For Coffee Hour today I would like to share with you some of the philosophy found in The Timeless Way of Building by noted architect, Christopher Alexander.
Specifically, his concept of Timeless Building. Beyond the fold lets share our thoughts about our favorite spaces, buildings, or Churches and think about the qualities that cause us to love being there.
This is an Open Thread / Coffee Hour and all topics of conversation are welcome. What is for dinner? How are you doing? What is on your mind. If you are new to Street Prophets please introduce yourself below in a comment.
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There is one timeless way of building. It is a thousand years old, and the same today as it has ever been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. It is not possible to make great buildings, or great towns, beautiful places, places where you feel yourself, places where you feel alive, except by following this way. And, as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form, as the trees and hills, and as our faces are. The opening from Christopher Alexander's book: The Timeless Way of Building
The Timeless Way of Building is the first volume of a three-volume set; in it, he sets out a radically different perceptual framework for conceiving of, and creating architecture. In the second volume of the series, A Pattern Language, he discusses his own exploration of architecture within this perceptual framework and the two hundred fifty-three patterns that he has intuited. In the third, final volume of the series, The Oregon Experiment, he explains how this "language" of two hundred fifty-three patterns was used in practice to design a building complex at the University of Oregon.
I would like to share this video book review of The Timeless Way of Building that I found on YouTube with everyone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG8EBU2SG0c. (This is the link. One should be careful about clicking embeds like the one below.)
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Additional References on the "The Timeless Way of Building:"
Thanks for stopping by today.