The Nature of Order Webinar

2023-24 | 2022-23 | 2021-22 | 2020-21 | 2019-20

**2024/25 Academic year Nature Of Order Lectures**

*Interior of Cottage at Whidbey Institute, Ross Chapin, Architect. Photo: Y.Rofe'*

Webinar 11, December 12, 2024 View

We continue our discussion of the living process with two more chapters. In Chapter 11: The Sequence of Unfolding — Alexander discusses the importance of the unfolding of the centers in a correct sequence, so the most important centers are established first, to make sure they are placed correctly, and the minor ones are placed later. Chapter 12: Every Part Unique points to the fact that as the process of unfolding continues, each part will be finely tuned to its context and circumstances, thus making it unique.

Webinar 10, December 5, 2024 View

*Street Facades in Aachen, Germany. Photo: Y.Rofe'*

We continue the discussion of the Living Process and its properties. In chapter 9, Alexander discusses how in each step of the process the aim is to enhance the whole on which one is working. In chapter 10, he explains that the way to do it is to make centers at every step.

Webinar 9, November 28, 2024 View

*Piazza del Teatro, Cortona, Italy. Photo: Y.Rofe'*

We begin part II of the second book, which discusses the details of the living process. We address three chapters: Generated structure, The fundamental differentiating process, and Step by step adaptation.

Webinar 8, November 21, 2024 View

*Piazza San Marco, Venice. Photo: Y.Rofe*

We continue the discussion of Part I of Book 2 with the two chapters on structure preserving and structure destroying transformations in architecture, historical and contemporary. Students present examples of either or both kinds of transformations.

Webinar 7, November 14, 2024 View

*Sanctuary at the Whidbey Institute. Ross Chapin, Architect. Photo: Y.Rofé*

We begin discussing Book II: The Process of Creating Life. We will discuss the Preface on Process, and the first two chapters on Structure Preserving Transformations, and the Principle of Unfolding Wholeness. In this book Alexander switches to a dynamic view of wholeness showing how living structure can only be created through specific process which share certain principles of unfolding.

Webinar 6, November 7, 2024 View

We discuss the last three chapters of the first book: The Phenomenon of Life. Alexander is introducing his observation of self and feeling as an extension of the scientific method in order to deal with questions of wholeness and life. He discusses the impact that living structure has on human life, and what it means for our conception of space and the material world. We then have a concluding discussion of Book 1.

Webinar 5, October 24, 2024 View

*A simple salad of Pomegranate Seeds, Orange, Fresh Olive Oil and Salt. Photo: Y.Rofé*

Having completed the structural discussion of the field of centers, which is what brings things to life as it is intensified, we move on to the surprising fact that when we are in contact with life, and therefore with an intense field of centers, we are affected by it in the most personal way. We feel it in our own sense of well-being and of being alive. Based on that insight, Alexander developed a test that we can use to distinguish the relative life of things we encounter: natural landscapes, cities, buildings, art and artefacts. This test is the Mirror of the Self test. We evaluate which one of the two things compared seems to us to be more like a mirror of our own whole self.

Webinar 4, October 17, 2024 View

*Non Separateness in a Palestinian Settlement in the Mountains south of Hebron. Photo: Y.Rofé*

We continue our discussion of the 15 properties, discussing the last 7 properties. These properties are somewhat harder to discern geometrically, as they become more and more about the feeling that the configuration arises in us. Please bring to the session examples of places, things, natural phenomena etc. that contain these properties, particularly if you can identify more than one property in them.

Webinar 3, October 10, 2024 View

*Mushrooms and berries stall in Downtown Stockholm market, Yodan Rofé*

We begin our two weeks of discussion on the culmination of the structural part of Book I: wholeness and the field of centers and the 15 ways in which centers help each other to come to life. We discuss properties 1-8. Next week we'll discuss properties 9-15, and the appearance of the properties in nature. It would be good if participants to the webinar will bring photographs of one or two examples which exemplify one or more of the first 8 properties well to discuss in class.

Webinar 2, October 3, 2024 View

In this webinar we discuss two chapters from Book I: Wholeness and the theory of centers, and how life comes about from the wholeness. These are two key chapters that lay the foundation for all of Book I and beyond it. They contain the essence of Alexander's theory of centers, how they cooperate to create the wholeness, and how life is an outcome of the wholeness well woven together by the centers.

Webinar 1, September 26, 2024 View

Throughout the year we'll read together and discuss the four books of The Nature of Order. Each session will start with a short presentation by either Savayasaachi, my co-instructor, or myself, Yodan Rofe’, followed by a discussion. The discussion will be more interesting and lively if you read, or at least browse the chapters beforehand. Even if you've already read the books, a review will prove benificial.

The introduction in this session is somewhat longer than usual. I review the development of Alexander's thought leading to The Nature of Order, and discuss the ideas contained in the preface and the first two chapters: The Phenomenon of Life, and Degrees of Life.

**2023/24 Academic year Nature Of Order Lectures**

Webinar 29, May 9, 2024 View

Yodan Rofe’, Building Beauty’s Course Director, recently visited the Archeological Museum in Naples, and saw this painted slab. He thought it exemplified almost all of the lessons of The Nature of Order, both in the geometry of the forms as well as in the colors, which are muted but full of inner light despite the centuries that have passed.

In this last session of the webinar, discusses the main lessons of the four books, and their significance for all of us - particularly as this century unfolds with all its challenges.

Plastered and painted slab of stone from 5th century BC in Southern Italy

Webinar 28, May 2, 2024 View

Book 4

Michael Mehaffy: Christopher Alexander and Alfred North Whitehead: Nature (and Buildings) Alive

This talk explores the striking parallels between the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and the adaptive morphogenesis of Christopher Alexander. In particular, both upend the common conception of life as an exceptional phenomenon within an otherwise lifeless universe, and both find evidence for a universe that is suffused with primordial life. For Alexander, even buildings and spaces made by human beings can have degrees of life, in a literal and not metaphorical sense. The conclusion we will explore is that Alexander is not a sui generis thinker, but like Whitehead, operates within a rich and long, even ancient, tradition of process philosophy.

Michael W Mehaffy, Ph.D. is a noted scholar on Alexander‘s work, as well as a former student and colleague. He has held teaching and/or research appointments at nine graduate institutions in eight countries, and he is the author of several books related to Alexander’s work, including A New Pattern Language for Growing Regions: Places, Networks, Processes, and Cities Alive: Christopher Alexander, Jane Jacobs, and the Roots of the New Urban Renaissance. He is also the editor and contributor to A City is Not a Tree: 50th Anniversary Edition, a publication in book form of Alexander's classic 1965 text, along with contemporary commentaries by prominent scholar.

Webinar 27, April 25, 2024 View

Book 4

Daniel Schwab: The Work of Christopher Alexander from the perspective of eco-psychology

Eco-psychology is an effort to help people and society recover their connection to nature and a way of being in the world that is compatible with the ways of nature. This lecture explores how Christopher Alexander's work can be understood from the perspective of eco-psychology, and how an eco-psychological approach can support the practice of Building Beauty.

Daniel Schwab is an urban planner with a Masters degree from the Technical University of Berlin. He has practiced urban planning for governments in Germany and the USA and has studied Christopher Alexander's work for over 15 years. He is currently finishing writing a book on ecopsychology and cities, which has a major focus on the work of Christopher Alexander. He lives in New Mexico.

Webinar 26, April 18, 2024 View

Book 4

Alfred Bay: From Liminal space to Luminous Ground

Alfred says that life experiences before encountering Christopher Alexander prepared him for an intuitive understanding of the concepts explained and forces illuminated in The Nature of Order, particularly in The Luminous Ground: Surviving, at long odds, cancer at age 22; and navigating a series of construction projects in the years following, in which the work was driven by dramatic changes in the lives of the building owners. Alfred speaks to the material in Book 4, from understanding developed in his life experience.

Alfred is an Architect and Contractor in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Principle of a Design-Build firm for 40 years, specializing in residential remodelling, seismic rehab, and consulting about construction strategy. He studied at UC Berkeley with Alexander in the Building Process Program in 1990’s. He was a teaching assistant to early lectures on The Nature of Order.

Webinar 25, April 11, 2024 View

Book 4

Or Ettlinger: The Divided Brain and Ways of Building the World

Why has the built environment – and the way it is being built – changed so much during the 20th century? This talk will explore this question by drawing parallels between the thinking of Christopher Alexander and Iain McGilchrist. In line with Alexander, it will consider that the answer may have to do with the way our civilization has come to see the world, and in line with McGilchrist, it will consider that this adopted worldview may be the expression of a particular way of using the brain.

McGilchrist, who is a psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher, philosopher, and literary scholar, revisited the long-disputed question of differences between the hemispheres of the brain in his books The Master and His Emissary (2009) and The Matter With Things (2021). His hypothesis is that the essence of hemispheric differences lies not in whether or not they perform different functions, but rather in that they have two entirely different ways of approaching the world, of seeing the world, and consequently – of shaping the world.

This talk will show how McGilchrist’s understanding of the ways of the two hemispheres corresponds with Alexander’s lifework of developing alternative ways of building to the ones currently prevalent in mainstream architectural practice.

Or Ettlinger is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Webinar 24, March 28, 2024 View

Narendra Dengle discusses the connection between Christopher Alexander’s The Nature of Order and The Discovery of Architecture, as he sees it today on at least on three levels.

1. How we perceive the reality and the world around us.

2. What intellectual and philosophical grounds these two books share, and

3. How do the works of the two authors of the DoA visually/experientially/ materially resonate with the theories proposed by Alexander in his writings and particularly in the NoO.

The webinar explores the background of the works by two practicing architects, primarily in India, and their collaboration in the making of The Discovery of Architecture and their later association with Building Beauty and the NoO.

Narendra Dengle is an architect, author, artist, and educator based in Pune. His projects over the last five decades have been executed in tribal, rural, and urban centres in India, and the Sultanate of Oman.

Dolma Ling Nunnery, Dharamshala, 2005, M N Ashish Ganju Tribal Students Hostel, Kuju, 1978, Narendra Dengle

Webinar 23, March 21, 2021 View

Book 3

Yodan Rofe', Course Director of Building Beauty, discusses his development and use of the 'Feeling Map' in his Ph.D dissertation research, and the influence of The Nature of Order on his professional and academic work. Yodan’s research with feeling maps validated many of Alexander’s assertions about how feeling plays a role is understanding the built environment.

One of the examples given is the feeling map exercise that took place at the Sant'Anna Institute during the first year of Building Beauty. This example is also shown in the Site Analysis and Project Language Report done by students, which then helped determine the projects to undertake in the Sant’Anna garden in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years.

*Avenida da Liberdade, Lisbon. Yodan Rofe'*

Yodan Rofè is a an architect and urban planner with over 20 years professional, teaching and research experience. His research interests include the building processes and structure of informal settlements, urban form and movement, accessibility and equity, cognition and feeling in the built environment and urban public space and street design. Together with Allan Jacobs and Elizabeth Macdonald he authored The Boulevard Book: history, evolution, design of multi-way boulevards published by MIT Press. He edited together with Kyriakos Pontikis the book: In Pursuit of a Living Architecture: Continuing Christopher Alexander's Quest for a Humane and Sustainable Building Culture published by Common Ground Publishers.

Webinar 22, March 14, 2024 View

Book 3

Saman Moein discusses the occurrence of ornament in traditional forms of construction such as Timber Framing and Structural Masonry, based on his experience as a designer builder in the United States.

Saman is an Architect, and was one of the first students of Building Beauty. He completed his Masters in Architecture at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. He now works in a design build company in Vermont, United States.

Webinar 21, March 7, 2024 View

Book 3

Steve Mouzon, an architect, urbanist, author, blogger, and photographer, discusses Living Traditions as processes of continuous invention.

Common Perception

The term “traditional architecture” is commonly equated with “historical architecture,” both by the general public and within the architectural profession. Modernists have become highly proficient at framing all architecture not “of this time” as obsolete and not worthy of studying today except to put it in its proper place, which is the dustbin of history.

Dead Traditions

The Modernists are not completely wrong. A tradition that was once vibrant but fell out of use can be considered a dead tradition, like anything else that once lived but does so no longer.

Revived Traditions & Timelessness

Unlike organic creatures, a tradition once living, then dead can be revived if the artifacts it left on the land resonate enough with future generations. And because children so often reject the work of their parents, it is perhaps inevitable that most traditions die a generation later. But when the tradition is strong enough to create resonance with grandchildren or later descendants of the pioneers, it can certainly be revived. And when a tradition escapes the bonds of the pioneers and takes on a life of its own with future generations, it can be said to have achieved timelessness, as it can no longer be associated with a single time period. The countless strains of Modernism, forever striving to be of their time, are in contrast the most quickly out of date and destined to forevermore be dead traditions.

The Search

For me, the Mystery of Mooresville began on the day after Thanksgiving, 1980 centered on the question of how simple farmers and tradespeople in a small Alabama town could build a better place than all the experts from 1945 to 1980. The most mysterious part was the fact that this great place-making wisdom was handed down to future generations with no known written material. It took a quarter-century to unlock the mystery with four simple words: “we do this because…”

The Process

When every pattern of architecture is expressed in these terms, it opens up the rationale of each pattern to all so everyone is allowed to think again. Modernists have rightfully complained about style-based pattern books because their prescriptive nature disallows innovation. Opening up the rationale can rightfully be considered to be the heartbeat of a living tradition.

Innovation

An environment in which all are allowed to think is a great seedbed of innovation. But this is principle-based innovation, not novelty-based innovation. This allows a truly living tradition to do something the Modernists cannot achieve: be at once part of a continuum of things long-proven to work while at the same time being highly innovative. Because this innovation is essentially crowd-sourced because everyone is allowed to think, it produces results that are highly modern (little m) while truly traditional.

Webinar 20, February 29, 2024 View

Book 3

Architect Susan Ingham discusses “The Uniqueness of People’s Individual Worlds” and the “Character of Rooms,” chapters 12 and 13 in Book 3, showing many examples of real projects.

Susan Ingham is a licensed architect practicing in Seattle, Washington, USA. Her firm, KASA Architecture, was founded in 2004 and specializes in residential design. The main focus of her work is to try to create environments with beauty where her clients can feel a deep sense of belonging. Susan obtained both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied and worked intensively with Christopher Alexander and his colleagues. Susan is one of the founders and core faculty members at Building Beauty, our post-graduate diploma in architecture based on Alexander’s theories and methods, where she teaches the Design Studio course both online and in Sorrento, Italy.

Webinar 19, February 22, 2024 View

Book 3

Engaging Communities in Suburban Densification, with Ben Bolgar, Executive Director of the Projects team at the King’s Foundation, and Design Director of the development company, Stockbridge Land. Since the great fire of London in 1666 London has grown from 350,000 to just under 10 million people. Rapid Urbanisation first occurred in two waves in the 19th and early 20th century giving typical residential typologies of terraced houses and mansion flats. The early 20th century saw the expansion of the suburbs based on garden city principles and then the expansion of post war housing was shaped by the modern movement. This talk will look at some of the initiatives by the King’s Foundation in responding to housing in London and then a particular 60 acre site at the edge of London where a community has been engaged in planning a new neighbourhood.

In 2004, Ben, and Michael Mehaffy participated in a workshop run by Alexander for the design of a neighborhood in Strood, UK. In this workshop Chris showed the power of using generative sequences to design a neighborhood. So, after Ben's presentation of the King's Foundation's design workshop method, Michael will present the Strood project, and highlight the shared and different aspects of the two methodologies.

Unfolding of A community from a Generative Code: The Riverside Community of Strood

Webinar 18, February 15, 2024 View

Book 3

“Five projects in India: Process discussed in the light of Alexander’s vision of public space and buildings.” Narendra Dengle discusses a few representative projects done since 1974 in tribal and urban India, as well as the concerns and processes, in the context of the NoO Book III.

Narendra is an architect, author, artist, and educator based in Pune. His projects over the last five decades have been executed in tribal, rural, and urban centres in India, and the Sultanate of Oman. He was the founding partner of The GRÜP (1974-86), New Delhi. He taught at the SPA New Delhi, has been the Design Chair at KRVIA, Mumbai, Academic Chair at GCA Goa, and later at PVPCOA Pune. He has been on the faculty of the Building Beauty Program, at Sorrento, Italy since 2018. His books include JHAROKA, 2006 (Marathi), The Discovery of Architecture: a contemporary treatise on ancient values and indigenous reality co-authored with M N Ashish Ganju, Dialogues with Indian Master Architects, 2016, and Architecture in Maharashtra: Tradition & Journey Vol I &II awaiting publication. He is deeply concerned about the wholeness of life, connections with ancient wisdom, and the processes of its manifestation in art and architecture.

Webinar 17, February 8, 2024 View

Book 3

In this lecture we host Ana Jancar. Ana is an architect, urban designer, and playground designer. She works at ADAM Architecture in the UK and independently in Slovenia. She is a graduate of the first cohort of the Building Beauty program in Sorrento, Italy.

Her lecture will discuss how to develop an architectural project where the building volumes and the site are intertwined, and how to design the built mass to express the client’s dreams and visions with and through the existing centers on the land. This talk demonstrates the living process as it unfolded in two project proposals in rural settings: an ornithological center in Slovenia and a private residence in Croatia. This is discussed in the context of two chapters in Book 3: Chapter 5 - The Positive Pattern of Space and Volume in Three Dimensions on the Land, and Chapter 7 - The character of gardens.

*Model for a house in Croatia, Ana Jancar*

*Contemporary belonging, a street corner in Stockholm, Yodan Rofe'*

Webinar 16, February 2, 2024 View

Book 3

We start the discussion of Books III and IV of The Nature of Order. In addressing Book III, we're going to accompany the readings by presentations from practitioners and researchers of their own work, and relating that work to the chapters discussed each week. In this lecture, I'll outline the progression of the presentations, and discuss Part 1 of the book, which sets the stage for a vision of a living world.

Webinar 15, January 25, 2024 View

Book 2, 565-632

This is the final webinar of this semester. We discuss the two books as a whole, and reflect on their meaning for us. Please, in preparation, reflect on what are three main lessons you learned and what you take away from participating in the webinar so far. Also think about two questions or problems you feel are still unanswered by the books, or the discussion in the webinar.

*Bench at Sant'Anna Institute, Sorrento built by Building Beauty Students 2019. Yodan Rofe'*

Webinar 14, January 18, 2024 View

Book 2, 495-564

*The William Morris Room at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Yodan Rofe'*

We host three architects who are supporters of Building Beauty to discuss how they see the role of the architect in the 21st century - in response to one of the chapters closing Book II. Our guests are Ross Chapin in Washington state, Duo Dickinson in Connecticut, and Gernot Mittersteiner in Vienna.

Webinar 13, January 11, 2024 View

Book 2, 401-494

We're drawing to the close of the semester and the reading of book 2. Tomorrow we're going to discuss the concluding chapters of part II describing the living process. The three chapters discussed will be: The emergence of formal geometry, Form language and style and Simplicity.

*Bench in Giardino della Minerva, Salerno, Italy. Yodan Rofe’*

Webinar 12, December 14, 2023 View

Book 2, 341-400

*Garden Caffe' in Stockholm, Yodan Rofe'*

In the last session before we go on our holiday break, we discuss Alexander's reinterpretation of patterns as generic rules for making centers at the architectural and urban scale, and the goal of reaching deep feeling as one goes through the living process.

Webinar 11, December 7, 2023 View

Book 2, 299-340

*Tile work from Sintra National Palace, Portugal. Yodan Rofe'*

We continue the discussion of the Living Process and dwell on two more of its features: the importance of the sequence of the process as it unfolds step by step, and the fact that when the process unfolds each part becomes unique (however, within a general similarity of repetition).

Webinar 10, November 30, 2023 View

Book 2, 249-298

*Villa San Michele, Anacapri. Yodan Rofe'*

Discussion of Living Process continues with Chapter 9 and 10. Chapter 9: how each step is always helping to enhance the whole being formed. Chapter 10: we must be making centers at each step (at least one), but usually contributing to the creation of at least one larger center, and giving rise to more latent centers.

Webinar 9, November 23, 2023 View

Book 2, 175-248

*Arch. Victor Horta's house and studio, Brussels*

This week we address part II of Book 2, in which Alexander begins to lay out the principles of a living process. He distinguishes between what he calls generated vs. fabricated structure. Generated structures are a result of differentiation processes that allow fine tuned adaptation as they progress step by step.

Webinar 8, November 16, 2023 View

Book 2, 85-174

We discuss structure preserving and destroying transformations in traditional societies and in modern society. We consider examples in which a transformation can be visible in time.

Looking at this image, is the modern addition structure preserving or destroying?

Webinar 7, November 9, 2023 View

Book 2, 1-84

*BB students working on constructing a bench at Sant'Anna Institute, Sorrento*

Today we begin the discussion of Book II: The Process of Creating Life. In this book Alexander explains that living structure, defined and explained in Book I, can only be achieved in Nature and in Human Artefacts in a particular kind of process: a process that allows wholeness to unfold step by step. This idea is introduced in the preface, which also lays out the structure of the argument. Its two principal ideas are presented in the following two chapters. The nature of a good process is that the wholeness unfolds to achieve a higher degree of life and, in order to unfold well, the process has to preserve the existing structure of the wholeness and continue and extend it.

Webinar 6, November 2, 2023 View

Book 1, 351-444

We discuss the last three chapters of the first book: The Phenomenon of Life. Alexander is introducing his observation of self and feeling as an extension of the scientific method in order to deal with questions of wholeness and life. He discusses the impact that living structure has on human life, and what it means for our conception of space and the material world.

Webinar 5, October 26, 2023 View

Book 1, 298-350

We discuss the surprising fact that things that have life happen to touch us personally in a deep way, and a test developed by Alexander to help us distinguish between cases on the basis of our own sense of self: the mirror of the self test.

*Two chapels in the hills above Sorrento, Yodan Rofe'*

Webinar 4, October 19, 2023 View

Book 1, 200-296

We continue discussion of the 15 properties of the field of centers. We will also discuss the appearance of 15 properties in natural phenomena. The properties covered are Contrast, Graded Variation, Roughness, Echoes, The Void, Inner Calm and Simplicity, Not Separateness.

*Temple complex at Wai, Maharashtra, India. Yodan Rofe*

Webinar 3, October 12, 2023 View

Book 1, 143-199

We begin our two weeks of discussion on the culmination of the structural part of Book I: wholeness and the field of centers and the 15 ways in which centers help each other to come to life. We discuss properties 1-8. Next week we'll discuss properties 9-15, and the appearance of the properties in nature.

Webinar 2, October 5, 2023 View

Book 1, 79-142

We discuss two chapters from Book I: Wholeness and the theory of centers, and how life comes about from the wholeness. These are two key chapters that lay the foundation for all of Book I and beyond it. They contain the essence of Alexander's theory of centers, how they cooperate to create the wholeness, and how life is an outcome of the wholeness well woven together by the centers.

*The Palumbo Hotel, pergola in the garden overlooking the sea. Y.Rofe'*

Webinar 1, September 28, 2023 View

Book 1, 1-78

*Life on a street in Downtown Pune, India (Y.Rofe)*

Throughout the year we'll read together and discuss the four books of The Nature of Order. Each session will start with a short presentation by either Savayasaachi, my co-instructor, or myself, Yodan Rofe, followed by a discussion. The discussion will be more interesting and lively if you read the chapters beforehand, and even if you've already read the books, review them again.

Today's introduction will be somewhat longer than usual. I will review the development of Alexander's thought leading to the NoO, and discuss the ideas contained in the introduction and the first two chapters: The Phenomenon of Life, and Degrees of life.

2022/23 Academic year

Webinar 29, May 11, 2023 View

Book 4, 317-344

The Luminous Ground understood from the perspective of the evolution of Continental Philosophy after the Copernican Revolution, Rajendra Dengle

I will be suggesting that Alexander’s different way of understanding order and creating beauty post WWII has its genesis in the tradition of phenomenological hermeneutics; and his idea of “Living Structures” could be seen as a synthesis of hermeneutics and some reflections of the Russian Formalists on creativity in language and literature. Such a synthesis, by shifting its focus from the object to the essential relatedness of the subject and object of knowledge, responds critically to the consequences of the praxis of Positivism in human sciences, its mechanistic worldview, and its claims of universality.

Rajendra Dengle taught at the Centre of German Studies, JNU, for 42 years, retiring in July 2021. His research interests have been Philosophy of Language, Theories of Literature, Communication and the New Media. He has been Secretary of the Goethe Society of India and Editor of its Yearbook. He has published research papers on Friedrich Schiller, Ödön von Horváth, Fritz Mauthner, and Vilém Flusser. Apart from his academic work, he has been Dean of Students and Dean of the School of Language, Literature, and Culture Studies of JNU.

Webinar 28, May 4, 2023, View

Book 4, 271-316

Living Structure - a great idea beyond Descartes, Bin Jiang

The talk will explore the concept of living structure, as presented in the fourth book of Christopher Alexander's The Nature of Order. The speaker will begin by defining scales and the scaling, the fourth meaning of scale, and explain how they relate to the idea of living structure. The talk will then compare two structures to determine which one is more living or alive, and explain the criteria used to evaluate living structures. The speaker will also explore why one structure may be considered more living than another. Finally, the talk will delve into how we can make sense of living structures in our inner world, and what implications this may have for our understanding of beauty and design. Overall, the talk aims to provide students with a deeper understanding of the concept of living structure and its relationship to scales, scaling, and our inner world, in the context of building beauty beyond René Descartes' ideas.

Dr. Bin Jiang currently holds the position of Professor of Urban Informatics at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), China. His research interests center on geospatial analysis and modeling, for example, topological analysis and scaling hierarchy applied to buildings, streets, and cities, or geospatial big data in general. Over the past years, he has developed a series of novel concepts, methods, and tools, which are all complexity science oriented, such as natural cities, natural streets, head/tail breaks, ht-index, and scaling law, not only for better understanding city structure and dynamics, but also for effectively transforming cities and communities to become living or more living. He formulated three fundamental issues of urban science about a city: how it looks, how it works, and what it ought to be. In other words, urban science should study not only how cities are, but also – probably more importantly – what cities ought to be, that is, urban planning and design towards a sustainable society. Inspired by the great architect Christopher Alexander, he developed a mathematical model of beauty – or beautimeter – which helps address not only why a city is beautiful, but also how beautiful the city is. He is the primary developer of the software tool Axwoman for topological analysis of very large street networks. He is the founding chair of the International Cartographic Association (ICA) Commission on Geospatial Analysis and Modeling, and co-founding chair of ICA Working Group on Digital Transformation. He used to be Associate Editor of international journal Computer, Environment and Urban Systems (2009–2014), and is currently Associate Editor of some international journals such as Computational Urban Science.

Webinar 27, April 27, 2023 View

Book 4, 241-270

Finding Meaning in The Nature of Order: A cognitive-scientific perspective on Christopher Alexander, Stefan Lesser

"The humane view of the ground as a psychological and structural phenomenon is undoubtedly more easy to accept. In this view we keep a view of the I as something in our experience, as a psychological ground, which exists in every human being: and we recognize that we cannot make a living building unless each one of its centers is connected to the structure of this self or psychological ground. Then the blazing one, the blazing furnace, which is seeable, reachable, reached by the artist trying to find union with the I, or reached by the observer who, through the existence of a living work, sees and makes contact with the I, makes sense as psychology. Even in that case, the blazing one remains as experienced reality."

— Christopher Alexander in Book 4, The Luminous Ground

Scratching the surface of various ideas from ancient philosophers Plato and Aristotle to more recent and contemporary scientists Erich Fromm, Alicia Juarrero, George Lakoff, and John Vervaeke, we will explore several perspectives on "the psychological phenomenon".

Can 4E Cognitive Science help us make sense of and find deeper meaning in The Nature of Order?

Stefan Lesser is a software engineer and Building Beauty alumni, who turned to cognitive science to investigate similarities and differences between minds and machines.

Webinar 26, April 20, 2023 View

Book 4, 143-240

The Divided Brain and Ways of Building the World, Or Ettlinger

Christopher Alexander’s insights about the built world have surprising parallels with the insights of Iain McGilchrist about the brain hemispheres.

McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher, philosopher, and literary scholar who revisited and reinterpreted the roles of the two hemispheres of the brain in his book The Master and His Emissary, suggesting that their difference lies not in their functions but rather in their different ways of approaching – as well as shaping – the world.

In this talk, we will see how the way the architecture of our time is building the world reflects the focused, literal worldview of the left hemisphere, and how Alexander’s lifework has been a series of attempts to develop methods for implementing the contextual and wholesome way of the right hemisphere in architectural practice.

Or Ettlinger teaches architecture at the University of Ljubliana, Slovenia, and has been on the Building Beauty staff since 2018.

Webinar 25, April 6, 2023 View

Book 4, 49-142

Hand crafting Indira’s Net: Reflections on the Nature of Order and Building Beauty, Savyasaachi

As we progress into the twenty first century there is ‘exhaustion of will’ and ‘loss of agency’ when faced with intractable speed, mass destruction, growing misery, bad faith and grief. It is now well known that there is limited success of policy initiative, of mass movements, of voluntary initiatives and of legal and judicial activism. We are thus confronted with the questions, what is it that needs to be done and what is it that can be done?

Is it possible to engage with these questions by beginning handcrafting Indira’s Net?

Webinar 24, March 30, 2023 View

Book 4, 1-48

Teaching The Nature of Order, Yodan Rofè

We begin the discussion of the fourth book of the Nature of Order - The Luminous Ground. In this series of lectures, the various speakers will discuss their encounter with Alexander's theory and practice, and its relationship to other thinkers, or schools of thought. See the syllabus above for the list of the lectures and speakers.

*Mockup for a redesign of a pergola at the Albert Katz School for Desert Studies Student Housing, Ben-Gurion University done by students as final exercise of studying the Nature of Order.*

The series will start with Yodan Rofè’s lecture on Teaching The Nature of Order, and its role within the curriculum of Building Beauty — a summary of his experience of more than 30 years of living and working with it. The paper based on his lecture can be found in his Academia.edu or ResearchGate pages.

Webinar 23, March 23, 2023 View

Book 3, 639-693

Towards a 'life-like' economy, Dill Green

Applying 40 years engagement with the work and teaching of Chris Alexander into a novel domain.

What Chris. called 'System B', which he considers incapable of creating beauty or supporting life, is strongly conditioned by the underlying system of economy, which has driven us to a condition where no domain of human value production seems able to be sustained in creating beauty or supporting life. The question is; can we have an economy which is life-like enough to change this? What would be needed? How can we transition?

Dil Green was introduced to Alexander's work while an undergraduate architecture student in the early 1980s. He made his way to Berkeley, and both studied under, and worked for Chris. Back in the UK, he revolted against the wave of deconstructionists then taking over UK architectural education, and completed his higher degree part time while making furniture and small buildings. After working on large projects, he set up a small practice in 1999 and designed over 20 projects over the next 15 years, acting as main contractor on about half of these, continuously working to bring Alexander's teaching to life in the work. Realising that the workings of the economy were antithetical to this effort, and with the developing speed of the omni-crisis, he has been working with Mutual Credit Services to build tools and processes which can serve an economy which connects to and supports life.

Webinar 22, March 16, 2023 View

Book 3, 579-638

Deciphering Kosmos: Design with the Timeless Language of Ornament, Kas and Misha Semënov-Leiva

From foliated friezes to snaking spirals, gruesome gargoyles to graceful guilloches, humans have used ornament for millennia to adorn objects and buildings. In this lecture, we will seek to define ornament and understand its many social and aesthetic functions through the ages. Is ornament ultimately, as Christopher Alexander suggests, one and the same as function and simply part of the larger fractal construction of living order, or does human ornament have a very unique role to play as an intermediary between buildings and the larger cosmos? We will attempt to stake out ornament’s territory within the larger world of architecture while sharing some of our own work with designing, fabricating, and teaching ornament.

Misha and Kas work as Senior Architect and Architectural Designer, respectively, at Centerbrook Architects and Planners in Connecticut, USA, and are design leads at SpiraLworks, an interdisciplinary design practice dedicated to nurturing the wholeness of place. As adjunct faculty at the University of Hartford’s Department of Architecture, they teach an introductory course on ornament’s history and design. They are both former students and collaborators with Kent Bloomer, a leading scholar and designer of ornament.

Webinar 21 - March 9, 2023 View

Book 3, 447-578

We're happy to host in our next webinar Anna Heringer. She discusses her use of, and innovation with, traditional architecture techniques in creating sustainable and culturally appropriate projects. For Anna architecture is a tool to improve lives. As an architect and honorary professor of the UNESCO Chair of Earthen Architecture, Building Cultures, and Sustainable Development she is focusing on the use of natural building materials. She has been actively involved in development cooperation in Bangladesh since 1997. Her diploma work, the METI School in Rudrapur got realized in 2005 and won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2007. Over the years, Studio Anna Heringer has realized further projects in Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Anna is lecturing worldwide at conferences, including TED and has been visiting professor at various universities such as Harvard and ETH Zurich. She received numerous honors: the OBEL Award 2020, the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, Curry Stone Design Prize, the Femmes Architects Award 2020, the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s GSD and a RIBA International Fellowship. Her work was widely published and exhibited in the MoMA New York, the V&A Museum in London and at the Venice Biennale among other places.

Webinar 20 - March 2, 2023 View

Book 3, 361-446

RESOLUTION OF FORCES, Alfred Bay

“Since the exact configuration of the surroundings at any one place and time is always unique, the configuration of forces which the system is subject to is also unique… There is a character in natural things which is created by the fact that they are reconciled, exactly, to their inner forces.” Timeless Way of Building (P 147)

Every project of transformation of a personal living space begins with a feeling within the person inhabiting the space that something is not quite right with their being in the world, and a belief (at least hope) that physical change to the space can resolve that conflict. In this short presentation, Alfred Bay will shares findings from my forty-some years of involvement in this process of transformation.

Alfred is an architect and general contractor working and living in San Francisco. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Palo Alto Senior Housing Project, Inc. as Executive in charge of Oversight for a $12 Million building. He holds an M. Arch. Degree from University of California, Berkeley. (1989-1994).

Bay, Alfred (2016) "The Resolution of Forces", in Pontikis, K. and Rofe' Y. (eds.) In Pursuit of Living Architecture: Continuing Christopher Alexander's Quest for a Humane and Sustainable Building Culture, Common Ground. 462-476 (attached).

Webinar 19 - February 23, 2023 View

Book 3, 257-360

Prof. Sergio Porta, International Director of Building Beauty and the President of the Building Beauty Cultural Association gives a presentation titled: "System A at large scale: an evolutionary perspective and a new technolohy that might help.”

The production of living structures has always been the focus of Chris Alexander’s attention. When it comes to the construction process, most of his experimental practice occurred at the small scale of individual or a small group of buildings, with the notable exception of the Eishin Campus. What about the village and the city, then? Alexander’s approach to the scale of the urban fabric has always remained fundamentally unresolved, as the anecdote of the last-minute withdrawal of “Battle’s” chapter 24 witnesses. In this presentation, I will first address the question theoretically, following the trace of a 2016 paper that Yodan Rofé and I co-authored for the PURPLSOC conference in Krems, Austria. I will then introduce Urban MorphoMetrics, a new digital ecosystem that allows the analysis of urban form at extra-large scale without compromising on richness of information. The presentation aims to highlight the only partially intuitive common ground that is shared by the two applications: evolution .

Webinar 18 - February 16, 2023 View

Book 3, 153-256

Architect Narendra Dengle discusses three projects — two institutional ones and a housing project — and their socio-cultural-environmental contexts, the processes of design and planning of the layouts, especially dealing with 'The Positive Pattern of Space and Volume', and the lessons learned from them.

Webinar 17 - February 9, 2023 View

Book 3, 67-152

Yodan Rofe presents work done recently on promoting a pedestrian-oriented urban region in Israel. The work was prepared for Netivei Ayalon, one of the public companies operating under the Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety and charged with carrying out transportation related public infrastructure projects in Israel. The project seeks to envision Israel's growing and densifying urban regions as pedestrian-oriented metropolitan regions. This transformation is based on a series of patterns, that are implementable at multiple scales, and many different agents.

At the end of the lecture, Yodan discusses how this project ties into Alexander's conception of public space as described in Chapter 3: The hulls of public space.

Webinar 16 - February 2, 2023 View

Book 3, 1-66

We begin our discussion of Books III and IV of The Nature of Order. In addressing Book III, we're going to accompany the readings by presentations from practitioners and researchers of their own work, and relating that work to the chapters discussed each week. In this lecture, I'll outline the progression of the presentations, and discuss Part 1 of the book, which sets the stage for a vision of a living world.

Webinar 15 - January 19, 2023 View

Book 2, 565-632

We give an overview of the Books 1 and 2 and their major insights, speculate on what kind of world is envisioned through their lessons, and how can we bring about such a world.

Webinar 14 - January 12, 2023 View

Book 2, 495-564

We're drawing to the end of Book II of the Nature of Order, and the first semester of the webinar. We discuss Part 3 of the book, which brings the discussion of the living process to its conclusion. It highlights the difficulty in implementing the living process in today's world, and the many obstacles laying in its path. It imagines a reform, through a change in paradigm, but also the implementation of many single sequences that could be independently copied and thus proliferate. Finally it imagines a new role for architects as curators of the wholeness of local communities.

To discuss these chapters we use a symposium format and address these questions:

1) To what degree am I free to create wholeness in my ordinary life and work?

2) What are some of the obstacles that the common processes of society lay in my path for creating wholeness?

3) What are some of the obstacles that are internal within me which make it hard to achieve wholeness in my life?

4) What small changes can I make in my processes that could improve at least part of what I do? Is it something that I can share with others? What would it take to do so?

Webinar 13 - January 5, 2023 View

Book 2, 401-494

We discuss three key chapters regarding the living process, particularly as it pertains to buildings: the emergence of formal geometry, form language and simplicity.

Webinar 12 - December 15, 2022 View

Book 2, 324-400

*Tilework at the Sintra National Palace, Portugal*

We discuss aspects of the living process in the next three chapters: Every part unique, Patterns: rules for making centers, and Deep feeling.

Webinar 11 - December 8, 2022 View

*Historic Japanese Tearoom Interior (https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2096.html*)

Book 2, 249-322

We continue the discussion of the various aspects of the Living Process. We will discuss three chapters: The Whole, Always Making Centers and The Sequence of Unfolding. The Whole chapter stresses the need for the living process to always be oriented towards the creation of the larger wholeness. Always Making Centers tells us that at each step we need to make at least one center, and to help bring to life centers at the larger, similar and smaller scale from the center we're working on. The Sequence of Unfolding holds that the process has to follow a particular sequence - so important centers are established first, and less important ones are developed later to enable the project to unfold smoothly.

Webinar 10 - December 1, 2022 View

Book 2, pages 175-248

We begin part 2 of the book, which discusses in detail the characteristics of living processes. We discuss the Introduction and three chapters: Generated structure, The fundamental differentiating process, Step by step adaptation.

Saachi presents the chapters and leads the discussion.

Webinar 9 - November 24, 2022 View

Book 2, pages 107-174

We discuss Chapters 4 and 5 in Book II. The chapters deal with structure destroying transformation in modern society, the failure of unfolding, and examples of structure preserving transformations from the modern era. Please look at Alexander's examples and try to think of at least one example which is structure destroying, and one which is structure preserving from your own experience and life.

Webinar 8 - November 17, 2022 View

Book 2, pages 1-106

We start Book 2. The discussion will be of the Preface and the first two chapters. In this book, Alexander departs from the static analysis of objects and places, and delves into the kind of processes that are needed in order to create life in the built environment.

Webinar 7 - November 10, 2022 View

Book 1, pages 351-444

Floor of Olivetti Shop, Pzza. San Marco, Venice - Carlo Scarpa

We complete our study and discussion of Book I - The Phenomenon of Life. The chapters we're going to base the discussion on will be the last three chapters of the book, and we'll also discuss the impact that the book as a whole had on you.

Webinar 6 - November 3, 2022 View

Book 1, 298-350

We begin discussing the second part of Book I, which departs from the geometric-structural considerations of the first book and begins to probe the fact that places and things which have life, touch us personally. It also discusses the Mirror of the Self test, which allows us to make judgements in comparisons between things, by asking ourselves which one of them is more a mirror of our own true self.

Webinar 5 - October 27, 2022 View

Book 1, pages 222-296

Bench built by Building Beauty Students at Sant”Anna Institute 2019

We discuss the final three properties, which are perhaps the most abstract. These are: 13. The Void; 14. Simplicity and Inner Calm; and 15. Non-Separateness. While many of the previous properties call for the creation of centers by adding complexity and detail to the configuration. These three properties call for simplification and unification of the wholeness.

Webinar 4 - October 20, 2022 View

Book 1, pages 186-221

We continue the discussion of the 15 properties with a discussion of properties 7-12. The properties are 7. Local Symmetries; 8. Deep Interlock and Ambiguity; 9. Contrast; 10. Gradients; 11. Roughness; and 12. Echoes.

Webinar 3 - October 13, 2022 View

Book 1, pages 143-185

We begin a three week discussion of Chapters 5 and 6 on the Fifteen Fundamental Properties in buildings and artefacts, and in nature. Savyasaachi leads the discussion on the first six properties: 1) Levels of Scale, 2) Strong Centers, 3) Boundaries, 4) Alternating Repetition, 5) Positive Space, and 6) Good Shape.

University of Oregon Student Family Housing designed by CES

The 15 properties were discovered by Alexander following an empirical method of observing things which he felt to have more life. Sensing that they have common structural properties, he tried to define these properties. They rarely appear alone, and often things that have a lot of life show several of them together. They can also be understood as the 15 ways in which Centers help each other to gain life, and form the wholeness.

Webinar 2 - October 6, 2022 View

Book 1, pages 79-142

We discuss two chapters from Book I: Wholeness and the theory of centers, and how life comes about from the wholeness. These are two key chapters that lay the foundation for all of Book I and beyond it. They contain the essence of Alexander's theory of centers, how they cooperate to create the wholeness, and how life is an outcome of the wholeness well woven together by the centers.

Webinar 1 - September 29, 2022 View

Book 1, pages 1-78

The opening session of the Webinar for our new academic year. Savyasaachi and Narendra Dengle introduced the first two chapters of the book: The Phenomenon of Lilfe, and Degrees of Life. A discussion of the concepts of life, beauty and wholeness, and of the difference between Alexander's conception of life and wholeness and the mechanistic conception of the world ensued.

**2021/22 Academic year Nature Of Order Lectures**

Webinar 28 - April 14, 2022 View

David Seamon: Ways of Understanding Wholeness: Place, Christopher Alexander, and Synergistic Relationality

In this presentation, I discuss architect Christopher Alexander’s work in relation to a broader body of research and design focusing on a “phenomenology of place and place making.” I begin by describing two contrasting ways of understanding wholeness—what I call analytic relationality and synergistic relationality. In analytic relationality, wholes are pictured as sets of arbitrary parts external to each other and among which are located linkages involving stronger and weaker connections and relationships. In contrast, synergistic relationality interprets wholes as dynamic, generative fields that sustain and are sustained by intensive parts that integrally belong to and support the whole. I suggest that, in terms of synergistic relationality, places can be envisioned as interconnected fields of intertwined relationships gathering and gathered by a lived intimacy between people and world. I illustrate how Alexander’s approach to wholeness assumes a synergistic relationality and contributes to both understanding and making places that are whole, robust, and life-enhancing.

Webinar 27 - April 7, 2022 View

James Maguire: The Role of Being: Philosophical Underpinnings in The Nature of Order

After completing a Master’s of Architecture (MArch) degree in Chris Alexander’s program at UC Berkeley in 1988, James worked with him at The Center for Environmental Structure (CES) for six years. During that time, he managed the construction of the San Jose Homeless Shelter, the Upham house, the Palo Alto house, and assisted on the designs for the LaMar house, a number of large housing projects, including the University of Oregon student housing, Agate St. housing, Podunk housing, Sacramento delta housing, and Aspen housing. For all these endeavors, in seeking the appropriate form, Chris would often reference the being that was trying to come to life, or become present or more present, in the thing we were designing or making. This led me to ask an important question: What is Being?

The lecture is based on a recent paper published in the Sideview Journal. Here is the link to the paper: https://thesideview.co/journal/the-role-of-being/

Webinar 26 - March 31, 2022 View

Michael Mehaffy: Alexander's New Conception of the Nature of Matter: Antecedents in Whitehead, Aristotle and Others

Book Four of The Nature of Order begins with a preface titled “Towards a New Conception of the Nature of Matter.” What is this conception, as explored later in the book, and how new is it? How does it relate to previous work from Alfred North Whitehead (whom Alexander quotes), or with Aristotle’s pioneering work on part-whole relations (or “mereology"), or with other work in fields like physics, psychology and mathematics? This lecture will explore these topics, and will conclude that Alexander does indeed build on and advance the work of the others.

Webinar 25 - March 24, 2022 View

We dedicated this session of the webinar to sharing memories of life and work with Professor Christopher Alexander who passed away on March 17th. Students, friends, colleagues and people who only got to know him from his writings talked about what he and his work have meant for them, and the impact he has had on their lives.

Webinar 24 - March 17, 2022 View

Jenny Quillien: “Haunted Spaces for Lesser Gods” - exploring the lower road to Christopher Alexander’s findings in Book Four of The Nature of Order

The final volume of Christopher Alexander’s The Nature of Order, entitled The Luminous Ground, proposes a cosmology where the universe is composed of matter-space imbued with spirit, the sentient “I.” Alexander offers two hypotheses: one, quickly dismissed as ‘merely’ psychological, the other, more seriously explored, invokes the presence of God. This lecture turns the table around, eschews Alexander’s chosen explanation and takes the dismissed hypothesis to heart. The exercise, calling upon the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Charles Sanders Peirce, Bill Hillier, Jacob Bronowski, Gerald Holton, Robert Plant Armstrong, and Robert Pirsig, suggests that the dismissed hypothesis need not be an ugly duckling but, rather, prods us to consider the link between mysticism and proto-science, a link worthy of attention both for theory and practice.

Webinar 23 - March 10, 2022 View

Yodan Rofe - Teaching The Nature of Order

This year we are approaching Book 4 differently. Rather than discussing chapter by chapter as we have done in the past, each week we will have a lecture discussing different aspects of the book, the book as a whole, or the whole body of The Nature of Order, and Alexander's contribution to architectural and scientific theory. This will be followed by a discussion.

In this session, Yodan Rofe` summarized the content of Books I-III and introduced book IV. He talked about teaching The Nature of Order, and its role within the original Building Process Area at University of California Berkeley, and its evolution with the Building Beauty curriculum.

Webinar 22 - March 3, 2022 View

Book 3, pages 579-693

Gernot Mittersteiner gave a talk entitled: “The architect builder” - Transforming knowledge into beauty, A lifetime attempt describing his journey from working with Christopher Alexander, and as a radical architect-builder to a more standard architectural practice, allowing more flexibility and versatility. His design and building process was illustrated by a new community being built in the Vienna suburbs, emphasizing energy and water conservation, the creation of living public space, and connection to place.

Webinar 21 - February 24, 2022 View

Book Three, pages 517-578

Narendra Dengle showed several of his projects concentrating on the need to continuously innovate construction details and techniques, and on the control (or lack thereof) of large projects. In particular he stressed the importance of testing out details and construction elements that are innovative in large scale prototypes, and the importance of the client in staying true to the initial purpose and design of the project throughout the inevitable changes that occur along the building process.

Webinar 20 - February 17, 2022 View

Book Three, pages 447-516

In this week's webinar we hosted Clay Chapman of Hope for Architecture. Clay presented his work on creating buildings that will last centuries at an affordable price by building their structure in brick masonry (high agency), and using currently available products for interiors, fittings, roofing etc. (low agency), with and understanding that over time these systems will change. He also described his conscious approach to spreading his method of building through the apprenticeship of masons, who learn on the job, constructing a building, and then go on to do their own work in different places. There are many parallels between Chapman's work and the subjects discussed in this week's chapters: Construction elements as living centers and All Building is Making, definitely in the aims and in the sensibility to materials and processes of making.

Webinar 19 - February 10, 2022 View

Book Three, pages 361-446

Duo Dickinson discussed the uniqueness of people's individual worlds through examples given by Alexander in the chapter, and examples from his own work. His lecture showed how shared aims and ideals can find different expression, using different processes of design, and approaches to construction.

Webinar 18 - February 3, 2022 View

Book Three, pages 153-256

Gary Black and Cullen Burda of Integrated Structures, discussed several of their projects in light of the living building process. In particular they talked about using a project pattern language to define the life of the project and its qualities together with the client(s), understanding the key open spaces on site and laying out the buildings to define them as positive spaces, and the use of engineering to define positive space in the building and its structure.

Webinar 17 - January, 27, 2022 View

Book Three, pages 257-360

Tom Radulovich of Livable City, San Francisco discussed various activist projects in the city. Concentrating on restoring public space for pedestrian and social activity, increasing density while maintaining the character people love in their neighborhoods, and changing regulation to allow for life to happen.

Webinar 16 - January 20, 2022 View

Book Three, pages 67-152

Erik Hancock, a partner at the The Kubala Washatko Architects firm presented the Zhongguancun No. 3 Elementary School in China, a large public building designed by the firm. The description centered on the connection between the wish for educational reform, and a building that will reflect the reforms and connect to the local community. Central to the project was the formulation of a project language that structured the communication with the clients and generated the design of the school. Students Aarti Dhingra and Michael Ellis discussed the presentation and its connection to the chapters discussed.

Webinar 15 - January 13, 2022 View

Book Three, pages 1-66

In the opening session of the new term we discussed the chapters in part I of the book. The discussion revolved around what in existing systems of production of the built environment hinders the evolution of wholeness. We further discussed belonging and non-belonging in the world, and the difference and connection between sense of belonging and agency.

Webinar 14 - December 16, 2021 View

Book Two, pages 565-632

In this final webinar for the first semester we reviewed the major concepts of the first two books. The discussion revolved around 3 questions:

1. What from the many concepts described in the two books resonated most with you? Was the most revealing for you in understanding reality? What was its impact?

2. In your present life-world: home – work – family – friends – neighborhood, what is most wholesome? How would you describe it as a field of centers? In what way could it be improved?

3. What small change could you introduce in your daily processes at work or at home, in order to make it more of a living process? How would you go about introducing this change?

Webinar 13 - December 9, 2021, Special Event View

Book Two, pages 495-564

This was a special session dedicated to the closing chapters of Book Two. In these chapters Alexander discusses the social, political and economical changes that need to occur in order for a 'living building process' to be possible again, and the existing difficulties ranging from administrative and legal ones, to technological, cultural and ideological. He moves on to describe how change could (and should) occur by introducing small changes in practice, that would work somewhat like genetic mutations to slowly change current practices. These changes will also necessitate a different role for architects (who presently are responsible for less then 5% of buildings built).

To discuss these issues we've invited 4 leading professionals for a symposium on:

The Future of Architecture in the 21st Century

*The Korinthos Apt. House in Nicosia, Cyprus, a contemporary building designed and built by Kyriakos Pontikis following the living process.*

Moderating the symposium was Duo Dickinson, FAIA, Principal at Duo Dickinson Architect, author and co-chair of Building Beauty's North American Advisory Board.

Ann Sussman, Architect and researcher on how buildings influence our behavior. Author of Cognitive Architecture, and Urban Experience + Design, https://annsussman.com/

Clay Chapman, Builder and founder of "Hope for Architecture". https://www.urbanguild.org/clay-chapman

Steve Mouzon, Architect, Principal of Mouzon Design and New Urban Guild, author of many books on traditional regional architecture. http://mouzon.com/MDZ/1.2_About_Us.html

Webinar 12 - December 2, 2021 View

Book Two, pages 401-494

Two houses in Canova, Ossola Valley, Piemonte, Italy. Photo: Yodan Rofe`

Narendra presented the concluding chapters describing the living process. They specifically deal with the process of building: Emergence of formal geometry which discusses primarily how to form the structure of the building, Form language which relates to its materiality and details that give the building its final appearance, and going back to general principles: Simplicity - a hard to define property which means that things need to be as simple as possible, without losing the complexity needed to create a strong field of centers. The discussion revolved mostly around form language, and the fact that its discussion in the book is still rather preliminary.

Webinar 11 - November 25, 2021 View

Book Two, pages 324-400

Yaara Rosner-Manor discussed the next three chapters describing the process: Every part unique, Patterns: generic rules for making centers, and Deep feeling as a guide the process. She showed examples from her work with informal rural and urban communities in Israel to illustrate the concepts, and show how they are used in understanding the settlements and planning for their development.

Webinar 10 - November 18, 2021 View

Book Two, pages 249-322

In this session we continued our exploration of Living Process. Savyasaachi summarized the three chapters under discussion. Ch. 9 describes the living process as always working from the whole and enhancing it. Ch.10 concentrates of the fact that at each step one is making at least one center. Ch. 11 stresses the importance of the sequence of steps in the smooth unfolding of the whole. The discussion centered on the gradual process of forming urban space, and the importance of feeling as a guide to the enhancement of the whole.

Webinar 9 - November 11, 2021 View

Book Two, pages 175-248

In this session we enter the core of the unfolding process. Narendra Dengle presented a summary of the three chapters beginning the description of the properties of living process: Generated structure, Differentiation, and Step by Step adaptation. They describe the process as generated from a multitude of actions, not fabricated mechanically on the basis of a design. In this process, the whole gets progressively differentiated by inserting and forming smaller centers within it. This happens in an adaptive, step by step way in order to allow for judgement of mistakes and their gradual correction.

Webinar 8 - November 4, 2021 View

Book Two, pages 107-174

Dave Hora discussed the chapter on Structure Destroying Transformations in the 20th century, and also some hopeful signs of Structure Preserving Transformations in recent times. The discussion revolved around the causes for the breakdown in SPT's in recent times, and some hopeful beginnings in place making and urban design.

Webinar 7 - October 28, 2021 View

Book Two, pages 1-106

This session we started the discussion of Book Two: The Process of Creating Life. Alexander starts his discussion from the understanding that living structure is but an instant in a continuous and ongoing living process. He then shows how diverse processes in the natural world are characterized by an unfolding character, in which the major structure of the configuration or wholeness is preserved. In this context, the 15 properties are reinterpreted as 15 transformations, or ways by which centers help each other to increase the wholeness in this unfolding process. We then discussed the idea of structure preserving transformations, and its presence in both natural processes and traditional building processes.

Webinar 6 - October 21, 2021 View

Book One, pages 351-444

In this session we have completed the reading of Book I of The Nature of Order. Dave Hora summarized the last chapters: The impact of living structure on human life, The awakening of space and the Conclusion, and Nikos Salingaros discussed briefly the six appendices.

Webinar 5 - October 14, 2021 View

Book One, pages 298-350

In this session we start the discussion of the personal nature of order. Alexander's conception of the personal not as unique and idiosyncratic but as universal and touching the depth of our humanity is discussed. The mirror of the self test is introduced and the web application created by Tomaz Zelander is introduced by him and used to do a survey based on Alexander's images from the chapter. The results of the survey are discussed.

Webinar 4 - October 7, 2021 View

Book One, pages 200-296

In this session we completed the discussion of the 15 properties, discussing also the chapter of the 15 properties in nature and the significance of these structures appearing again and again as a result of many different processes. Alexander's hypothesis is that underlying all of these processes is a general, more fundamental way in which space gets organized to form living structure. The last properties — the void, simplicity and inner calm, and not-separateness — point us in the direction of the personal aspect of wholeness, which we will begin to address in the forthcoming sessions.

Webinar 3 - September 30, 2021 View

Book One, pages 143-199

St. Saraphim of Sarov Church in Santa Rosa, California, designed and built by Kyriakos Pontikis

Savyasaachi introduced Alexander's method for arriving at the 15 properties, and the first 8 properties: 1. levels of scale, 2. strong centers, 3. boundaries, 4. alternating repetition, 5. positive space, 6. good shape, 7. local symmetries, 8. deep interlock and ambiguity. He presented the idea of organizing them in a different sequence as an exercise. The discussion centered on the connection between the properties, the ability of objects (like carpets, furniture or bowls) to adapt themselves to different contexts, and the connection between the properties that are geometrical and the patterns that are social-functional in nature.

Webinar 2 - September 23, 2021 View

View of the pergola at the Hotel Palumbo in Ravello, Italy

This session deals with two chapters in Book One, pages 79-142, and introduces key concepts: Wholeness and the theory of centers, and How life comes from the wholeness. Narendra Dengle introduces the chapters, and a discussion on wholeness and what centers are follows.

Webinar 1 - September 16, 2021 opening session View

Yodan Rofè presents an introduction to the development of Alexander’s thinking about creating beauty and life and the human environment from Notes on the Synthesis of Form, through A Pattern Language to The Nature of Order. After some discussion of this, the Preface and two first chapters of Book One - The Phenomenon of Life - are addressed. The major dilemma is introduced: the lack of conception of order and life in our scientific and mechanistic view of the world. The idea of life is elaborated on, and degrees of life are discussed.

2021-22 | 2020-21 | 2019-20

**2020/21 Academic year Nature Of Order Lectures**

8 April 2021
Concluding Thoughts on the Webinar

Reading: NoO Book IV: The Luminous Ground, 301-344 View

led by Yodan Rofè

1 April 2021
The Goal of Tears; Making Wholeness Heals the Maker; Pleasing Yourself.

Reading: NoO Book IV: The Luminous Ground, 241-300 View

led by Savyasaachi

25 March 2021
The Blazing One; Color and Inner Light

Reading: NoO Book IV: The Luminous Ground, 143-240 View

led by John Killeen

18 March 2021
Ten Thousand Beings, Forging a Living Center and Recapitulation of the argument.

Reading: NoO Book IV: The Luminous Ground, 73-142 View

led by Hajo Nies

11 March 2021
Preface to Book IV, Our Present Picture of the Universe,
Clues from the History of Art; The Existence of the I

Reading: Book IV: The Luminous Ground, 1-72 View

Response / Reflection by Jaap Dawson

led by Nikos Salingaros

4 March 2021
The Morphology of Living Architecture;
Conclusion: The World Created and Transformed;
Reading: NoO Book III: A Vision of a Living World, 639-693 View
Chat Questions: Answered (.docx file)

led by Solly Angel

25 February 2021
Ornament As Part Of All Unfolding;
Color Which Unfolds From The Configuration.
Reading: NoO Book III: A Vision of a Living World , 581-638 View

led by Kent Bloomer

11 February 2021
Construction Elements As Living Centers;
All Building is Making; Continuous invention of new materials and techniques; The production of large projects.
Reading: NoO Book III: A Vision of a Living World, 447-578 View

led by Kashayar Razghandi

4 February 2021
The Uniqueness of People's Individual Worlds; The Character of Rooms.

Reading: NoO Book III: A Vision of a Living World, 361-446 View

led by Narendra Dengle

28 January 2021
People Forming a Collective Vision for Their Neighborhood; Reconstruction of an Urban Neighborhood; Belonging in High Density Housing; Necessary Further Dynamics for Any Neighborhood to Come to Life; Pocket Neighborhoods.

Reading: NoO Book III: A Vision of a Living World, 259-360 View

led by Ross Chapin

21 January 2021
The Positive Pattern of Space and Volume in Three Dimensions on the Land; Positive space in Engineering Structure and Geometry; The Character of Gardens

Reading: NoO Book III: A Vision of a Living World , 153-256 View

led by Munishwar Ashish

14 January 2021
Living Process Repeated A Million Times, Belonging and Not Belonging to The World. The Hulls of Public Space - Large Public Buildings.

Reading: NoO Book III: A Vision of a Living World, pp. 1-152 View

led by Yodan Rofè

10 December 2020
Regeneration With Learning – The Role of Architects in the 3rd Millennium

Reading: NoO Book II: The Process of Creating Life, 495-564; DoA, 49-64 View

led by Munishwar Ashsih Ganju

3 December 2020
Pattern Language; Form Language and The Emergence of Form; Simplicity

Reading: NoO Book II: The Process of Creating Life, 341-494 View

led by Yodan Rofè

26 November 2020
Maintenance As Renewal and The Fundamental Building Process.

Reading: DoA, 35-48, NoO Book II: The Process of Creating Life, 267-340 View

led by Munishwar Ashsih Ganju + Narendra Dengle

19 November 2020
The Fundamental Differentiating Process: Always Making Larger Wholes