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| Wash drawing by Diana Hand |
Christopher Alexander
by David Seamon,
Professor, Department of Architecture, Kansas State University
In this article Seamon explains how the ideas of Thiis-Evenson and Christopher Alexander help us to
understand a deeper, more grounded, understanding of dwelling, as understood in Heideggerian or phenomenological terms. . "Both seek concrete means for identifying and
describing built qualities that sustain and strengthen the quality of dwelling” This can lead to better designing and
building".
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Thiis Evenson Inside and outside
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Thiis- Evenson and Architectural Archetypes Evenson writes that all architecture is made of three basic components - floor, wall and roof - and together they create "insideness", “the hallmark
quality transforming space into place and sustaining the deepest sense of
dwelling” (Relph). The kind of insideness and the relation between inside and outside is influenced by the way this basic components are put together and the materials from which they are constructed. If these principles are understood then buildings can be made in such a way that expresses their particular purpose.
This is a very existential and elemental approach to architecture which can appeal to the imagination and and to an exploration of the feeling of being-in-space
Christopher Alexander and a Pattern Language
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| Christopher Alexander constructive diagram of activities in an Indian village |
Alexander is more concerned with creating a wider environment - "place making that sustains dwelling - if an environmental whole is
made rightly it has a powerful sense of place which may help people who live in
and use that place to have more satisfactory, vibrant lives”
Alexander wants to restore a sense of wholeness to buildings and to places. His practical
tool is a language of 253 patterns A pattern is both interpretive and
prescriptive. It is interpretive because
it describes elements of the built environment which contribute to a sense of
place. It is prescriptive because it
offers advice on how these particular elements can be effectively designed.
3 levels of patterns
- larger scale communities
that cannot be built all at once
- Buildings and groups of buildings
- Individual building details
In any new design problem,
start with the larger picture. “In this
way the larger qualities of environmental wholeness are held in sight as
smaller qualities are fitted around them”
Patterns are not fixed, pattern language.. an on going process of
dialogue among architect, client, user, builder and site” Pattern language is a way of thinking and
looking to see how constituents contribute to a whole.
“Design must be premised on a process that has the creation of wholeness
as its overriding purpose and in which every increment of construction, no
matter how small, is devoted to this purpose
Aspects of an architecture of dwelling
Both architects believe that
the built world can “help illuminate and sustain essential qualities of human
understanding, life and experience”, but CA might ask TE to consider how the
archetypes fit into a “larger sense of human meaning, environment and place”
I have noted in this very short summary the differences between two architects, micro and macro in approach, to put it over-simply, but both of whom are concerned with the influence of the built environment on human existence. I do not as yet understand Alexander's Pattern Language, but I intuitively appreciate the values embodied in it and the fact that it is a practical and adaptable approach to design which is based on the observation of people's lives (rather like the approach of muf architects in my recent post).
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| The sunken stone Diana Hand |
I like the ideas of Evenson because the edgy difference between inside and outside is so key to our sense of inhabitation, and provide a rich source of inspiration for art work as well. So my appreciation for his work is different from the admiration I have for Alexander.
