building phenomenon architecture deconstruction

books:

A Vision of a Living World: The Nature of Order, Book 3

1 review
Christopher Alexander

Center for Environmental Structure, 2004

A practical approach to reinventing human habitats
Alexander's long-awaited third book in the four-volume Nature of Order series finally provides a practical guide to creating great places based on his concepts of "centers", "wholeness" and "structure-preserving transformations." Page after page of photos and diagrams give weight to Alexander's process-oriented approach to building. This tome should be required reading for anyone who has ...

The Phenomenon of Life: Nature of Order, Book 1: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the ...

14 reviews
Christopher Alexander

Center for Environmental Structure, 2004

Some of these reviews are flawed
Anne Broadbent's review below is completely unjustified. She writes "At the beginning of the first book, Alexander shows a beautiful pagoda - but I still think I wouldn't want to have one near me, in the guise of a shopping centre, school, house, gym, restaurant, bank or whatever: I'd rather see it in its original cultural setting." Alexander agrees completely with this point. His whole theory ...

The Nature of Order (4 volume set)

4 reviews
Christopher Alexander

Center for Environmental Structure, 2004

A Profoundly Eloquent Glimpse of Life's Depth...
*** Original review: May 20, 2004 *** Those who know me know that I am not prone to making either quick judgements or vacuous statements, so my friends (at least) will know that both the title of this mini-review and the few words that follow are far from whimsical: Alexander's Nature of Order, and in particular this fourth volume which I have recently received and simply cannot put down, are ...

The Process of Creating Life: Nature of Order, Book 2: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the ...

4 reviews
Christopher Alexander

Center for Environmental Structure, 2004

A Landmark Book
Review by Nikos A. Salingaros. PART A. REVIEW FOR ARCHITECTS. Contemporary architecture is increasingly grounded in science and mathematics. Architectural discourse has shifted radically from the sometimes disorienting Derridean deconstruction, to engaging scientific terms such as fractals, chaos, complexity, nonlinearity, and evolving systems. That's where the architectural action is -- at least ...

Anti-Architecture and Deconstruction

4 reviews
Nikos A. Salingaros

Center for Environmental Structure, 2006

Responsive Arguments for a Better Future
Extract from a review in Vol 1, Issue 2 of Archnet--IJAR, July 2007 In this book, Nikos A. Salingaros sets the stage for a new thinking about the current status of architecture. Twelve essays critically analyze evolutionary aspects of modernism and post-Modernism, while heavily criticizing the resulting end-style of these two movements: Deconstructivism. The main argument of this manuscript ...