"Making wholeness heals the maker…"
(Christopher Alexander)
The many contradictions of the man
Christopher Alexander was for some a guru, for some a famous architect, for some a crank. Having reached a pinnacle of fame at the age of 40 when he published A Pattern Language he also had moved away from the limelight for some time. He could be self deprecating like an Englishman or the assuming know it all architect. Born in Vienna, exiled in Britain, English and US trained, teaching in the US, he incorporated in one mind the animus of a scientist and mathematician with that of a romantic who abhorred modernist architecture and searched for "living architecture" which uses and repeats patterns found in nature, so that humans could feel alive in it.
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Christopher Alexander, screenshot from a 2008 interview
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An academic who initially studied chemistry and physics and later mathematics and then changed to architecture at Cambridge University to go on to Harvard getting a Ph.D. in architecture, who was elected fellow in 1961, worked at Harvard and MIT and was eventually appointed professor of architecture at the University of California in Berkeley where he taught for 38 years certainly has the chops to be of interest. Beyond being an architect he was also licensed as contractor who realized actual projects. Having earned the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal at age 30, he was nevertheless hated by some colleagues, a batch of honor of sorts... READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
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