CITY IS NOT A TREE

Abstract ideas of cities – tree, semilattice,Structure of sets

Set is a collection of elements, belong to each other,work
together, set of elements can be called as a system
Cities – collection of material elements such as people, car, grass,
house, garden, water pipes etc.

Christopher Alexander
When the structure meets certain conditions it is called a
semilattice. When it meets other more restrictive conditions, it is
called a tree.

semilattice : A collection of sets forms a semilattice if and only if,

when two overlapping sets belong to the collection, the set of
elements common to both also belongs to the collection

Tree : A collection of sets forms a tree if and only if, for any two
sets that belong to the collection either one is wholly contained in
the other, or else they are wholly disjoint

Artificial cities – planned cities

Levittown, Chandigarh and the British New Towns are examples of artificial
cities.
Siena, Liverpool, Kyoto, Manhattan are examples of natural cities

Christopher Alexander
 Columbia, Maryland, Community Research and
Development, Inc.: Neighbourhoods,in clusters of five, form
'villages'. Transportation joins the villages into a new town.
The organization is a tree.

Greenbelt, Maryland, Clarence Stein: This 'garden city' has been broken
down into superblocks. Each superblock contains schools, parks and a
number of subsidiary groups of houses built around parking lots. The
organization is a tree.

Christopher Alexander
Urban artifacts and theory of city
City has to looked as a work of architecture – architecture as construction
…construction over time
Advantage of this kind of analysis – most comprehensive way of analyzing the city
Architecture is deeply rooted with the formation of civilization
City – ultimate success of human civilization and creation, and gives shape to the
society
The city grows upon itself , it acquire consciousness and memory
Study of city – chronological order,Memories, experience by different people are
constituents of the city – helps to judge the quality of space

Christopher Alexander
 BOOKS
Community & privacy
Written along with Chermgeef
Six realms of community and individual private spaces – hierarchy of public and
private spaces
1. Individual private areas
2. Family / small group private areas
3. Large group private areas – control of privacy on behalf of all residential in
the apartment
4. Large group public areas – semi controlled public side walks etc.
5. Urban semi public areas – banks post offices, airports, city halls where
places are restricted to people perform certain activities
6. Urban public areas – public controlled, open to all kind – ex parks
Successful urban spaces should incorporate this hierarchy

Christopher Alexander
Home or office privacy is essential and it leads to happiness of the occupant

Notes on synthesis of from - 1968

It talks about scientific approaches to architectural design
As he is functionalist his arguments are in line with the traditional
functionalism and relates with the mathematical models
Geometric properties of from and the evolution of same and their
suitability for various functions

Christopher Alexander
Oregon experiment
participatory democracy
Some places are lively, people prefer to go over again
Corner, sit against the bright colored walls, street corner to sit and watch
the activities
Hence instead of architects and planners ordinary people can design their
environment
University of Oregon campus designed based on this idea
He believed just like Jacobs ordinary people must know more about
humane habitat than professionals
Passing control to the campus community became known as The Oregon
Experiment
"all decisions about what to build, and how to build it, will be in the hands
of the users.“ - Alexander

Christopher Alexander
The entire project can be broken down to small units so that people can
visualize easily - allow the campus grow through careful and gradual
construction
To keep users from feeling lost in so much unfamiliar design work, Alexander
provided an encyclopedic set of suggestions for sensitive architecture, known
as a pattern language
Diagnosis – reviewing of patterns adopted to see the success or failure
Alexander developed an international reputation for fighting cold and
insensitive architecture, promoting instead a more satisfying and ecologically
sound system of design and construction. His demonstrations of low-cost,
high-quality, user-designed homes still set the standard for housing
development.
The Oregon Experiment is a planning classic it describes a working system in
great detail.
Alexander designed this process to protect users from power, money and
bureaucratic inertia

Christopher Alexander
Pattern language – 1977
It provides a language for planning and building

253 patterns
Height of building to location of square

Christopher Alexander