CONSTRUCTION 49 “At the core is the idea people should design their homes, streets, and communities. This ideacomes from the observation most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects, but by the people.” “Each pattern represents our current best guess as to what arrangement of the physical environment will work to solve the problem presented. The empirical questions center on the problem—does it occur and is it felt in the way we describe it?—and the solution—does the arrangement we propose solve the problem? And the asterisks represent our degree of faith in these hypotheses. But of course, no matter what the asterisks say, the patterns are still hypotheses, all 253 of them—and are, therefore, all tentative, all free to evolve under the impact of new experience and observation.” TOWN, COMMUNITY REGIONAL POLICIES 1
Rejection of Pluralist Values and Subjective World View
Singular and Objective- ‘quality without a name’?? Can a certain environment be objectively
superior to another?
Social, Political, Economic realities and incompatible
Do we all really share a common value system? External controls, inhibitions, rules, morals, fears.
Do we all experience and give a response to a stimulus the same way?
Can no one have an alternate lifestyle?
Is timeless way of building the only way to create beautiful environments?
Legitimacy, Lack of scholarly research to back scientific definition
DEVELOPMENT
Understanding of ‘science’- Figuring something out
No explicit definitions - lack of practical engagement
Reasoning- Is there only one ‘right’ way of building
Patterns weren’t proven to produce superior environments
Gives freedom to develop but demands adherence to his rules
Less visual material to engage with theories, less clear examples
Connections and synthesis of patterns doesn’t have a definitive language- Reverse sequencing
does not provide links
What is Beauty?
Authoritative Statements, Provocative, Low opinion of Architects
Vision of Society of Freedom, Activated populace. No external controls.
Grass-roots processes are the only way not Top-Down IMPLEMENTATION
Flaws in Individual Patterns by testing
Failing to create environments that embody the ‘quality without a name’
Restricting Architects to only provide solutions for emotional and physical needs
No Outliers, nothing Radical
Patterns may not satisfy user preferences
Patterns may not always create a beautiful space
No focus on geometry STILL....
Historical artefact worthy of further exploration
Formalising the complex phenomena into an easily digestible format which is accessible to non-
professionals
Architect-Client relationship. Means of understanding values and visions of one another.
Investigating the concept of pattern languages
Can be rigorously tested to conclude if they are practical design methodologies
Development of new pattern languages without Alexander’s views
The Death and Life of Great Amerian Cities Jane Jacobs, 1961 Own observations to formulate philosophies
New York | Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago
Principles of city planning based on sociology,
not being more concerned with automobiles
Organic urban vibrancy
PARTS
1) City problems, using sidewalks and parks as
metaphors
2) Economics behind city problems
3) Decay and regeneration
4) Suggestions for change in existing and new
cities “In setting forth principles, I shall mainly be writing about common, ordinary things: for instance, what kinds of city streets are safe and what kinds are not; why some city parks are marvelous and others are vice traps and death traps; why some slums stay slums and other slums regenerate themselves even against financial and official opposition; what makes downtowns shift their centers; what, if anything, is a city neighbourhood, and what jobs, if any, neighbourhoods in great cities do. In short, I shall be writing about how cities work in real life. . .” THEMES
City planning errors
Successful vs unsuccessful neighbourhoods
Diversity- meaning and component for
successful cities
Rethinking factors that define a city
Slumming, unslumming- want and not force
“The way to get at what goes on in the seemingly mysterious and perverse behavior of cities is, I think, to look closely, and with little previous expectation as possible, at the most ordinary scenes and events, and attempt to see what they mean and whether any threads of principle emerge among them” A) THE PECULIAR NATURE B) THE CONDITIONS FOR OF CITIES CITY DIVERSITY 2 The uses of sidewalks: safety, 7 The generators of diversity, 3 The uses of sidewalks: contact, 8 The need for primary mixed uses, 4 The uses of sidewalks: assimilating 9 The need for small blocks, children, 10 The need for aged buildings, 5 The uses of neighborhood parks, 11 The need for concentration, 6 The uses of city neighborhoods, 12 Some myths about diversity,
C) FORCES OF DECLINE D) DIFFERENT TACTICS
AND REGENERATION 13 The self-destruction of diversity, 17 Subsidizing dwellings, 14 The curse of border vacuums, 18 Erosion of cities or attrition of 15 Unslumming and slumming, automobiles, 16 Gradual money and cataclysmic 19 Visual order: its limitations and money, possibilities, 20 Salvaging projects, 21 Governing and planning districts, 22 The kind of problem a city is, “This ubiquitous principle is the need of cities for a most intricate and close-grained diversity of uses that give each other constant mutual support, both economically and socially. The components of this diversity can differ enormously, but they must supplement each other in certain concrete ways” Indian Context Le Corbusier, Joseph Allen Stein, Otto Koenigsberger, Louis Khan, Laurie Baker, Nari Gandhi, B.V.Doshi, Achyut Kanvinde, Charles Correa, Anant Raje, Uttam Jain, Joseph Allen Stein, Raj Rewal, Hasmukh Patel, Bimal Patel, Nimish patel, Karan Grover
![The Timeless Way of Building [Christopher Alexander] [1979]](https://imgv2-2-f.scribdassets.com/img/document/238841231/149x198/39bf1eb2c7/1613924518?v=1)
