Architecture, Design and Conservation Danish Portal for Artistic and Scientific Research Aarhus School of Architecture // Design School Kolding // Royal Danish Academy Christopher Alexander’s Battle for Beauty in a World Turning Ugly: The Inception of a Science of Architecture? Galle, Per Published in: She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2020.03.002 Publication date: 2020 Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Document License: CC BY-NC-ND Link to publication Citation for pulished version (APA): Galle, P. (2020). Christopher Alexander’s Battle for Beauty in a World Turning Ugly: The Inception of a Science of Architecture? (Invited paper for special section "Reading the Classics"). 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Sep. 2021 Christopher Alexander’s Battle for Beauty in a World Turning Ugly: The Inception of a Science of Architecture? Per Galle Keywords Abstract Christopher Alexander Christopher Alexander has been a leading pioneer of academic research Pattern language on architectural and urban design since the early 1960s. He is also a prac- Empirical adequacy and completeness ticing architect and builder with a passion for creating and restoring life of patterns and beauty to our physical environment. In this essay I review, evaluate, Aesthetics and reflect on some of his particularly fruitful, promising, or problematic Philosophy of design ideas. I will put forth some ideas of my own for clarification, and to indicate Unification of art and science of avenues for future research. I argue that Alexander’s notion of patterns (a architecture verbal medium for capturing and conveying design knowledge in a sys- tematic, reusable form) is in need of conceptual development along lines I Received suggest, even though Alexander downplayed the significance of patterns as January 14, 2020 he moved on to other theoretical ideas (mainly about aesthetics) later in his Accepted career. While I go into some detail about selected parts of Alexander’s work, March 9, 2020 the intended readership of this essay is not restricted to specialists. I have made an effort to provide guidance and background information to readers not already familiar with Alexander’s comprehensive body of theory. PER GALLE School of Design, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Denmark (corresponding author) [email protected] Copyright © 2020, Tongji University and Tongji University Press. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer review under responsibility of Tongji University and Tongji University Press. http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2020.03.002 346 she ji The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation Vol. 6, No. 3, Autumn 2020 1 His thesis was published as the (now Introduction classic) Christopher Alexander, Notes on the Synthesis of Form (Cambridge, MA: In September of 1969, at the tender age of 19, I was enrolled in the archi- Harvard University Press, 1964). In it, tecture program at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. he breaks a design problem down into manageable, relatively independent I spent my first term of higher education in frustration — the teaching was sub-problems using a cluster analysis largely irrelevant to architecture, and quite devoid of any theoretical foun- computer program. The focus on dation. After moving around a bit, I arrived in another department at the sub-problems adumbrated what would later become known as “patterns.” Academy. Things changed. Two of my new tutors, Jørgen Peder Hansen 2 Source of this bio-info: a “blurb” note at and Martin Rubow, gave a course on some strange new design theory cum the end of Alexander’s “New Concepts method called pattern language. I am not talkative by nature, but something in Complexity Theory Arising from the Studies in the Field of Architecture: in that course loosened my tongue. Almost 50 years later, I still remember An Overview of the Four Books of the how exhilarated I was as I told my parents there was a guy who had tried to Nature of Order with Emphasis on the develop a science of architecture! His name was Christopher Alexander. Scientific Problems Which Are Raised,” Katarxis Nº 3: New Science, New Urban- My fascination with Alexander’s science project has persisted to this day. ism, New Architecture? 3, no. 3 (2004): I would like to share some thoughts about it, contemplate its status today, 1–24, available at http://www.katarxis3. and consider its potential for development. I will review selected aspects com/SCIENTIFIC%20INTRODUCTION.pdf. Regarding architecture at Cambridge, of Alexander’s work in a constructively critical manner, and develop a few see Stephen Grabow’s comprehensive conceptual distinctions and clarifications of my own that I hope will shed new biography: Stephen Grabow, Christopher light on his ideas and reveal avenues for future research. Alexander: The Search for a New Para- digm in Architecture (Boston: Oriel Press, But this article is not primarily a report on new research. It was written for 1983), 30. the “Reading the Classics” section of She Ji. Accordingly, it takes the form of 3 For an online gallery of examples, see an essay reviewing well-established research, with ample space for reflections Patternlanguage.com, and Center for Environmental Structure, “A Selection of and informed opinions on the subject matter. Projects Designed and Built by Chris- So this is not a biography, nor a bibliography, nor is it a comprehensive topher Alexander and His Associates in survey. Even so, I will provide sufficient biographic information, references, Conjunction with the Clients, Users and Families of Users Who Worked with Us,” and explanations of Alexander’s ideas for the article to serve as an introduc- Katarxis Nº 3: New Science, New Urban- tion to his theories, or as a kind of guide to his conceptual landscape. I do my ism, New Architecture? 3, no. 3 (2004), best to anticipate and mitigate obstacles that his publications can present to online, available at http://katarxis3.com/ Gallery/nav.htm. See also Michael W. new readers. Mehaffy, “Introduction to the Gallery: Toward a New Architecture of Life — or, Christopher Alexander: A Short Biographical Sketch Why Christopher Alexander May Be the Most Avant-Garde Modernist of All,” Christopher Alexander initially studied chemistry and physics and later math- Katarxis Nº 3: New Science, New Urban- ematics and architecture at Cambridge University. He then went to Harvard, ism, New Architecture? 3, no. 3 (2004), where he earned a Ph.D. in architecture — the first of its kind there1 — and online, http://katarxis3.com/Gallery.htm. was elected fellow in 1961. Subsequently, he worked both at Harvard and MIT. Finally, Alexander was appointed professor of architecture at University of California, Berkeley in 1963, a position from which he retired in 2001.2 Today, Alexander can look back at an impressive track record of publi- cations, some undeniably classics of (architectural & urban) design theory. But he did not limit his research to the realm of academia. Because he was a practicing architect and a licensed contractor on top of being a professor, he could develop and test his theories in practice. He always worked collabora- tively with his clients and often on the construction sites. With his colleagues he designed and led the construction of a considerable number of buildings around the world.3 These were never conventional buildings, and never buildings designed and built by conventional methods. His design theories and construction methods, too, were (and are) very far from mainstream. Alexander’s colleagues and property developers saw his work as highly controversial — even offensive. Attempts were made to prevent him from 347 Galle: Christopher Alexander’s Battle for Beauty in a World Turning Ugly 4 Christopher Alexander, The Nature of teaching architecture the way he wanted. For example, in the acknowledge- Order: An Essay on the Art of Building ments section at the end of his four-volume academic magnum opus, The and the Nature of the Universe, 4 vols. (Berkeley: Center for Environmental Nature of Order,4 Alexander writes, Structure, 2002–2005). “I must express my gratitude, also, for the unrelenting hostility of certain of my 5 Ibid., 350. 6 These dramatic events, and others, are colleagues in the Department of Architecture at the University of California, recounted in Christopher Alexander, Berkeley. The extraordinary levels of attack, open and covert, unremitting Hans Joachim Neis, and Maggie Moore over a twenty-year period … was testimony to the panic they felt — because, Alexander, The Battle for the Life and under the surface, they knew, I think, that [the material in the book, as taught Beauty of the Earth: A Struggle between to the students] was true….