The Production of Houses
Published on 8. August 1985
Book
Hardback
381 pages
978-0-19-503223-9 (ISBN)
Description
As an innovative thinker about building and planning, Christopher Alexander has attracted a devoted following. His seminal books--The Timeless Way of Building, A Pattern Language, and The Oregon Experiment--defined a radical and fundamently new process of environmental design. Alexander now gives us the latest book in his series--a book that puts his theories to the test and shows what sort of production system can create the kind of
environment he has envisioned.The Production of Houses centers around a group of buildings which Alexander and his associates built in 1976 in northern Mexico. Each house is different and the book explains how
each family helped to lay out and construct its own home according to the family's own needs and in the framework of the pattern language. Numerous diagrams and tables as well as a variety of anecdotes make the day-today process clear.The Mexican project, however, is only the starting point for a comprehensive theory of housing production. The Production of Houses describes seven principles which apply to any system of production in any part of the world for
housing of any cost in any climate or culture or at any density.In the last part of the book, "The Shift of Paradigm," Alexander describes, in detail, the devastating nature of the revolution
in world view which is contained in his proposal for housing construction, and its overall implications for deep-seated cultural change.
environment he has envisioned.The Production of Houses centers around a group of buildings which Alexander and his associates built in 1976 in northern Mexico. Each house is different and the book explains how
each family helped to lay out and construct its own home according to the family's own needs and in the framework of the pattern language. Numerous diagrams and tables as well as a variety of anecdotes make the day-today process clear.The Mexican project, however, is only the starting point for a comprehensive theory of housing production. The Production of Houses describes seven principles which apply to any system of production in any part of the world for
housing of any cost in any climate or culture or at any density.In the last part of the book, "The Shift of Paradigm," Alexander describes, in detail, the devastating nature of the revolution
in world view which is contained in his proposal for housing construction, and its overall implications for deep-seated cultural change.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
colour, halftone and line illustrations, tables
Dimensions
Height: 146 mm
Width: 203 mm
Thickness: 27 mm
Weight
644 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-503223-9 (9780195032239)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Christopher Alexander is a builder, craftsman, general contractor, architect, painter, and teacher. He taught from 1963 to 2002 as Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and is now Professor Emeritus. He has spent his life running construction projects, experimenting with new building methods and materials, and crafting carefully articulated buildings--all to advance the idea that people can build environments in which
they will thrive.
Acting on his deeply-held conviction that, as a society, we must recover the means by which we can build and maintain healthy living environments, he has lived and worked in many cultures, and built buildings all over the world.
Making neighborhoods, building-complexes, building, balustrades, columns, ceilings, windows, tiles, ornaments, models and mockups, paintings, furniture, castings and carvings--all this has been his passion, and is the cornerstone from which his paradigm-changing principles have been derived.
they will thrive.
Acting on his deeply-held conviction that, as a society, we must recover the means by which we can build and maintain healthy living environments, he has lived and worked in many cultures, and built buildings all over the world.
Making neighborhoods, building-complexes, building, balustrades, columns, ceilings, windows, tiles, ornaments, models and mockups, paintings, furniture, castings and carvings--all this has been his passion, and is the cornerstone from which his paradigm-changing principles have been derived.
Content
INTRODUCTION
I. THE SYSTEM OF PRODUCTION
II. THE MEXICALI PROJECT
1: The Architect Builder
2: The Builder's Yard
3: The Collective Design of Common Land
4: The Layout of Individual Houses
5: Step by Step Construction
6: Cost Control
7: The Human Rhythm of the Process
III. LARGE SCALE PRODUCTION
IV. THE SHIFT OF PARADIGM
POSTSCRIPT ON COLOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I. THE SYSTEM OF PRODUCTION
II. THE MEXICALI PROJECT
1: The Architect Builder
2: The Builder's Yard
3: The Collective Design of Common Land
4: The Layout of Individual Houses
5: Step by Step Construction
6: Cost Control
7: The Human Rhythm of the Process
III. LARGE SCALE PRODUCTION
IV. THE SHIFT OF PARADIGM
POSTSCRIPT ON COLOR
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS