The Timeless Way of Building
by Christopher Alexander
Lowdown: Loved it. Just like the DNA that makes humans simultaneously the same and different, there is an underlying pattern to building that creates things that are the same, yet unique, which makes them true to the forces that created them. These things are then free from conflict and bring us peace. This is the timeless way of building.
What makes a building or a place or a town timeless? These kinds of places have a quality to them that helps us be at at peace when we are in them. There are no conflicts. Everything is just as it should be and functions as it should function.
According to Christopher Alexander, this timeless quality doesn’t have a name, nor can it be named. It is the quality without a name, and understanding this quality is the basis of his book, The Timeless Way of Building.
The timeless character of buildings is as much a part of nature as the character of rivers, trees, hills, flames, and stars.
Each class of phenomena in nature has its own characteristic morphology. Stars have their character; oceans have their character; rivers have their character; mountains have their character; forests have theirs; trees, flowers, insects, all have theirs. And when buildings are made properly, and true to all the forces in them, then they too will always have their own specific character. This is the character created by the timeless way.
It is the physical embodiment, in towns and buildings, of the quality without a name
When every part of a building or town is true to itself, true to its own character, then it will have this quality without a name. The current trend of cookie-cutter houses, houses made from the same plans, to be put on similar plots of ground is in direct contrast to the quality without a name.
Alexander compares the process of building in the timeless way to what happens as a human being is conceived and developed. At conception, a human being is one cell, with DNA organized into 23 pairs of chromosomes. Yet, as that cell divides and grows a strange thing happens: different cells start to form different parts of the human body: some form the skin, others the skeleton, others the nervous system. From the same basic building block, you get a human being and every human being. Each one a testament to the different (yet same!) patterns that created it.
To be alive, in this sense, is not a matter of suppressing some forces or tendencies, at the expense of others; it is a state of being in which all forces which arise in a man can find expression; he lives in balance among the forces which arise in him; he is unique as the pattern of forces which arises is unique; he is at peace, since there are no disturbances created by underground forces which have no outlet, at one with himself and his surroundings (p. 106).
Buildings and towns that have the quality without a name are also balanced and faithful and true to the forces that come to play in their creation. To build in this way, Alexander claims, we must all share the same language, a pattern language that describes the essence of the quality without a name. When we share this pattern language, we communicate in the timeless way, and build things that are timeless.
This book, however, only briefly mentions the pattern language. Instead, it is dedicated to convincing the reader why that pattern language is so important: so that buildings and towns have the quality without a name.
I think he succeeds admirably. I’m convinced, at least. I almost want to change professions and be an architect. After reading this, I look at my house a little differently now, trying to determine if I can and should change anything to give it this quality. I’ll have to read the next book in the series, A Pattern Language, though, so I know what patterns my house does and doesn’t have and what patterns it needs.
As a programmer, I quickly realized this book is the foundation for a lot of the philosophies in software engineering, from design patterns to agile programming. I ask myself all the time now “What makes a piece of software timeless? What makes software code timeless? Is even possible for software and its code to be timeless?”
The maker lets go of his will, and lets the process take over (p. 160).
I think this is one of the keys. When you let the process, or the patterns, take over, when you let the forces at play dictate what to do and how to do it, then you’re on the right track.
This book made me think. A lot. And still has me thinking. Highly recommended.
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