Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site cornell.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hao!seismo!cmcl2!floyd!vax135!cornell!gtaylor
From: gtaylor@cornell.UUCP (Greg Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Re: A Pattern Language
Message-ID: <151@cornell.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 24-May-84 10:36:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: cornell.151
Posted: Thu May 24 10:36:27 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 03:28:43 EDT
References: <244@metheus.UUCP>
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept.
Lines: 42

Well, I haven't heard anyone but me rave about Christopher
Alexander for ages! You interested in his other work? Here's
a reading list:

The Pasttern Language is only one of a projected multi-volume set.
The first, rather philosophical book of the series is called
The Timeless Way of Building. Also fromthe same publisher. Lots of
pictures, light theorizing. It is in essence a popularized form of 
book that really put Christopher Alexander on the map: Notes Toward
a Synthesis of Form. It is one of the three or four really insightful
books written on the process of design that I've ever run across.
There is a bit of mathematics, some really annoying scrawly illustrations,
and loads of little asides about integrative problem solving that will
be going off in your head like fireworks with an intermittent fuse for
days.

There is also a third volume for the Pattern Language series, called
The Oregon Experiment. It is a more or less detailed example of the
way in which Alexander's design team attempted to put the basic grammar
of the Pattern Language to work on the campus of the University of 
Oregon.

There was a fourth volume on Ornamentation and pattern which I do
not think has come out yet. The last volume of his that I've seen
is a short little tome about designing a cafe, from a design conference
of the design of public places given somewhere in Europe in 80-81.
Like the Oregon experiment, it's a neat book to look at in terms of
the way his method functions in the real world. That one may be a
bit harder to locate. I found a copy in the Arts and Architecture
library here at Cornell.

All the raving about the Pattern Language is entirely justified,
in that it is one of those delightful works (like E.F. Schumacher's
Small is Beautiful and Jacques Ellul's Perspectives on Our Age) that
manages to transcend its subject matter and give you a feel for the
informing intelligence and personality behind the work. We tend to
expect that of fiction, but I find that books like this have a similar
effect, and "show you" the world in a way you may not have thought
worthy or even perticularly interesting.

Greg Taylor