The Nature of Order

Christopher Alexander argues that the built environment can possess measurable degrees of life or wholeness. He presents the properties of living structure and a step-by-step, adaptive process for creating places that feel coherent and humane. Learners gain a vocabulary and method for evaluating and making living form across scales.

5 sections ยท 30 lessons

Course outline

Foundations

  1. Living Structure
  2. Degrees of Life
  3. Objective Beauty
  4. Centers
  5. Field of Centers
  6. Foundations

Properties I

  1. Fifteen Properties
  2. Levels of Scale
  3. Strong Centers
  4. Boundaries
  5. Alternating Repetition
  6. Positive Space
  7. Properties I

Properties II

  1. Local Symmetry
  2. Deep Interlock
  3. Contrast
  4. Gradients
  5. Roughness
  6. Echoes and Void
  7. Properties II

Process

  1. Inner Calm
  2. Simplicity
  3. Not-Separateness
  4. Structure-Preserving
  5. Sequence
  6. Adaptive Feedback
  7. Process

Applications

  1. Making Centers
  2. Patterns and Form Language
  3. Participation
  4. Site Context
  5. Rooms and Buildings
  6. Construction and Ornament
  7. Luminous Ground
  8. Applications

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