I'm curious: what do architects think of Christopher Alexander? I like what he says, but I'm not an architect, and they say no man is a prophet in his own country...
From what I understand (I'm no architect either) they largely ignore him or dismiss him as a quack. I wonder if Fred Gibson (architect and Lisp hacker who hangs out here) would have a comment on this.
I like Alexander quite a bit, except for his tendency to intellectual cultishness. The 4-volume set he recently came out with (after 30 years) has a lot of good stuff in it, but it's marred by gobs of insufferable nonsense about being the greatest this-or-that of the last 1600 years. Like most gurus, the man doesn't need an entourage of epigones. What he needs is an editor.
Edit: there's another thing that bugs me about Alexander (though I really am a fan). It's that the photos of his actual buildings I've seen don't seem to live up to the genius of the things he says about how to make buildings. That incongruity gives me pause. Of course, one wouldn't expect him to make grand or immodest buildings in any way (that would be even more incongruous). Perhaps one has to experience them in person.
Embodied in the books "A Pattern Language" and "The Oregon Experiment", pattern theory inspired many, but also failed to consistently lead to beautiful buildings. [...] Although most of his buildings have effectively supported his theories, Alexander has mainly influenced the architectural profession through his writings and teaching rather than through his completed buildings.http://www.archiplanet.org/architects/Christopher_Alexander....
It may be that he's a brilliant/inspiring communicator and a competent practitioner. Others like this (to my mind) are Douglas R Hofstadner and David Flanagan. We need inspiring writers; it's a good thing.
Yeah, I'd always considered Alexander more of an academic than a practitioner, but it's interesting to look at what he and his colleagues actually produce. His buildings don't look amazing, but perhaps they work really well for their intended audience?
Ha, this is my first time to the Pattern Language website... It's clear that while Alexander may understand patterns in architecture, he has very little understanding of patterns in web design.
I definitely enjoyed the books. The thing about "quack" is that that often means "not of the world" - his genius is only apparent to the people not practicing the same craft at first, and it's only much much later, that the people who practice the same discipline realize his genius. Because they're caught up in the current fads, getting and spending, commerce, etc. Gaudi was considered a weirdo during his lifetime.
