
Notes on The Timeless Way of Building (2018) - whereistimbo
https://lethain.com/timeless-way-of-building/
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crabmusket
A Pattern Language is a fascinating read, and an online copy can be found
using DuckDuckGo if you persist.

It's interesting both from an architectural/societal point of view, as well as
providing a great example of a wiki-like organisation of ideas and patterns
that build on and enhance each other.

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fsloth
A physical copy can be ordered from Amazon with a credit card. Books are
precious - there is nothing bad in buying them.

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crabmusket
I completely agree, but this book tends to be more expensive than people want
to commit to out of passing curiosity. I hope that people would be led to
purchase the book if they find it worthwhile. I appreciate your remark!

(Though I would try to find somewhere other than Amazon to order it.
Book_stores_ are also precious.)

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fsloth
I totally agree on all points! Sadly, in my area bookstores have more or less
degenerated from their original format to gift and office supply shops selling
sundry items, some of them perhaps being books. A good book shop _would_ be
precious.

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carapace
Once crucial concept is the idea of generative codes (like L-Systems for
construction/architectural design), that 's the "language" part of _Pattern
Language_. It's like a poetic meter for physical expression that guides and is
guided by the flow of events.

See Living Neighborhoods: [http://www.livingneighborhoods.org/ht-0/bln-
exp.htm](http://www.livingneighborhoods.org/ht-0/bln-exp.htm)

\- - - -

> Something that turned me off was this book's emphasis on quality being a
> mystical characteristic that requires secret knowledge to understand. As the
> references to "the quality without a name" built, I wondered if I had
> accidentally switched to reading the Tao Te Ching.

Ach, well, don't read his magnum opus "The Nature of Order" then. :-)

He goes further and develops a fusion of form and mysticism. It's fascinating
to me that the pursuit of the intangible in arguably the most concrete art
form (no pun intended) has lead C.A. to statements that smack of the Tao.

\- - - -

> I think that we, as practitioners, have an obligation to make entry into our
> fields accessible and attainable to as many folks as possible, and that we
> curse ourselves to an impoverished and impoverishing field if we narrow it
> to folks with enough ego and resources to self-nominate against a pervasive
> pressure to opt-out in self-doubt. This is, in my opinion, the book's chief
> failure, and one I hope I can avoid repeating.

This interpretation seems bizarre to me, C.A. makes a very big deal of
including the "end users" of a building directly and intimately in the process
of architectural design. Few architects have been as radically committed to
making their field accessible and attainable as he.

Vol. 1 "The Oregon Experiment"

> It describes an experimental approach to campus community planning at the
> University of Oregon, in Eugene, Oregon which resulted in a theory of
> architecture and planning described in the group's later published and
> better-known volumes A Pattern Language and The Timeless Way of Building.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregon_Experiment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregon_Experiment)

He literally wants the "users" to walk the site and layout the plan with
sticks and even build the building themselves (he developed whole experimental
building methods that normal folks could use to "sculpt" their own space!)

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gdubs
This is one of my all time favorite books. It’s actually had a significant
influence on a wide variety of fields. I’ve heard it said that Object Oriented
Programming was inspired by Alexander’s book. He gave a talk in ‘96 on what he
thought software had gotten right, and gotten wrong, about A Pattern Language:

[http://www.patternlanguage.com/archive/ieee.html](http://www.patternlanguage.com/archive/ieee.html)

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swayson
Brilliant book. Thought provoking. It is one of those books that when you read
it again, new insights emerge. The principles apply far beyond architecture.
Fun to introspect and apply socratic thinking methods to see how it relates to
aspects in our modern day life.

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voisin
I’ve been working my way through this for the last few days and I am undecided
whether it is too generic to be of practical use or not.

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carapace
It's been used a few times (see sib comment; there's also a school in Japan)
and the results are heartbreakingly beautiful.

[http://greatbuildings.com/buildings/eishin_school.html](http://greatbuildings.com/buildings/eishin_school.html)

[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Eishin+School&kp=1&iax=images&ia=i...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Eishin+School&kp=1&iax=images&ia=images)

