The collection includes over 29,000 items, with 6000 items that have been digitized and are now available from the website as downloads
ABOVE: The new CES website features a timeline of Christopher Alexander's theories, writings and built works, including over 300 buildings from around the world.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This post is one of a series highlighting a range of topics to be discussed at the 61st International Making Cities Livable (IMCL) conference in Cortona, Italy, October 29-November 1, 2024.
BERKELEY, California - The Christopher Alexander & Center for Environmental Structure Archive has just been launched, giving access to 50+ years of work by Alexander and colleagues at CES. The goal of this continuing endeavor is to share the work with all who wish to build and repair living environments in which people thrive.
The website can be accessed at https://christopher-alexander-ces-archive.org/.
According to Maggie Moore Alexander, President of the Center for Environmental Structure, the Archive includes some 29,000 items. About 50% of them have been catalogued to date and are listed on the website. Around 6000 items have been digitized and are now available from the website as downloads. "As funding allows, we will work toward making the whole collection available," she said.
She noted that "The Center for Environmental Structure has been working on this project since 2018 and I am very pleased to be able to share it at last. I am grateful to Artemis Anninou, Kleoniki Tsotropoulou, Hajo Neis, Howard Davis, and the Athens Technology Center for their steadfast commitment and support throughout this labor of love."
Alexander is well known for his work on pattern languages, documented in the landmark 1977 book A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. . The book offers a widely influential set of design ideas that have had an impact far beyond the world of architecture. For example, the book sparked a major new methodology in computer science known as "design patterns" -- which in turn led to wiki (and Wikipedia), Agile Methodology, and other highly influential developments in software and beyond.
Less well known is Alexander's later work, including his magnum opus, The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe. We discussed the exciting potential of this work in a previous post (https://www.imcl.online/post/how-christopher-alexander-s-fifteen-properties-can-guide-us-to-create-buildings-and-neighborhoods).
The work of Christopher Alexander will be discussed, along with the work of other seminal environmental designers and authors, at the 61st International Making Cities Livable conference in Cortona, Italy, October 29-November 1, 2024. Please join us! More information is at https://www.imcl.online/2024-cortona.