AR.

CHRISTOPHER
ALEXANDER
ACHIEVEMENTS:
⩩ THE FOUNDER OF THE CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL
STRUCTURE IN 1967( PRESIDENT TILL TODAY)
⩩ IN 2000, HE FOUNDED PATTERNLANGUAGE.COM, AND IS
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
⩩ HAS BEEN A CONSULTANT TO CITY, COUNTY, AND NATIONAL
GOVERNMENTS ON EVERY CONTINENT, HAS ADVISED
CORPORATIONS, GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, AND
ARCHITECTS AND PLANNERS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
⩩ ELECTED FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND
SCIENCES IN 1996
⩩ ELECTED FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND
SCIENCES IN 1996
⩩ THE RECIPIENT OF INNUMERABLE ARCHITECTURAL PRIZES
AND HONORS INCLUDING THE GOLD MEDAL FOR RESEARCH
OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS, AWARDED IN
1970
⩩ MORE RECENTLY, THE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM'S
VINCENT SCULLY PRIZE IN 2009.

BACKGROUND
⩩ Born in Vienna, Austria in 1936.
⩩ Raised in England.
⩩ Holds a Master's Degree in Mathematics and a Bachelor's
degree in Architecture from Cambridge University, and a
PhD in Architecture from Harvard University.
⩩ In 1958 he moved to the United States, and lived in
Berkeley, California from 1963 until 2002; in 2002, he
moved back to West Sussex, England, where he now
resides.
 ELEMENTS OF STYLE:

⩩ Levels of Scale : A balanced range of sizes is pleasing and

beautiful.
⩩ Strong Centers: Good design offers areas of focus or weight.
⩩ Boundaries : Outlines focus attention on the center.
⩩ Alternating Repetition : Repeating various elements creates a sense
of order and harmony.
⩩ Positive Space Positive: The background should reinforce rather
than detract from the center.
⩩ Good Shape: Simple forms create an intense, powerful center.
⩩ Local Symmetries: small-scale symmetry works better than precise,
overall symmetry.
⩩ Deep Interlock and Ambiguity: connected elements promote unity
and grace.
⩩ Contrast: Unity is achieved with visible opposites
⩩ Gradients: The proportional use of space and pattern creates
harmony
⩩ Roughness: imperfections convey uniqueness and life.
⩩ Simplicity and Inner Calm: Use only essentials; avoid extraneous
elements.
⩩ Not-Separateness : Designs should be connected and
complementary, not egocentric and isolated.
MOST OF THE WONDERFUL PLACES
IN THE WORLD WERE NOT MADE BY
ARCHITECTS BUT BY THE PEOPLE

AR.CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER
 THE EISHIN CAMPUS
Eishin Gakuen, an innovative private high school, was originally located in
Musashino-shi, outside Tokyo. They decided to build a new school which was
to become a combination high-school and college, on a new site of 9
hectares, once tea bush land, outside TokyoOf all the projects he have done, this
is one where the development of the pattern language and generative process
received the most complete, and formal process of discovery of patterns, experiments,
modification and formulation of patterns, hammering out a final version in committee

JULIAN STREET INN

Alexander designed the shelter in 1990, and he still drives down from his Berkeley home to talk
with residents and collect their impressions of how the building works as a living space. Before
even starting his design, in fact, he interviewed dozens of homeless people about what they
wanted; they were, after all, going to live there. Christopher Alexander has been on a self-
ordained mission to create an architecture in which man is at home with himself and his
environment. Along the way he has developed a reputation as something of a maverick. In the
1960s, he preached a gospel of "every man is his own architect”. This was his philosophy behind
building the structure. To understand Christopher Alexander's ideas about architecture,
and to understand the man himself, it helps to know something about the Julian Street
Inn
 SALA HOUSE
The process of building the Sala House reflected "the client’s central role and self-
empowerment, a construction deeply and fundamentally rooted to its site, structure
uniquely fitted to the requirements, and a methodology never imposed from the
drawing board.” The process of building the Sala House reflected”. the client’s central
role and self-empowerment, a construction deeply and fundamentally rooted to its
site, structure uniquely fitted to the requirements, and a methodology never imposed
from the drawing board."