant discourse out of these surface properties. This cannot be expected to succeed as a social discourse because it is not about the fundamental sociology of buildings.¾ p.2?
Above is interesting point about problem of modern architecture.
-In history - ituition reliably reads the social circumstances and reproduces them desirble form - but since WWII - urban pathology - despite explicit social objectives. p.2-3
Social objectives just lip-service?
-question of space has failed to become central in the academic and critical discourses that surround architecture. Usually only about surfaces of space or about individual spaces, not about the åsystem of spatial relations.¼ Result is major disjunction developed between the public pathology of architecture and the discourses internal to architecture and between practical design and experience of buildings and these discourses. This disjunction worsened by persistence of an analytic practice conducted first through images, then through words; and neither images nor words responding to those images can go beyond the immediate and synchronous field of the observer into the asynchronous? complex of relations, understood and experienced more than seen which is social nature of buildings and settlements. p.2-3 ?
The Plan - opaque and diffuse - give little sense of the experientia reality p.3

Alex. has further developed his geometric theories in pursuit of the elusive quality without a name:
„...there is a specific archetypal structure, which I shall call the „one¾ for short, that exists in a thousand forms, but that is always at the bottom of all art and all building which lives and breathes. This „one¾ is a geometric structure, which can be defined in precise mathematical terms. It is an invariant structure, a „presence¾ which manifests itself in anything which lives, or which is „one¾32
Alex. has developed what he calls the Theory of Centers to illuminate this structure. The Theory of Centers posits the existence of åentities¼ which Alex. calls centers. These centers are the parts that make up larger wholes and which ultimately make up the „one¾ or „wholeness" of the universe in its entirety. In turn each center is made up of smaller centers. In result that all of reality is made up of these centers in constant evolving interrelation.
„In using the word center in this way, I am not referring at all to a point center like a center of gravity. I use the word ¾center¾ to identify an organized zone of space -that is to say, a distinct set of points in space, which, because of its organization, because of its internal coherence, and because of its relation to its context, exhibits centeredness - it forms a local zone of relative centeredness with respect to the other parts of space.¾33
In this view it is not only that which we normally recognize as a ¼thing¼ or entity - a book, or a person for example - which are considered centers. A center can be a zone of space - like a room or a garden - which does not have clearly defined physical limitations in the sense that a åthing' might.
„All the basic things in the world, the elements of which the world is made, are centers in this way. None of them can be exactly bounded. They are all entities which have a fuzzy edge, and whose existence lie mainly in the fact that they exist as centers in the portion of the world they inhabit...When I think of them as centers, I become more aware of their relatedness, I see them as focal points in a larger unbroken whole and I see the world as whole.¾34
Centers are not necessarily static entities. Two people dancing creates a center that moves in space and time. Sunlight streaming in through a window creates a center which shifts as the sun moves. In fact, all centers are in flux all the time, it's just that with some the rate of change is slower then we can easily see so the center may seem static. (see How Buildings Learn)
A critical aspect of this theory is that no center exists on its own:
„Each center has a certain life or intensity...The life or intensity of one center gets increased or decreased according to the position and intensity of other nearby centers. Above all, centers become most intense when the centers which they are made of help each other.¾35
(My own example to run parallel - room in Mexico)
While the Theory of Centers provides a general framework for understanding how wholeness is created in space by a specifc arrangement of centers, it does not provide explicit explanation for how it actually creates „a geometric structure, which can be defined in precise mathematical terms.¾ It does not provide an explicit explanation for how centers åhelp¼ each other. This Alex, does with his formulation of Fifteen Fundamental Properties. These are precise geometric properties which Alex. has observed in those entities having the quality of wholness:
„What i did was straightforward and empirical. i simply looked at...examples of things, comparing those which had more life, with those that had less life. Whenever I looked at two examples, I could determine which one had greater „life¾ or greater wholeness, by asking which one of them generated a greater wholeness in me. ..assuming with as much confidence as I felt to be real and reliable, that what i measured here, would also be shared with others...I asked myself this question: Can we find any structural features which tend to be missing? in the ones which have more life, and tend to be missing in the ones which have less life? In other words, can we find any recurrent geometrical structural features whose presence in things correlates with their degree of life?¾36
Key point being that these principles are empirically verifiable. Again, Alex. theory rests on this issue of the objective nature of reality. This issue will be taken up below.
The Fifteen Fundamental Properties are:
1. Levels of scale
2. Strong Centers
3. Boundaries
4. Alternating Repetition
5. Positive Space
6. Good Shape
7. Local Symmetries
8. Deep Interlock and Ambiguity
9. Contrast
10.Gradients
11.Roughness
12. Echoes
13. The Void
14. Simplicity and Inner Calm
15.Not Seperateness

Alex. notes that this is in some ways a rough sketch of the elements of the field of centers and that there could be greater or fewer properties. He also makes the point that not all artifacts and processes have all the properties at once, but that it is the number and strength of these properties which influence the intensity of life in a thing. In other words, beauty lies on a continuum of sorts - things with more of the properties in better configuration are more beautiful than those with less properties in weaker configuration. Also, it is possible that one thing or place which has many properties might be less beautiful than another which has fewer properties but whose properties are more strogly defined.?
It is Alex. contention that these properties are not limited to man-made artifacts and environments but are a feature of all physical reality - including the natural world:
„If we are to use the theory of wholeness - and the concept of life - as the basis of all architecture, it would be nice to know that this wholeness together with the properties which bring center to life, is a necessary feature of material reality, not merely a psychological aspect of things which arises during perception of works of art...the structure of centers i call wholeness, goes deeper than mere cognition, is linked to the functional and practical behaviour of the natural world, not only the architectural world, and is as much at the foundation of physics and biology, as it is of architecture.¾37
In the Nature of Order as well as in other writings Alex. gives examples of these properties - examples from both the man-made and the natural worlds - that is from the material world in general. In Appendix ? I illustrate my own examples of these properties along with a brief explanation of each one. (See N.O. - Book One,15 pr0perties, p.97-99). For each property I show three examples: One or two from man-made examples and one or two examples from Nature. In addition a range of scales will be represented in each example.

The Poetry of Creation:

Poetry as making - root of poetry?
We now come to an aspect of Alex. theories where he clearly distinguishes himself from most other architects and theoriticians. Alex. has, from the beginning been very interested in developing actual generative systems with which to shape architecture. While the preceding theories can be seen as merely tools for analysis, Alex. has also developed these ideas into a methodology which can shape the built environment.
NOTES generative? or only anaylytic?
In keeping with using traditional and natural environments as models, Alex. generaive processes are largely based on and mirror the systems that generated those environments, namely, tradional cultures and natural life generating systems of Nature. These two systems are identical in alex. hypothesis:
„Within this process, every individual act of building is a process in which space gets differentiated. It is not a process of addition, in which preformed parts are combined to create a whole, but a process of unfolding, like the evolution of an embryo, in which the whole precedes the parts, and actually gives birth to them, by splitting.¾38
Alex. suggests a new understanding of order as being fundamentaly rooted in process. All order is in constant flux - part of some distinct but related process - such that a generative system of order can only be understood in terms of process or becoming. Order is in a constant state of becoming. This hypotheis Alex. calls The Principle of Unfolding Wholeness:
„At each moment in the emergence of a system, the system tends (åprefers¼) to go in that direction which intensifies the centers which exist in the wholeness in just such a fashion that the new centers reinforce and intensify the configuration or wholeness which existed before.¾39
The process is also called Structure Preserving Transformations by Alex. He arrived at this idea by studying - as he did for the formation of his geometric principles - the processes of Nature and the processes of traditional cultures. He gives numerous examples of both natural and human processes and shows how what is created evolves in a smooth and unbroken sequence. There are no sudden breaks or jumps. At each stage in the evolution the essential aspects of the form are evident in both the prior and subsequent stages in subtlely different configuration. An example from nature, The Breaking Wave:
„Here we have a catastrophe creating radical new structure. When the wave breaks, the smooth curved top of the wave, becomes a point, and this point then curls over when the wave breaks. Finally, the broken wave turns into many drops which form the splash. Even here, when the the curve turns into a cusp with a sharp point, only one new differntiation is introduced. The centers which existed in the volume of the water, on the air-water interface, and in the air, are, for the most part, maintained. a tiny little bit of new structure is added and this tiny bit of new structure, gradually introduced and extended, becomes more and more extensive in its impact, and finally makes the wave break. In each case, if we look more carefeully, we see that the system of symmetries which constitute the wholeness is extended and maintained, but never violated.¾40
An example from human culture:
„...the same process applies to the making of traditional timber buildings in the land. First the farmer chooses the best place for the building. he steps out the foundation. The building is placed with regard to trees and slope and windbreaks. The foundation is built as an extension of the ground. The walls, then, built as extensions of the mountain or the street. the roof, and its overhang is built as an extensin of the wall...The variety and beauty of detail work which follows n the curved and shaped logs, is lovely...The process is step by step, slow, not perfetly predictable, and above all it allows the maker to adapt each part, each board each log, just as he needs to make it right.¾41
Modern building processes have a distinctly different character then the above examples and that character is directly responsible for the growing ugliness of our built environments. Alex. places the responsibility for these new processes in the intellevtual manipuations that human beings bring to reality:
„Humans guide their actions according to a mental „picture¾ of the situation. Because a person makes things according to such a conceptual picture of what he or she wishes to make, the next step in the unfolding of the world is now governed by that person¼s image. Unfortunately the images which people use to guide their actions may be wholeness-preserving, or they may not be.¾42

In terms of the problems in modern cosmology and possibilities of a emerging paradigm shift these ideas are echoed and supported by Tarnas:
"In its most profound and authentic expression, the intellectual imagination does not merely project its ideas into nature from its isolated brain corner. Rather, from within its own depths the imagination directly contacts the creative process within nature, realizes that process within itself, and brings nature's reality to conscious expression. Hence the imaginal intuition is not a subjective distortion but is the human fulfillment of that reality's essential wholeness, which had been rent asunder by the dualsitic perception. The human imagination is itself part of the world's intrinsic truth; without it the world is in some sense incomplete...On the one hand, the human mind does not just produce concepts that "correspond" to an external reality. Yet on the other hand, neither does it simply "impose" its own order on the world. Rather, the world's truth realizes itself within and through the human mind."43
In alex. view the modern processes of planning and design and construction - seperated and isolated as they are ( at least relative to traditional and natural systems where there wasn¼t and isn¼t a seperation of systems), and therby lacking a sensitivity and flexibility necessary to create real living beauty - cannot help but destroy the existing structure of wholeness that might and does exist in the world. New and catastrophic elements are added suddenly and without the smooth evolution that marks wholeness preserving transformations. An example, the city of Algiers:
„The structure of the town was informal, and highly organized in a loose way ...Then the French government introduced a huge band of high rise apartment buildings, right through the middle of the most beautiful part of the town. This new constructin, supported by Le Corbusier¼s plan, is really like a giant slash through the town. It preserves no structure, destroys hundreds of thousands of living centers. But more than that, the new structures which are created are not related to any aspect of the land, the sea, the town. This is almost an archetype of a structure-destroying transformation. it occurs simply because the French government, working with the then prevailing image of architecture, could persuade themselves that this was the „right¾ thing to do, that it was in the interests of architecture and so on. In other words, the concepts (in this case those of the modern movement) could seem to justify the wild slashing of the previous structure. What is perhaps more mild, and more accurate, is to say that this concept confused the situation sufficiently so that under the mental spell of this concept, people in Algiers - administrators, government officials, and so on - became confused about the wholeness which was really there, and could no longer see it. failing to see it, then of course they did not act according to it. Their ability to make structure-preserving transformations disappeared.¾44

For Alex. this sort of situation is a common symptom of what is generally known as Modern design.
(See Tom Wolfe from Our House to Bauhaus, Blake , other critiques of Modernism?)

It becomes necessary to consider what exactly is meant by the term Modern - at least in the context of this essay - and to see how Alex. relates to this definition of Modern design. I will consider two types of modern: Modern and Modernist...
Toulmin, Stephen Cosmopolis University of Chicago Press: Chicago (1990)
-classical greek idea of two kinds of order,
Cosmo: order of nature
Polis: order of society
Backing into the Millenium
-not looking seriuosly into the future
-not taking stock - w/ past as referene
-historical dscontinuity
-belief that Modernity - as a general belief- will carry us into the future is dying
-left with great uncertainty and anxiety
-must take stock and fashion a new course
-first must understand how we got where we are
-understanding modernity in historical context, philosopical, sciantific , social and historical assumptios on which it rested and subsequent evolution to presenrt day
Modernity
-beyond the idea of newness, ie novelty
when? formation of the modern nation-state: independent, soveriegn organized around a particular nation w/ own language/culture with government expressing national intrests, before 1550: feudal fealty
or
rise of Industry as beg of mod.: Industrial revolution (steam engine 1750)
Shift in cosmological view: Mod. science and tech./philosohy
Galileo in astronomy, physics and mechanics also Kepler and Newton
Descartes in logic and epistemology also Locke and Leibniz --seeking „certainty¾ in intellectual term, conception of „rationality¾ -set superstition and tradition and mythology aside - free of local prejudice and transient fashion
In understanding Modernity most focus on merits. some on damage but question of timing is rarly asked - what significant events happened during this period to allow/ fuel shift in cosmopolis
We have¾ recieved view¾ which - typically Modern- doesn¼t look at „context¾ of genisis of Mod.
_major import.: split within Christin.
-not peaceful situation that engendered time to reflect but violent, unstable period
-Prot? Cath. conflict: Thirty Year¼s War1618-1648
Also need to look at 16th C. thikers who had emanipatory ideas, 17thC. changes begin to look more like counterrev.
_religiuos constraints increase in Late16C./17thC. esp after council of trent
- no questioning of doctrine very dogmatic - both sides CAth/prots.
In Renaisance lay eeds of moderniyt: Michel de Montaigne -Shakespear ,
humanists , Erasmus see p.31
see also Toulmin The Archtecture of Matter
Modernist: critical, honesty and Integrity, shedding class distinctions, extravagent pretension, ooking for direct, unselfconscious
-early modernists. Corbusier, Bauhaus
Ca shares Modernist belief that Arch. can change the world.
Venturi, Robert Complexity and Contradiction
-rhetoric, ornament doesn¼t have a role beyond rheotric
Baham, Reynar Theory and Design in the First Machne Age (1967)
Thompson, William Irwin At The Edge of History (1971)
Zevi?, Bruno The Modern Language of Architecture
Perez-Gomez, Alberto Architecture and the Crisis...
Rykwirt The First Moderns
Blake, Peter God¼s Own junkyard and Form follows Fiasco
Wolfe, Tom From Our House to Bauhaus
Matthews paper - Foucault
Tarnas
Alex. is unrepentently critical of Modernist design and of the over-intellectualized images and concepts which charecterize its motivations:
„So, the fact that the much-healded and apparently great architecture of the early 20th century - Mies, Le Corbusier, Aalto, etc - is really ego-centric form in disguise comes about precisely because of the intentional nature of their thought. It is this intentional nature - the presence of idea and image, which distorts the process, makes it not common sense, makes it contrived, ornery. It is ornery because it runs at cross purposes with the structure that exists...Thus, of necessity, in the architecture of the late 20th century, the architect lives in a world of fake, teaches by fake, works by fake, and transmits the fake as an essential part of what he does.¾45

As an alternative to Modern planning, design and construction processes, Alex. has developed what he calls The Fundamental Process:
„1. At every step of the process - whether conceiving, designing, making, maintaining, or repairing - we must always be concerned with the whole within which we are making anything. We look at this wholeness, absorb it, try to feel its deep structure.
2. We ask which kind of thing we can do next that will do the most to give this wholeness the most positive increase of life.
3. As we ask this question, we necessarily direct ourselves to centers, the units of energy within the whole, and ask which one center could be created (or extended or intensified or even pruned) that will most increase thee life of the whole.
4. As we work to enhance this new living center, we do it in such a way as to create or intensify (by the same action) the life of some larger center.
5. Simultaneously we alo make at least one center of the same size (next to the one we are concentrating on), and one or more smaller centers - increasing their life too.
6. We check to see if what we have done has truly increased the life and feeling of the whole. If the feeling has not been deepened by the step we have just taken, we wipe it out. Otherwise we go on.
7. We then repeat the entire process, starting at step 1 again, with the newly modified whole.
8. We stop altogether when there is no further step we can take that intensifies the feeling of the whole.¾46

Feeling, Value and the Self

Much of alexander's theory rests on ideas related to the relm of intuition and feeling. He sees feeling as the most important guide:
„The unfolding process can therefore be steered, kept on course towards the authentic whole, when the builder uses feeling as the origin of his insight, as the guiding light at the end of the tunnel by which he steers. I am suggesting that if the builder, at each moment of the process, takes that step which contributes most to feeling, which has the most profound feeling, then this is tantamount - equivalent - to the natural process in which the individual forward-moving action is governed by the whole.¾47
Feeling as realm of the feminine. Contrary to patriarchal culture. Nec. antidote.
(See tarnas, Utne Reader)
„This feeling is a sense of the wholeness. It is an awareness of the existing wholeness which takes in what is, and extends it to cover what is missing, what might be, what continuation or development of that wholeness will do most to heal the world, which complements what is, and which will be the quality of life, in that place, or in that thing, after it is finished. This is the essential perception which always precedes a definite act of making. We have a clear vision of the substance, as a feeling, in advance of actually trying to find its form, or shaping it.¾48
Love of Life see bk. 2, p.99-100.
What this is all about, really, is Love. Not romanttic „I love Lucy¾ type of love. Not erotic love, although that¼s part of it....I mean the Love of Compassion. (relate to Jesus, Biddha) The love that you feel deep in your heart for all of life - for your family and neighbors (should do) and for strangers especially - that comes from realizing what a pickle humanity is in. How vulnerable we all are - how humble we feel inn the face of Creation and the Miracle of Life.

Shared feelings. From feeling to value? Feelings tell us about wholeness (not only feelings but feelings first). Wholeness becomes valuable, important? What is important? What do our feelings tell us about what is important?: „During the 20th century we have been used to understanding value as a subjective, culturally influenced phenomenon, which depends on private individual judgment. However, within the framework of wholeness, we may begin to conceive of value as an objective phenomonon which arises inevitably from the existence of the wholeness as a strucure. Distinctions of value - the distinction between one thing which is more valuable, and another which is less valuable - comes directly from the wholeness.¾49
Objectivity/ subjectivity. roots of modern dilemma. Possible way out. see Tarnas. The Self as beyond the indiv. ego, connection with all of life.
„The condition which arises when something springs to life is, somehow, connected with our own self...it reminds us of our own eternal soul - the original mind...It is a deep coherence which we are able to identify most accurately by feeling it, by recognizing its relationship to our own existence and our own wholeness. The distress of architecture in our time, is caused because there has been, at root, a breakdown of judgement. People have learned a variety of starnge forms of judgment, which emphasize the sanctity of individual opinion. These forms of judgment fail to show people how their opinions are manipulated and formed artificially, and certainly fail to liberate people to make contact with their own deep liking - which comes from the heart. Thus people also never find out that at the rrot of all liking - what I call true liking - in which a person can examine himself, or herself, and find out what thigs make a deep connection with their inner spirit.¾50
(Jung)
shared values and judgement
Mirror of the Self test
Degrees of wholeness - objective nature of wholeness.
humanist values.
Personal transformation nec. to be aware of wholeness. To refine sensitivity.

× West Dean Visitor¼s Centre

Introduction, background history:
West Dean Visitor Centre is a building which Alexander and his colleauges built between 199_ and 199_ for the Edward James Foundation. This Foundation is located at West Dean, just north of Chichester in West Sussex, England and manages a large estate including extensive gardens, a agricultural ?, and a College of Art. Because The Edward James Foundation shares certain values with Alexander involving the sensitivity to local context and tradition, belief in craft and creativity, etc. this was a natural pairing of client and Architext. The Center for Environmental Structure was engaged as Architects with ALex. as chief architect and John Hewitt as Project Manager. In addition students from the Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture and from Portsmouth University were involved in the design and construction of the building.

Uniqueness of approach/process:
Because of the synchronicity of ideals shared by CES and The Edward James Founda., The West Dean Visitor Centre was a unique opportunity for Alex. to put his radical theories into practice. Alex. has produced larger projects, most notably the Eishin Campus in Japan, but he feels this has been his most successful project in terms of process: that is, all aspects of the process were well coordinated and cooperated to produce a work of art.
These shared ideals were the essential cornerstone of the process. Too many public buildings in the modern era have had compromised aspirations as a guiding force. The desire by the client, the architect and the builder to make a financial profit is often a driving force in our capitilist society. For obvious reasons this can seriously comprimse the quality of a building in both aesthetic and functional terms. In the case of West Dean profit was not an overiding motivation for any of the parties involved. In fact almost all parties involved donated some amount of time or money to the project toward the "...creation of a work of beauty and permanent value..."51 CES donated Alexander's design services estimated in the initial contract at L19,200 (although they also charged 16.5% fee for "traditional professional services" which seems higher then the typical fee?); John Hewitt lowered his fee, donating an estimated L11,000; The Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture covered Alexander's travel and living expenses while working on the project. These probably amounted to a hefty sum as Alex. coordinated the project from California and travels first class. In addition, the Institute provided student labour and tutor input "...in order to extend the quality of the work beyond what might be attained by a purely commercial fee basis..."52; The client provided some construction labour from its staff, helped students and tutors from the Institute with accomodation on site. All of these donations, while ultimately perhaps not entirely realized, reveal an attitude to the project clearly beyond convention. To this author's mind they speak of a moral intent: to not only build a functional and perhaps attractive building (even this humble objective is a rare achievement in recent history) but to actually produce something profound - a work of art with a life expectancy significantly longer then most modern buildings. For Alexander this attitude is a given. He has oriented his entire career toward the goal of making every building he produces something meaningful beyond the superficiality of style. And because he sees it as his responsibility to influence a larger audience then those immediate users of a building, each building and the process that created it is seen as an example: an example of a different way of concieving and procuring the built environment.

There a number of key aspects to Alexander's process that are significant departures from convential building convention. The following points were of major influence to the project and were written into the final contract: First, Alexander believes in the necessity of unifying the design and construction into one flowing process. He believes that in order to eliminate the disjointed communication and antagination which is endemic to modern construction processes it is necessary to adopt a 'master-builder' model where one entity - in this case CES - is responsible for both the creative siting and shaping of the building - its design - and for its material manifestation - its construction. The contract simply states that CES is to be employed "...acting as Management Contractor and General Contractor of record, for the purpose of building the Visitor's Centre at West Dean..."53 While many large construction companies are beginning to employ design/build arrangements and there is also a growing grassroots design/build movement, the situation at West Dean was unique in that a high-profile architect (award-winning and with multiple publishings) and a wealthy client would normally employ more conventional methods. This is overwhelmingly the case. In addition, when the moral intent of the project is considered..?
One of the primary motivations for the unification of design and construction is to allow for the immediate and correct changes to be made as the project evolves:
"A further and essential part of the CES philosophy is that there are no precisely defined plans and specifications and that construction is a continuum of design. CES has the responsibility to interpret the emerging building and will have authority to make decisions and changes that impact on lesser aspects of design as it determines necessary, without written confirmation from the Employer, as long as these decisions do not increase the base price of the Project or affect major aspects of design."54
By carefully defining the 'major' and 'lesser' aspects of design and by providing cost safeguards for the client, Alex. is able to take a much greater control of the building then is typically given to either a sole architect or contractor. Initial plans are non binding aside from the siting of the building and it's volumetric envelope, 'visitor flow' and general room configuration which are considered 'major aspects' of design. All other aspects of design are defined in the contract as 'lesser' and are expected to evolve as the building ' emerges'.
"...for example as the building and rooms begin to take shape, doorway sizes and locations, window sizes and locations, wall locations and wall lengths, cabinets, finishes, may have to be altered. These decisions can only be made on site, during construction, as the building is taking shape."55
Indeed, this is how the building was made. It was grown. From initial stake-outs of the site - before any drawings were made - to full scale mock-ups of wall sections, cieling panels, even tables and chairs, a rigorous process of integrated design and making was followed. Again, this particular process was employed in order that the 'emerging whole' could be percieved and appropriately responded to and so that the craftspeople involved could have the freedom to influence the building by adding their own touches as they felt appropriate. Evidence of this can be seen in the idiosycratic nature of some of the flint/brick wall designs and in carved details on the furnishings. (See illustrations)
The ability of the craftsman to contricute directly in a craetive manner was explictily written into contracts.
"...the Craftsman will spend some time over and beyond the call of duty, to make a few very nice details. The Craftsman will choose the time, location and nature of these details ..."56
In giving craftsmen this amount of freedom, Alexander is again going against the trend of most construction trades in contemporary building which limit and almost totally negate any creativity on the part of workers. All work to be done is prescribed in drawings done away from the site well before what alex, would consider a full picture of what might be necessary is available. Alex. has realized one of John Ruskins dictum's: that the craftsman engages his work on a creative level which is spiritually nourishing. The craftsman not only experiences a sense of accomplishment and contribution but also experiences some level of self-acualization through the risky act of creative engagement with his work. He must reach out and connect with reality in a searching way - to be guided by his feeelings and experience. These ideas were also set out in the contracts for each craftsman:
"CRAFTSMAN'S GOAL. The ultimate purpose of this agreement is to secure the Craftsman's work under conditions which make the Craftsman's work a work of beauty and pride and self-respect, and in which the Craftsman leaves behind work he is proud of, and can cherish in the future. It is specifically understood that the Craftsman's goal is not only to be paid for his work, but that the beauty and satisfaction of the work itself provide part of the craftsman's reward. To this end, the Craftsman shall be treated as an artist who has some power and control over work as necessary to allow the creation of a beautiful and fitting thing within limits accepted by CES"57
Another key distinction in the West Dean process involved the flow of monies. Alexander feels that in order to produce the best possible building there are two issues with regard to monies which must be dealt with: the first regarding the elimination of the profit motive and second with the smooth and effiecient flow of monies. At West Dean these issues were stated explicitily in the contract:
"...this approach is designed to eliminate the profit motive of the general contractor which takes value, meaning and quality away from the building. By setting a fee for the management of the Project and maintaining open records of all transactions, the typical overbidding by the contractor to protect against unforeseen overruns, risks and provide markups on materials and subcontracted work are eliminated. In more typical. In more typical Contractor-Employer arrangements any unused overbid money becomes windfall and additional profit for the contractor and does not benefit the building or the Employer. In the model laid out in this contract all available money is spent for the betterment of the building."58
For Alexander the elimination of profit is very important to the making of profound works. He feels that a spiritual motive needs to be central as we have noted it has been in many of the great works of history. In an interview with Joel Garreau Alexander states in straighforward terms his feelings about the profit motive:
"Garreau: I have a very healthy regard for greed as a social motivator. Alex.: Right. I think that's where you and I differ. I believe that motive will not produce what you are looking for [wholeness]...I suspect its fundamentally incompatible... But one extreme version is: The only way to produce life is - to be religiously inspired. That's definitely what happened in the Middle Ages for sure. It's what happened in Buddhist constructions in Japan and so on and so forth. We know that. People where trying to make something as a gift to God. One possibility is you can't get life unless that's the only thing your trying to do"59
At West Dean, as in other projects, Alex. felt it necessary for the contract to explicitly eliminate issues which could arise as conflicting motivations. By guaranting and protecting the client through the ellimination of the profit motive for himself and CES, Alexander was able to take greater control of the monies as a tool for properly managing the project and allowing more efficient and therefore more sensitive adaptations necessary as the building unfolds: "This method also provides the framework for efficiently dealing with changes which are a crucial and fundamental part of making a good building. In typical Employer-Contractor conditions of contract lead to an exorbitant surcharge disproportionate to the direct costs of the changes in addition, and prolongation and disruption costs all of which effectively provides the contractor a windfall profit. Even changes which reduce costs are typically charged as extras. In the method laid out here, design changes are not subject to additional surcharges, and are charged at their actual costs within the agreed base price for the project, except for Employer additions..."60
Monies dedicated for the construction of th building were turned over to CES in a staggered manner at which point the CES assumed responsibility for the management of the monies. As noted design/build methodologies, while not typical, are not unusual in contemporary building practices. What is unusual is the combination of this methodology and the elimination of the profit motive. These two distinctions create an attitude and process which has a much higher chance of producing a profound work of art. Suddenly you have an individual or group with a high degree of control but but who's primary motive cannot be the acquisition of wealth.
[Mary Rose for more on contracts?]
Alexander related to this author that he feels West Dean represents his most succesful building in terms of the process. A relatively small building with a highly sympathetic client contributed greatly to this success. This is not to say that it was not a difficult project and indeed correspondence between the parties involved show that there was a continuous struggle over issues of control and monies and timelines. but in the end, both Alex. and the edward james Found. were more than satisfied by the results. In finacial terms, The edward jame's foundation was happy to recieve L12,252.16 in unused monies. The building cost L857 per sqaure meter.61
Another factor which contributed significantly was the involvement of students in the design and construction of the building. Initially, students from The Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture were involved. This was a period in the Institute's history which could be called the 'heroic years' when many of the Prince's initial ideals for the Institute were being tested in practice. Alexander was a member of the Institute'e founding academic board and a Trustee? and had influenced the development of the Institute's hands-on craft and fine art orientation. For Alexander and for the Institute West Dean represented a chance to explore an alternative method of teaching architecture: teaching method based on actual 'making.' This approach is at direct odds with the established orthodoxy of most schools of architecture where theoretical understanding of architecture is the rule. This is an abstract way of learning where drawings and words attmpt to replace the actual engagement with materials and with the process of concieving and building a meaningful building. The involvement of Institute students at west dean was seen as a way of approaching architecture from the opposite direction in sense, from the material stuff which is the building, from the sensitive response to existing structure, through the 'birthing' process, the evolution and gradual transformation of space and materials and finally toe the careful refinement of details - all the while engaging and learning about materials and about the various processes undertaken to shape these materials and how these processes play such a fundamnetal role in shaping the design. This sort of understanding, and the level of beauty which results from following this understanding, is virtually impossible following contemporary building practices, as we have already discussed. it follows easily then that the education of architects must engender this sort of engagemnent of building processes and materials. Theoretical knowledge falls significantly short of providing this sort of engagement. reality becomes what you want it to become and is bent to serve whatever conceptual baggage one brings to the design table. In other words, the conception of the building proceeds the actual needs of building. Perhaps not the progarm, which can be defined somewhat before design begins or as design evolves, but how materials and processes and the very subtle specifics of a site influence the design can only be guestimatted, aproximated when one is not actually immersed in these issues by thurowly engaging them.?
[need Ca quote on education -grabow?]
Graduate students at the Institute were involved in early design phases building a 1/16th inch topo model and checking the Alex. initial sketches in model form. larger scale models in paper were made to begin investigating the shape of interior spaces and details.
"As soon as we have a developed physical picture of the building as a whole, I will ask the ten of you, individually, to take responsibility for various detailed aspects. I will do this by trying to find out what interests and experience each of you has, and then trying to marry this with the tasks which are in hand, so there is a good fit between your ability/interest and your task."62
Each student was then assigned a specific aspect of the building to develop. These included 'windows/doors, roof tiles, floor tiles/timber floor, ceiling, brickwork flint, ring beam, furniture, ticket, interior panels. students began work on these details but unfortunaetly politics interferred and most of the students were unable to follow through with their work, instead being redirected to other studies as the Institute shifted its focus. some of the student's work however did find its way into the building such as the plaster ceiling details made by Susan ?. The goal of having the students continue their involvment during the actual construction of the building was not realized despite detailed schedules made up by CES. A list of 'Student tasks' was prepared:
"Form and pour all concrete bars in brickwork, Plaster panels at wainscot level, Tilework and frieze in lobby, Lay tile floor with fleurs-de-lys tile, Herringbone panels in brickwork, Brick cornice and dentils, Lay and form arched lintels, Wood mortising in heavy timber connections in the roof frame, Making rosettes for plaster ceiling, Lay exterior garden walls, with concrete cap, Cast ornaments for garden walls, Make garden gate for entrance, Design and fabricate exterior lights, Lay roof tile with concentration on old Sussex tile work, Find field flints and lay up field flint portions of wall, Design and fabricate glass exhibition cases, Mockup cardboard and plywood furniture for size and design, Cast and lay terrace paving on south side of building, Build interior dining room wall with arches and alcoves, prepare and mill timber from West Dean estate, Apprentice to plaster ceiling manufacturer, Manufacture roof trusses in heavy timber, Apprentice to window manufacturer, with special emphasis on curved glazing bar design and execution, Cast, grind and lay special design terrazzo paving stones, Design and develop ceiling of lobby with new ornamental detail, Main doors; patio doors; ticket doors, Ticket counter, Serving counter, Design, milling, fabrication and laying wood floors: probably using estate elm."63
This list gives a sense of not only the commitment to the education of students that Alexander and CES intended but also illustrates the level of engagement that the students would have been exposed to. While many of the tasks would have involved a certain amount of starighforward labour, there is a clear desire to engage the students in creative work that would noticeably enhance the character of the building. This would be a reciprocal relationship where the students would gain valuable experience in construction and the building would gain in quality. Due to the elimination of profit for the builder/architect there was no financial motivation on Alexander's part to involve students - simply his desire to make a nice building and continue his role as an educator. This relationship has much in common with traditional master/apprentice models from traditional cultures.
Unfortunaetly, the Institute began moving in a more academic and less projects oriented direction and the graduate students were unable to continue their involvement. Two students from Portsmouth University were able to step in a apprentice during the construction of the building.
Another unique feature in the approach taken to West dean by Ces had to do the the use of unusual and innovative building materials. Since early in his career Alexander has been interested in and experimented with a variety of alternative building materials and techniques. Concrete in particular has emerged as a favorite building material. Early experiments in the 1970's involved the development of lightweight concrete shell structures - most fully realized on the Mexicali project.64 In his analysis of Alexander's work grabow summarizes how this interest in concrete developed as the outgrowth of a search
"for a construction process which lends itself to user-design, hence uniqueness and variety (i.e. non-modularized and non-prefabricated); which is based on long-term, incremental, piecemeal growth (i.e. not instananeous or large-scale); which is dynamic, more like sculpture, and permits gradual stiffening and forming; which permits the engineering to be optimized and is therefore efficient and relatively inexpensive; and finally, which maintains continuity between design and construction (in fact, which permits them to occur as a single activity)."65
At West Dean concrete was used in both block and poured in place applications. And was used as both a structural element and as an aesthetic device on the facade. This latter application caused a bit of controversy because this building was concieved not only by Alexander and The Edward James Foundation but also by local regulatory bodies as fitting harmoniously into its sensitive context - which is made largely of traditional buildings of brick and flint - a locally native stone?. How this might best be achieved however was a point of contention which required Alexander to explain his intentions.
"The use of concrete banding...in the brick and flint walls of the exterior is carefully thought out, and was arrived at by a process of experiment and reasoning where colour, texture and light were held pramount. Originally, when we began the first experiments of brick walls, carried out on the site, to determine mortar colour, brick size, brick colour, and the relation to flint, I noticed that the first brick walls, though beginning to be beautiful, had a quality which seemed too "pink" for the site. This was not surprising, since the original buildings on the site are much greyer -- many of them being entirely made of flint, and napped flint at that. Flint however, as a major structural material, seemed too archaic, too expensive, and unrealistic, except as a material used in minor panels and bands. I asked myself therefore, what ways might be open for introducing a greater proportion of grey, to soften the walls, and make them more suitable to the landscape...I began to wonder if a use of small pieces of roughly shuttered concrete work, might be combined with the brick...In doing this, I was following the medieval tradition, in which brick, flint, tile, clunch, limestone were used in a much rougher way than we would consider today..."66
Concrete was also used as an innovative structural element in the form of a 'ring beam' which circumscribed the perimeter of the main building mass and acteing as a rigid 'band' allowing greater flexibility in interior wall divisions by acting against lateral forces and transferring these forces to exterior walls...?

-best review by the users of the building who seem to genuily love it in way beyond simple respect or satisfaction but seems to inspire a sense of marvel...

Because Alexander feels that West Dean represents his most successful building to date it may prove fruitful to analise the building in his own terms (20 years prior - showing longevity and commitment...) before doing so by more conventional methods (being?). As the pattern langauge is one of ALexander's most notable contributions to architectural culture the analysis of west Dean from a perspective of which patterns are included and which might be considered missing seems appropriate.67
Because of the small scale of this project Alexander and CES did not have much influence on many of the larger scale issues of which the early patterns of A Pattern Langauge are concerned. However, it might be assumed that it was necessary for many of these patterns to be inherent in the project in order for Alexander to feel that he could introduce smaller patterns to any success. Those larger scale patterns which might be considered to to be 'pre-existing' but necessary on this project include:
2 The Distrubution of Towns
4 Agricultural Valleys
5 Lace of Country Streets
6 Country Towns
7 The Countryside
18 Network of Learning
19 Four-story Limit
25 Access to Water
53 Main Gateways
60 Accessible Green
64 Pools and Streams
83 Master and Apprentices
The preceding patterns have largely to do with regional and town planning but have an inherent influence on the political, social and economic forces that shape the production of buildings.
The following patterns are more about individual buildings and more under the influence of Alexander and CES at West Dean:
"95 Building Complex: A building cannot be a human building unless it is a complex of still smaller buildings or smaller parts which manifest its own internal social facts...Therefore: Never build large monolithic buildings. Whenever possible translate your building program into a building complex, whose parts manifest the actual social facts of the situation...Even a small building...can be concieved as a "building complex" - perhaps part of it is higher than the rest with wings and an adjoining cottage."68
and
99 Main Building: A complex of buildings with no center is like a man without a head...Therefore: For any collections of buildings, decide which building in the group houses the most essential function - which building is the soul of the group, as a human institution. Then form this building as the main building, with a central position, higher roof. Even if the building complex is so dense that it is a single building, build the main part of it higher and more prominent than the rest, so that the eye goes immediately to the part which is the most important."69
and
"116 Cascade of Roofs. Few buildings will be structurally and socially intact, unless the floors step down toward the ends of the wings, and unless the roof, accordingly, forms a cascade...Therefore: Visualize the whole building, or building complex, as a system of roofs. Place the largest, highest, and widest roofs over those parts of the building which are most significant; when you come to lay the roofs out in detail, you will be able to make all lesser roofs cascade off these larger roofs and form a stable self-buttressing system, which is congruent with the hierarchy of social spaces underneath the roofs."70
The above patterns describes a fundamental aspect of the form of West Dean Visitor Centre with its larger main volumn and massive roof corresponding to the main foyer and dining room - the main social spaces of the building Lower shed roofed wings to either side hold the kitchen and gift shop, while an even lower roofed wing holds the bathrooms. The entry doors as well are part of a lower bay projecting from the main volume.
"96 Number of Stories: Rule 1: Set a four-story height limit on the site...Rule 2: For any given site, do not let the ground area covered by buildings exceed 50 per cent of the site...Rule 3: Do not let the height of your building(s) vary too much from the predominant height of surrounding buildings."71
West Dean certainly conforms to these three rules. There does arise the question of why the building doesn't have an occupiable attic floor - now a large empty space - which might have reduced some of the building footprint.
"97 Shielded Parking. Large parking structures full of cars are inhuman and dead buildings - no one wants to see them or walk by them. At the same time, if you are driving, the entrance to a parking structure is essentially the main entrance to the building - and needs to be visible...Therefore: Put all large parking lots, or parking garages, behind some kind of natural wall, so that the cars and parking structure cannot be seen from outside. ...Make the entrance to the parking lot a natural gateway to the building which it serves, and place it so that you can easily see the main entrance to the building from the entrance to the parking."72
and
103 Small Parking Lots. Vast parking lots wreck the land for the people. Make parking lots small, serving no more than five to seven cars, each lot surrounded by garden walls, hedges, fences, slopes, and trees, so that from outside the cars are almost invisible. Space these small lots so that they are at least 100 feet apart."73
While the parking lot for the Visitor Centre is only a ground level arrangement it seems to violate parts of the above rules by being too large and not being enclosed and seperated. In fact, due to its central location, it has a direct visual dialogue with the entry of the building: good for ease of use, but arguably ugly. This autor's estimate is that the lot was designed to hold 40-50 cars. To the designer's credit however, a soft ground covering of turf is used instead of paving and when plantings mature it's intrusian into the entry area of the building should be minimized. It is possible to imagine even more assertive methods of seperation - such as those mentioned in the above patterns - being introduced over time to good effect.
98 Circulation Realms?
"104 Site Repair. Buildings must always be built on those parts of the land which are in the worst condintion, not the best...Therefore: On no account place buildings in the places which are most beautiful. In fact, do the opposite. Consider the site and its buildings as a single living eco-system. leave those areas that are the most precious, beautiful, comfortable, and healthy as they are, and build new structures in those parts of the site which are least pleasant now."74
The West Dean Visitor's Centre sits in a corner of the estate between numerous walls of different orientations (that was occupied by derilect structures?) On the edge of the built-up portion of the estate and overlooking the meadows, this seems an ideal placement of the building - a placement that Alexander may have influenced and probably had little objection to. Alan Powers reports "The building runs askew to the lines of the surrounding garden walls but completes its corner with great skill."75
"105 South Facing Outdoors. People use open space if it sunny, and do not use it if it isn't. in all but desert climates. Always place buildings to the north of the outdoor spaces that go with them, and keep the outdoor spaces to the south. Never leave a deep band of shade between the building and the sunny part of the outdoors."76
and
"161 Sunny Place. The area immediately outside the building, to the south - that angle between its walls and the earth where the sun falls - must be developed and made into a place which lets people bask in it...Therefore: Inside a south-facing court, or garden, or yard, find the spot between the building and the outdoors which gets the best sun. Develop this spot as a special sunny place - make it the important outdoor room, a place to work in the sun, or a place for a swing and some special plants, a place to sunbathe. Be very careful indeed to place the sunny place in a position where it is sheltered from the wind. A steady wind will prevent you from using the most beautiful place."77
and
163 Outdoor Room?
West Dean obeys this most fundamental of patterns with a generous south facing patio and small lawn area.
"106 Positive Outdoor Space. Outdoor spaces which are merely "left over" between buildings will. in general, not be used...Therefore: Make all the outdoor spaces which surround and lie between your building positive. Give each some degree of enclosure; surround each space with wings of buildings, trees, hedges, fences, arcades, and trellised walks, until it becomes an entity with a positive quality and does not spill out indefinitely around corners."
andv "160 Building Edge. A building is most often thought of as something which turns inward - toward its rooms. People do not often think of a building as something which must also be oriented toward the outside...Therefore: Make sure that you treat the edge of the building as a "thing," a "place," a zone with volume to it, not a line or interface which has no thickness. Crenelate the edge of buildings with places that invite people to stop. Make places that have depth and a covering, places to sit, lean, and walk, especially at those points along the perimeter which look onto interesting outdoor life."78
and
"162 North Face. Look at the north sides of the buildings you know. Almost everywhere you will find that these are the spots which are dead and dank, gloomy and useless. Yet there are hundreds of acres in a town on the north sides of buildings; and it is inevitable that there must always be land in this position, wherever there are buildings...Therefore: Make the north face of the building a cascade which slopes down to the ground, so that the sun which normally casts a long shadow to the north strikes the ground immediately beside the building."79
This pattern is fulfilled very fully by the careful placement of the building amid existing walls, trees and the River Lavant. The space to the south-west holds the patio and lawn - defined by existing and new walls, existing, mature trees, new hedges and new paths. To the south-east a plant display area is defined by a large existing tree and the River Lavant. To the north-east, the entry area is defined by tall existing walls to the west, new, lower walls and new plantings and most strongly by the bathroom wing which runs almost perpindicular to the main form of the building, thereby playing a strong role in defining the entry area..[illustration] To the north-west, service areas are enclosed in small,triangular shaped areas where the building meets tall existing walls at askewed angles - very strongly defined and appropriate for service areas. west Dean fails utterly to fulfill this pattern. A great deal of effort went into the articulation of the facade in two-dimensions but very little in terms of three dimensions. The two places where one might have expected such articulation at the entry and at the patio fail to do so. The entry, as noted previously, has a minimal, one foot inset of the doors - hardly a place for people or even an individual to gather. The patio is backed by a virtually flat facade - beautifully articulated,yes, but not at a scale that the pattern seems to call for. The base and the cornice of the facade do corbel out providing some gesture at depth but not on a scale which provide places for people to sit or feel protected.
"107 Wings of Light. Modern buildings are often shaped with no concern for natural light - they depend almost entirely on artificial light. But buildings which displace natural light as the major source of illumination are not fit places to spend the day...Therefore: Arrange each building so that it breaks down into wings which correspond, aproximately, to the most important natural social groups within the building. Make each wing long and as narrow as you can - never more than 25 feet wide."80
and
"109 Long Thin House. The shape of a building has a great effect on the relative degrees of privacy and overcrowding in it, and this in turn has a critical effect on people's comfort and well being...Therefore: In small buildings, don't cluster all the rooms together around each other; instead string out the rooms one after another, so that distance between each room is as great as it can be. You can do this horizontally - so that the plan becomes a thin, long rectangle..."81
and
"159 Light on Two Sides of Every Room. When they have a choice, people will always gravitate to those rooms which have light on two sides, and leave the rooms which are lit only from one side unused and empty...Therefore: Locate each room so that it has outdoor space outside it on at least two sides, and then place windows in these outdoor walls so that natural light falls into every room from more than one direction."82
and
"135 Tapestry of Light and Dark. In a building with uniform light level, there are few "places" which function as effective settings for human events. This happens because, to a large extent, the places which make effective settings are defined by light...Therefore: Create alternating areas of light and dark throughout the building, in such a way that people naturally walk toward the light, whenever they are going to important places: seats, entrances, stairs, passages, places of special beauty, and make other areas darker, to increase the contrast."83
and
127 Intimacy Gradient. Unless the spaces in a building are arranged in a sequence which corresponds to their degrees of privateness, the visits made by strangers, friends, guests, clients, family, will always be a little awkward...Therefore: Lay out the spaces of a building so that they create a sequence which begins with the entrance and the most public parts of the building, then leads into the slightly more private areas, and finally to the most private domains."84
While the main form of the building exceeds the 25 foot prescription by a few feet, it is essentially a long, thin building made up of strung together rooms. While not a house, the two areas of the building which require the greatest amount of privacy - and which often intrude into public buildings - the bathrooms and the kitchen, here are located at the furthest extremities of the plan. Also, the raised gallery of dining tables on the north side of the dining room is sufficiently seperated to provide a more private alternative to the main dining room space. This pattern is largely respected at West Dean, and is related to 106,107 and 109 discussed above. The quality of light in the building is magnificiant, subtle and complex - changing dramatically with the passing day and changing weather patterns. The one exception occurs at the bathrooms which have windows on one side only. Still, it must be acknowledged that it is a rare thing for a modern bathroom in a public buildings to have any natural light at all. This pattern is reflected in a couple of instances at West Dean. The alternating rhythm of the great windows of the dining room, in contrast with the darkness of the thick wall space between them, marks each table place.[illustration] On the opposite side of the dining room the relative darkness of the raised gallery is pierced by the lightness of the deeply recessed windows, also marking table places. The progression of spaces and arched openings that lead all along the north facade - from the gallery, through the foyer, a short passage, the shop and outside to the plant display area are also rich in variation of light and dark. [illustrations]
"110 Main Entrance. Placing the main entrance...is perhaps the single most important step you take during the evolution of a building plan...Therefore: Place the main entrance of the building at apoint where it can be seen immediately from the main avenues of approach and give it a bold, visible shape which stands out in front of the building."85
This is an exact description of the entrance at West Dean. [illustration]
"112 Entrance Transition. Buildings...with a graceful transition between the street and the inside, are more tranquil than those which open directly off the street...Therefore: make a transition space between the street and the front door. Bring the path which connects street and entrance through this transition space, and mark it with a change of light, a change of sound, a change of direction, a change of surface, a change of level, perhaps by gateways which make a change of enclosure, and above all with a change of view." 86
and
120 Paths and Goals.?
This pattern is not sufficiently followed at West Dean as the approach from the parking to the main entarnce is relatively direct with few of the 'changes' prescribed above including the lack of a change of view. There are, however, a couple of elements which do specifically contribute to the 'transition': a small, but strongly articulated gate; a curved wall and bench which borders the path; and four trees framing the path and entry. When the trees mature they will provide a change of light and enclosure. It is the curved bench and wall, now however which provides the gretest support to the transition. Alexander uses it as an example in The Nature of Order:
"As built, now, it is soft yet dominant, it is one of the best things about the outside of the building, and yet so unobtrusive, no one remarks on it. But I know that the building works, and the space comes alive, because this long curved seat, holds the space, defines it, orients it, just comfortably."87

"114 Hierarchy of Open Space. Outdoors, people always try to find a spot where they can have their backs protected, looking out toward some larger opening, beyond the space immediately in front of them...Therefore: Whatever space you are shaping - whether it is a garden, terrace, street, park, public outdoor room. or courtyard., make sure of two things. First, make at least one smaller space, which looks into it and forms a natural back for it. Second, place it, and its openings, so that it looks into at least one larger space. When you have done this, every outdoor space will have a natural "back"; and every person who takes up the natural position, with his back to this "back," will be looking out toward some larger distant view."88
With the interior space of the dining room overlooking the patio and lawn providing a "back" and the meadows and hills providing the extended view, west dean follow this pattern neatly, and the result has a very natural, rightness to it. The above discussed bench and wall could also be said to provide a "back" to the entrance space with the building itself providing prospect.
"117 Sheltering Roof. The roof plays a primal role in our lives. The most primitive buildings are nothing but a roof. If the roof is hidden, if its presence cannot be felt around the building, or if it cannot be used, then people will lack a fundamental sense of shelter...Therefore: Slope the roof or make a vault of it,make its entire surface visible, and bring the eaves of the roof down low...at places like the entrance, where people pause. Build the top story of each wing right into the roof, so that the roof does not only cover it, but actually surrounds it."89
The roof at west dean clearly violates this pattern by only covering the space below it rather then enveloping it.90 Additionally, while the roofs do come lower in certain places such as the entry, they are not low enough to touch as the main text of the pattern insists. The roof does redeem itself as a presence around the building with its steep slope and high profile.
122 Building Fronts?
128 Indoor Sunlight?
"130 Entrance Room. Arriving in a building, or leaving it, you need a room to pass through, both inside the building and outside it. This is the entrance room...Therefore: At the main entrance to a building, make a light-filled room which marks the entrance and straddles the boundary between indoors and outdoors, covering some space outdoors and some space indoors. The outside part may be like an old fashioned porch; the inside like a hall or sitting room."91
While there does exist a space - a 'foyer' - at the entry of west dean which is both inside and outside the main building volume and precedes the 'reception room' in the entry sequence, this space is entirely indoor space, seperated from the exterior by the min doors. There is no covered exterior space. analysis of the plan suggests that placing these doors in a position between the 'foyer' and 'reception' could have easily provided fulfillment of the pattern.
"131 The Flow Through Rooms. The movement between rooms is as important as the rooms themselves; and its arrangement has as much effect on social interaction in the rooms, as the interiors of the rooms...Therefore: As far as possible, avoid the use of corridors and passages. Instead, use public rooms and common rooms as rooms for movement and for gathering. To do this, place the common rooms to form a chain, or loop, so that it becomes possible to walk from room to room - and so that private rooms open directly off these public rooms. In every case, give this indoor circulation from room to room a feeling of great generosity, passing in a wide and ample loop ... with views of firees and great windows.'92
Early designs for West Dean included a passage along the north edge of the main volume from the entry through what is now the raised seating area. The vission statement clearly describes it. As described it would have directed the flow of people around the dining room and bypassing the reception room thereby clearly violating the pattern. As built, circulation precedes from the foyer, through reception and through the dining room, with the more secluded raied seating area opening off this central space.
"134 Zen View. The archtypal zen view occurs in a famous Japanese house, which gives this pattern its name...If there is a beautiful view, don't spoil it by building huge windows that gape incessantly at it. Instead, put the windows which look onto the view at places of transition - along paths, in hallways, in entry ways, on stairs, between rooms. If the view window is correctly placed, people will see a glimpse of the distant view as they came up to the window or pass it: but the view is never visible from the places where people stay."93
An often controversial and ignored pattern, at west dean it is largely kept to. While the primary gathering places - the dining room and its patio - do have views over the distant landscape, they are askew and the main prospect through the great windows of the dining room is toward a close-in bank of trees and shrubs which define the lawn and patio. The more direct prospect of the distant view is at a transition space- the entry room. Another, perhsps more archtypal, 'zen view' exists through a small window in the shop which frames a view of the River Lavant and a small bridge. This quaint view could have easily been overplayed with larger, 'gaping' windows.
"149 Reception Welcomes You. Have you ever walked into a public building and been processed by the receptionist as if you were a package?...Therefore: Arrange a series of welcoming things immediately inside the entrance - soft chairs, a fireplace, food, coffee. Place the reception desk so that it is not between the receptionist and the welcoming area, but to one side at an angle - so that she, or he, can get up and walk toward the people who come in, greet them, and then invite them to sit down."94
At West Dean this pattern is taken too far perhaps. while their is a very comfortable seating area directly inside the entry, the location of the reception desk - a ticket booth in this case, is not entirely clear. This author wittnessed some confusion by visitor's who were drawn into the reception area, looked aroubd for access to the gardens (which is through the building). It takes a moment to realize that there is a sales area to the left in the shop. The confusion is caused in part by the opacity of the wall which seperates recption from the shop and is confounded by a cord across the opening from reception to the shop which causes people to need to go back through the foyer to get to the shop, buy a ticket and proceed into the garden. Minor congestion at the entry. More transparency between reception and the shop area might have allowed a clearer understanding of the organization of the building.
"180 Window Place. Everybody loves window seats, bay windows, and big windows with low sills and comfortable chairs drawn up to them...Therefore: In every room where you spend any length of time during the day, make at least one window into a "window place."95
Magnifecently fulfilled at West Dean at bith the bowed window seat in the reception area and in the dining room with its low,wide and deep silled windows. The windows in the gallery area, while also wide and deep, are curiously high and have a frustrating distance from a person seated at a table. One cannot see out of them, rest an elbow on the sills or easily place something on them. Violates pattern192 - Windows Overlooking Life.96
"190 Ceiling Height Variety. A building in which the ceiling heights are all the same is virtually incapable of making people comfortable...Therefore: Vary the ceiling heights continuously throughout the building, especially between rooms which open into each other, so that the relative intimacy of different spaces can be felt. In particular, make ceilings high in rooms which are public or meant for large gatherings (10 to 12 feet), lower in rooms for smaller gatherings (7 to 9 feet) and very low in rooms or alcoves for one or two people (6 to 7 feet)."97 Achieved in a number of places at west Dean. The foyer ceiling is lower then the reception ceiling onto which it opens. The shop ceiling slopes down to the same relatively low height of the bathrooms. The ceiling in the dining room is tallest - aprox. 13.25 feet. By raising the floor in the gallery by a few feet, the cieling is effectively lowered creating a more intimate space. The bowed window seat which projects outside the main building volume has a lower roof structure and consequently a lower interior ceiling.
"191 The Shape of Indoor Space. The perfectly crystalline squares and rectangles of ultramodrn architecture make no special sense in human or in structural terms. They only express the rigid desires and fantasies which people have when they get too preoccupied with systems and the means of their production...Therefore: With occasional exceptions, make each indoor space, a rough rectangle, with roughly straight walls, near right angles in the corners, and a roughly symmetrical vault over each room."98
A fairly routine considertion with the exception of the vaulted ceiling - not realized at West Dean - and perhaps largely a leftover from a preoccupation with a particular system of contruction layed out in the latter patterns of A Pattern Language.
"193 Half-Open Wall. Rooms which are too closed prevent the natural flow of social occasions, and the natural process of transition from one social moment to another. And rooms which are too open will not support the differentation of events which social life requires...Therefore: adjust the walls, openings, and windows in each indoor space until you reach the right balance between open, flowing space and closed cell-like space. Do not take it for granted that each space is a room; nor, on the other hand, that all spaces must flow into each other. The right balance will always lie between these extremes: no one room entirely enclosed; and no space totally connected to another. Use combinations of columns, half-open walls, porches, indoor windows, sliding doors, low sills, french doors, sitting walls, and so on, to hit the right balance."99
and
197 Thick Walls. [Buildings] with smooth hard walls made of prefabricated panels, concrete, gypsum, steel, aluminum, or glass always stay impersonal and dead...Therefore: Open your mind to the possibility that the walls of your building can be thick, can occupy a substantial volume - even actual usable space - and need not be merely thin membranes which have no depth. Decide where these thick walls ought to be."100
This pattern represents a strong theme at west Dean. There are very few walls which do not have openings linking adjacent spaces - both for passage and visually. All of these walls are quite thick: primary interior walls are aprox. 18" thick, exterior walls 22-24" tick. As noted above, the wall between reception and the shop might have benefitted from more transparency. Nicely realized in gallery where despite numerous openings it still feels secluded.
"202 Built-in Seats. Built-in seats are great. Everybody loves them. They make a building feel comfortable and luxurious..."101
In addition to the bowed window seat, there are two other buil-in seats in the opposite corners of the reception space. early designs called for the dining room tables and seats to all be built in but apparent resistance from the clients precluded this. Probably in the name of flexibility. However, all the furniture is custom made and was designed with numerous mock-ups and test pieces in cardboard and wood.
The remaining patterns deal with specifically with construction. Many of these patterns reiterate earlier patterns where thier structural or constructional natures overlap with functional and aesthetic issues. This is, naturally, quite often the case considering the intimate, indeed, continuous field in which these issues operate. At least, this is the fundamental argument presented by Alexander.
"205 Structure Follows Social Space. No building ever feels right to the people in it unless the physical spaces (defined by columns, walls, and ceilings) are congruent with the social spaces (defined by activities and human groups)...Therfore: A first priciple of construction: on no account allow the engineering to dictate the building's form. Place the load bearing elements - the columns and the walls and floors - according to the social spaces of the building; never modify the social spaces to conform to the engineering structure of the building."102
and
"209 Roof Layout."103
These patterns are natural extensions of 95, 99, and 116 discussed above and are straightforwardly evident at west Dean.
"206 Efficient Structure. Some buildings have column and beam structures; others have load-bearing walls with slab floors; others are vaulted structures, or domes, or tents. but which of these, or what mixture of them, is actually the most efficient? What is the best way to distribute materials throughout a building, so as to enclose the space, strongly and well, with the leaast amount of material?...Therefore: Concieve the building as a building made from one continuous body of compressive material. In its geometry, conceive it as a three-dimensional system of individually vaulted spaces, most of them roughly rectangular; with thin load-bearing walls, each stiffened by coloumns at intervals along its length, thickened where walls meet walls and where walls meet vaults and stiffened around the openings."104
? no columns stiffening thin load-bearing walls...except perhaps between great windows in dining room.?
"207 Good Materials. There is a fundamental conflict in the nature of materials for building in industrial society...Therefore: Use only biodegradable, low energy consuming materials, which are easy to cut and modify on site. For bulk materials we suggest ultra-lightweight 40-60lbs. concrete and earth-based materials like tamped earth, brick, and tile. For secondary materials, use wood planks, gypsum, plywood, cloth, chickenwire, paper, cardboard, particle board, corrugated iron, lime plasters, bamboo, rope, and tile."105
West dean has not been noted for being a particularly 'ecologically' sensitive building in terms of use of materials.106 This pattern, however, sheds light on the fact that when locally available materials - such as the brick and flint and tile (local?) used as exterior sheathing materials at West Dean - and low embodied energy materials - such as the concrete and concrete block used as primary structure at west Dean - are used in a building dramatic differneces can be noted in environmental impact when compared to more conventional methods of construction. In addition, heavy timbers (oak) were used as primary roof structure and interior finishes include lime? plaster walls, wood, stone and ceramic tile flooring, plaster (lime?) ceiling panels - all earth-based, biodegradeable, low-energy consuming materials. Lead is used in small amounts as roofing but is relatively low in embodied energy relative to steel. Some steel was used as reinforcing in the concrete system.
"208 Gradual Stiffening. The fundamental philosophy behind the use of pattern languages is that buildings should be uniquely adapted to individual needs and sites; and that the plans of buildings should be rather loose and fluid, in order to accomodate these subtleties...Therefore: Recognize that you are not assembling a building from components like an erector set, but that you are instead weaving a structure which starts out globally complete, but flimsy; then gradually making it stiffer but still rather flimsy; and only finally making it completely stiff and strong. We believe that in our own time, the most natural version of this process is to put up a shell of sheet materials, and then make it fully strong by filling it with compressive fill."107
Did this happen at West Dean? describes design but actual stiffness, flexibility in terms of structure? didn't stiifness exist in cmu/concrete system before infill? ring beam poured after walls complete? as final stiffening member?
"214 Root Foundations. The best foundations of all are the kinds of foundations which a tree has - where the entire structure of the tree simply continues below ground level, and creates a system entirely integral with the ground, in tension and compression...Try to find a way of making foundations in which the columns themselves go right into the earth, and spread out there - so that the footing is continuous with the material of the column, and the column, with its footing, like a tree root, can resist tension and horizontal shear as well as compresion."108
and
"215 Ground Floor Slab. The slab is the easiest, cheapest, and most natural way to lay a ground floor...Therefore; Build a ground floor slab..."109
While the floor at west dean does rest on a concrete slab, this slab is not continuous with the cmu/concrete wall system which rests on it although, presumably. the two systems are connected such that they operate as a single system...
"217 Perimeter Beams. If you conceive and build a room by first placing columns at the corners, and then gradually weaving the walls and ceiling round them, the room needs a perimeter beam around its upper edge...Therefore: Build a continuous perimeter beam around the room, strong enough to resist the horizontal thrust of the vault above, to spread the loads from the upper stories onto columns, to tie columns together, and to function as a lintel over openings in the wall. Make this beam continuous with columns, walls and floor above, and columns and walls below."110
Largely discriptive of the 'ring beam' at West Dean. Isn't lateral thrust of roof structure held by bottom cord?
"218 Wall Membrane. In organic construction the walls must take their share of the loads. They must work continuously with the structure on all four of their sides; and act to resist shear and bending, and take loads in compression...Therefore: Build the wall as a membrane which connects the columns and door frames and window frames and is, at least in part, continuous with them. To build the wall, first put up an inner and outer membrane, which can function as a finished surface; then pour the fill into the wall."111
At West Dean, not filled between two membranes but filled on exterior..? but is two membranes...with stiffening in cmu...
220 Roof Vaults?
"221 Natural Doors and Windows. Finding the right position for a window or a door is a subtle matter. But there are very few ways of building which take this into consideration...Therefore: On no account use standard doors or windows. Make each window a different size, according to its place. Do not fix the exact position or size of the door and window frames until the rough framing of the room has actually been built, and you can really stand inside the room and judge, by eye, exactly where you want tp put them, and how big you want them. When you decide, mark the openings with strings. Make the windows smaller and smaller, as you go higher in the building."112
Carefully made, custom doors and windows. While in general terms the location and elements of the doors and windows follow construction documents prepared prior to begining of construction, there are numerous adjustments evident in the precise placement based on mock-ups and judgements made as building unfolded. [illustration}
"222 Low Sill. One of a window's most imporatant functions is to put you in touch with the outdoors. If the sill is too high, it cuts you off...Therefore: When determining exact location of windows also decide which windows should have low sills. On the first floor, make the sills of windows which you plan to sit by between 12 and 14 inches high..."113
and
"223 Deep Reveals. Windows with a sharp edge where the frame meets the wall create harsh, blinding glare, and make the rooms they serve uncomfortable...Therefore: Make the window frame a deep, splayed edge: about a foot wide and splayed at about 50 to 60 degrees to the plane of the window, so that the gentle gradient of daylight gives a smooth transition between the light of the window and the dark of the inner wall."114
These patterns gloriously realized in the great windows of dining room. (See illustration).
"227 Column Connection. The strength of a structure depends on the strength of its connections; and these connections are most critical of all at corners, especially at the corners where the columns meet the beams...Therefore: Build connections where the columns meet the beams. Any distribution of material which fills the corner up will do: fillets, gussets, column capitals, mushroom column, and, most general of all, the arch, which connects column and beam in a continuous curve."115
All the columns at west den including those between great windows are connecte by arches.
"232 Roof Caps. There are few cases in traditional architecture where builders have not used some roof detail to cap the building with an ornament...Therefore: Choose a natural way to cap the roof - some way which is in keeping with the kind of construction, and the meaning of the building. The caps may be structural; but their main function is decorative - they mark the top - they mark the place where the roof penetrates the sky."
Horses. sweet but timid...[see illustration]
236 Windows Which Open Wide. many buildings nowadays have no opening windows at all; and many of the opening windows that peolpe do build, don't do the job that opening windows ought to do...Therefore: Decide which of the windows will be opening windows. Pick those which are easy to get to, and choose the ones which open onto flowers you want to smell, paths where you want to talk, and natural breezes. Then put in side-hung casements that open outward. Here and there, go all the way and build full French windows."116 Fully realized in the french windows of dining room. Virtually all the windows in the building are openable.
"239 Small Panes. When plate glass windows became possible, people thought that they would put us more directly in touch with nature. In fact, they do the opposite...Therefore: Divide each window into small panes. These panes can be very small indeed, and should hardly ever be more than a foot square. To get the exact size of the panes, divide the width and height of the window by the number of panes. Then each window will have different sized panes according to its height and width."117
The windows at west dean a