A Vision of a Living World: The Nature of Order, Book 3: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe (The Nature of Order)

In Book 3 of this four-volume work, Alexander presents hundreds of his own buildings and those of other contemporaries who have used methods consistent with the theory of living process. Nearly seven hundred pages of projects, built and planned in many countries over a thirty-year period, illustrate the impact of living process on the world. The book provides the reader with an intuitive feel for the kind of world, its style and geometry, which is needed to generate living structure in the world and its communities, together with its ecological and natural character. The projects include public buildings, neighborhoods, housing built by people for themselves, public urban space, rooms, gardens, ornament, colors, details of construction and construction innovation. The many buildings shown, and the methods needed to design and build these buildings, define living structure in a practical way that can be understood and copied. ". . . Alexander's approach presents a fundamental challenge to us and our style-obsessed age. It suggests that a beautiful form can come about only through a process that is meaningful to people. It also implies that certain types of processes, regardless of when they occur or who does them, can lead to certain types of forms."-Thomas Fisher, former editor of Progressive Architecture . Christopher Alexander is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, architect, builder, and author of many books and technical papers. He is the winner of the first medal for research ever awarded by the American Institute of Architects, and Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught for 40 years. From a practical point of view, this is the most compelling of the four books. Hundreds of photographs and plans of new buildings that have living structure, and the processes which gave them life, demonstrate, for the first time, what the concept of living structure can mean in buildings of our time and of the future.The really good building. The really good space. Places that reach an archetypal level of human experience, reaching across centuries, across continents, across cultures, across technology, across building materials and climates. They connect us to ourselves. They connect us to our feelings. What is more, as we study them, we realize that they all share a similar geometry. How are they made? The practical task of making beauty is the principal subject of A Vision of a Living World.In the four books of The Nature of Order we have been given a new framework for perceiving and interacting with our world, a methodology for creating beautiful spaces, a cosmology where art, architecture, science, religion and secular life all work comfortably together. The third book shows us - visually, technically, and artistically - what a world built in this cosmology and framework is likely to be: what it may look like and be like.Hundreds of examples of buildings and places are shown. New forms for large buildings, public spaces, communities, neighborhoods, lead to discussions about the equally important small scale of detail and ornament and color. Many of the examples are built by Alexander and his colleagues, other buildings explored take us around the world and through time.In all instances, it is the uniqueness and adaptation of each place and its parts, and their comfort, which hold attention: uniqueness coupled with geometrical simplicity and beauty of form and color.With these examples, lay people, architects, builders, artists, and students are able to make this new framework real for themselves, understand how it works, understand its significance. The book is a feast for the eyes, and mind, and heart. Places created by living process (Book 2) have living structure (Book 1) - and they connect us to our essence as people (Book 4). The seven hundred pictures of Alexander's stunning buildings and works of art shown in this book demonstrate in detail what he means. From a practical point of view, this is the most compelling of the four books. Hundreds of photographs and plans of new buildings that have living structure, and the processes which gave them life, demonstrate, for the first time, what the concept of living structure can mean in buildings of our time and of the future.The really good building. The really good space. Places that reach an archetypal level of human experience, reaching across centuries, across continents, across cultures, across technology, across building materials and climates. They connect us to ourselves. They connect us to our feelings. What is more, as we study them, we realize that they all share a similar geometry. How are they made? The practical task of making beauty is the principal subject of A Vision of a Living World.In the four books of The Nature of Order we have been given a new framework for perceiving and interacting with our world, a methodology for creating beautiful spaces, a cosmology where art, architecture, science, religion and secular life all work comfortably together. The third book shows us - visually, technically, and artistically - what a world built in this cosmology and framework is likely to be: what it may look like and be like.Hundreds of examples of buildings and places are shown. New forms for large buildings, public spaces, communities, neighborhoods, lead to discussions about equally important small scale of detail and ornament and color. Many f the examples are built by Alexander and his colleagues; other buildings explored take us around the world and through time.In all instances, it is the uniqueness and adaptation of each place and its parts, and their comfort, which hold attention: uniqueness coupled with geometrical simplicity and beauty of form and color.With these examples, lay people, architects, builders, artists, and students are able to make this new framework real for themselves, understand how it works, and understand its significance. The book is a feast for the eyes, and mind, and heart. Places created by living process (Book 2) have living structure (Book 1), and they connect us to our essence as people (Book 4). The seven hundred pictures of Alexander's buildings and works of art shown in this book demonstrate in detail what he means. "Here is acclaimed architect Christopher Alexander's four-volume masterwork; the result of 27 years of research and a lifetime of profoundly original thinking. Consider three vital perspectives on our world: a scientific perspective; a perspective based on beauty and grace; a commonsense perspective based on our intuitions about everyday life. Neither scientists, nor mystics, nor architects, nor politicians have so far found a single view of the world in which the three are united. This groundbreaking work allows us to form on picture of the world in which all three perspectives are interlaces. It opens the door to 21st-century science and cosmology."--From dust jacket 'The Nature Of Order' considers architecture from the scientific, aesthetic, and intuitive perspectives, combining them into one picture that forms the context for a survey of architectural projects built and planned in many countries over a period of 30 years This Four-volume Work Allows The Reader To Form One Picture Of The World In Which The Perspectives From Science, Beauty And Grace, And Commonsense Intuitions Are Interlaced. bk. 1. The phenomenon of life bk. 2. The process of creating life bk. 3. A vision of a living world bk. 4. The luminous ground.