The Nature of Order Webinar Speakers for Spring term 2025
The Nature of Order forms the theoretical backbone of the Building Beauty program. Participants in this webinar go through an exploration of the essential elements of Christopher Alexander's Magnum Opus. The magnitude of the spectrum covered in this remarkable work offers the opportunity to engage in a large reflection on the essential elements that come into play in making, at all scales. This semester we’ll be discussing Books 3 and 4 with a number of speakers who will address the practical application and theoretical context and implications of Alexander’s ideas.
If you would like to join the Webinar, please write to natureoforder@buildingbeauty.org.
Book 3 – A Vision of a Living World
February 6 - Yodan Rofé, Introduction to the semester’s webinar
Reading: Preface and Part one: Living process repeated a million times, Belonging and not Belonging to the world. A vision of a living world, pp. 1-66
Yodan is Building Beauty Course Director and Co-founder, an architect and urban planner with more than 30 years of teaching and research experience. He’s a Faculty member at the Dept. of Environmental, Geo-informatic and Urban Planning Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
February 13 – James Maguire, Three large public building projects – design with specific pattern languages
Reading: Part Two (beginning) – The Hulls of Public Space; Large public buildings. Pp. 67-152
James Maguire is an architect. He worked with Alexander at the Center for Environmental Structure. Then as Campus Architect and Vice Chancellor of Facilities Planning Design and Construction at Boise State University (BSU) and the University of North Texas (UNT) System).
February 20 – Ross Chapin, Positive space in shaping buildings and gardens
Reading: Part Two (continued): The Positive Pattern of Space and Volume in Three Dimensions on the Land. Positive space in Engineering Structure and Geometry; The character of gardens. Pp. 153-256
Ross Chapin is an architect in Washington state, USA, and author of Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale World.
February 27 – Vikas Mehta, The architect as player in an urban design game: Action, reaction, collaboration – urban infill in Ybor City
Reading: People forming a collective vision for their neighborhood; Reconstruction of an urban neighborhood, high density housing; further dynamics. Pp. 257-360
Vikas Mehta is Fruth/Gemini Chair of Communication in the Urban Environment (CUE), the Ohio Eminent Scholar of Urban/Environmental Design and Professor of Urban Design in the School of Planning, College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning (DAAP) at the University of Cincinnati. Author of the books The Street and Public Space.
March 6 – Duo Dickinson, Designing people’s own homes and rooms
Reading: Part Four – The Uniqueness of people's individual worlds; The character of rooms. Pp. 361-446
Duo Dickinson is an architect and author based in Connecticut, USA, and Board member of the Building Beauty Association.
March 13 - Ioana Barac, Geometry and Emotion: a case study of unfolding ornament in 21st century architecture
Reading: Ornament as part of all unfolding; Color which unfolds from the configuration. Pp. 579-638.
Ioana Barac is a designer, maker, and educator at the University of Hartford, Connecticut, USA, with a background in architecture and urban design.
March 20 – Hajo Neis, The Eishin Campus in Japan: Enhanced Design and Construction Process
Reading: Part Five: Construction elements as living centers; All Building is Making; Continuous invention of new materials and techniques; The production of large projects. Pp. 447-578
Hajo Neis is an architect in California and Germany, Professor Emeritus at the University of Oregon, and co-Author of The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth: A Struggle Between Two World Systems.
Book 4 – The Luminous Ground
April 3 - Yodan Rofé, Preface to book IV – Introduction to the lectures and suggestions for reading
Reading: Preface and Chapter 1: Our present picture of the universe. Pp. 1-28. Conclusion to the four books: A modified picture of the universe. pp. 317-344.
April 10 – Juval Portugali, Links between Alexander’s theory of architecture and complexity theories of cities
Juval Portugali is Emeritus Professor of Human Geography, Head of the City Center - Tel Aviv University Research Center for Cities and Urbanism. His research integrates complexity and self-organization theories, environmental-spatial cognition, urban dynamics and planning in modern and ancient periods. He's author of more than 100 research articles and 20 scientific books.
April 17 – Nikos Salingaros, Using AI large-language models to confirm Alexander's insights
Nikos Salingaros is a mathematician and polymath known for his work on urban theory, architectural theory, complexity theory, and design philosophy. He's a Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
April 24 – Isabel Potoworowski, Spirituality in architecture and phenomenological design processes in the work of Peter Zumthor and Christopher Alexander
Isabel Potoworowski is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, USA.
May 1 - Stefano Cozzolino, Urban beauty as a total experience: Beyond what can be designed
Stefano Cozzolino is Senior Researcher at ILS – Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development (Dortmund) and lecturer at RWTH Aachen University (chair of Urban Design). His main research interest focuses on the interplay between planning/design and the evolution of spontaneous social-spatial configurations. He is the coordinator of the AESOP thematic group on Ethics, Values and Planning. He's co-author of the book Action, Property and Beauty: Planning with and for Emergent Urban Complexity.
May 8 – Maria Lewicka, Empirical testing of Patterns and Properties from A Pattern Language and The Nature of Order
Maria Lewicka is Professor and Head of Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland. Her specialization is Social and Community Psychology.
May 15 - Yodan Rofé, Concluding discussion of all four books