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Essay / Review of Christopher Alexander's book “The Timeless Way of Building”
“Architecture should speak of its time and place, but aspire to timelessness.” (Frank Ghery)Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned"?Get an Original EssayOne of Christopher Alexander's most interesting treatises is "The Timeless Way of Building", first published in 1979. The author of the book Christopher Alexander himself is an architect. Besides an architect, he is a lover of mathematics and science. He was educated in science during his childhood and after earning a bachelor's degree in architecture, he continued his education and earned a master's degree in mathematics and then a doctorate in architecture from Harvard University. As an architect he searches for beauty and in the sixties he tried to search for a "design vision", how to design, what to design and how science and mathematics contribute to design. He felt the need for a theory to support the “design vision” from which the product can be obtained. He researched this theory and presented it in his book “A Timeless Way to Build”. Christopher sought architecture for man that was made from the proportion of nature, building materials and context and was an extension of nature. It talks about how nature is stabilized in a beautiful and poetic way through natural processes. The path used by nature is stable while nature itself continually changes according to changing situations. He suggested that construction should also grow like nature and that the growth of construction depends on the "lives of the inhabitants" and not on the principles of construction. When this “life” is happy, free and at peace, it allows the human to become a part of the place just as much as the place becomes a part of the human. The book is framed in an unusual architectural text in which Alexandre describes his concept. in titles which give an overview of his whole theory, then a detailed description added below the titles. It brings a poetic look at the built environment in a precise and concrete way. His theory is based on language models used to discuss and create architecture. This language model forms the main core of the book, described in chapters 1 to 10 and supported by specific examples for better understanding. Black and white photographic illustrations and thumbnail sketches are used throughout the book, some of which are referenced while others are only visual representations to support the text. The book is organized into “three parts” and each part explores numerous theories. Part of the book is "complexity theory", part is related to "theory of architecture and urban planning" and part is a "spiritual treatise". In the introductory part of the book, Alexander described that there is only one way to build that is “timeless” and that this method is the most essential and indispensable. A timeless building never ages over time, but the more it ages, the more value it adds, it perpetuates and grows according to circumstances over time. The three parts of the book are entitled “The Quality”, “The Door” and “The Way”. In the first part, he defined this quality which is nameless and indefinable but which exists and remains recognizable. This quality is self-generated and cannot be created. The building with this nameless quality must not be separable from nature but be part of it. Quality without a name does not mean that it.