A NEW VISION OF THE WORLD
by Christopher Alexander
PREFACE, by Nikos A. Salingaros
I visited Christopher Alexander in November 1997 to discuss final editing of his forthcoming book, The Nature of Order. Volume III presents a view of the world that is remarkably different from the one we have to live in today. Indeed, the only precedent for such a world is in historical regions that mankind treasures as something from a bygone era, and assumes that such structures are not reproducible today. It is precisely the aim of Volume III of The Nature of Order to convince the reader that this can be created by following a few simple rules. Copious documentation is given, and the process is illustrated with built examples from the last few years.
This result is too important to delay even for a few months until the publication of the Nature of Order, so I am posting this page now. Professor Alexander has kindly consented to my including excerpts from an unpublished document in which he describes very briefly his vision of the world as it can be. He addresses some of the key practical issues on which implementation depends, such as client attitude, and the role of the architect in society. His goal is the networking of progressive architects with his own non-profit organization The Center for Environmental Structure together with universities, international development agencies, and governments.
What Alexander proposes has been embraced by many sensitive architects and urban planners as the appropriate direction to go in the new millennium. Nevertheless, his vision contrasts with much that is now taught as correct in architecture schools, so there is tremendous opposition to his program from a few isolated persons within the architectural community. Briefly, his vision is not supported by those colleagues whose beliefs it threatens. Another obstacle is presented by planning regulations that codify outdated, and largely destructive ideas. It is up to the educated client to take a moral stance. Buildings and urban projects can rely on irrelevant images and an architect's ego; or they can instead be regenerating internally and of their surroundings.
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1. Condition of the earth.
We see our work as fitting into the widespread effort that has emerged towards the end of the 20th century, in which people in all countries are trying to rescue the earth from the terrible damage of industrialization, over-population, poverty, and greed. To change this situation we need models in which we can conceive rebuilding the earth as a task of nourishment. We may imagine each section of the earth, each region, as a great biological structure in which people, animals, plants co-exist in harmony, and in which the structure is created as a huge piece of nature, to sustain this cooperative life.
2. The clients we seek.
We seek clients who share this vision, who themselves, with their own force, seek to make changes comparable in nature to the ones we contemplate. And we wish to join forces, with those clients, in establishing projects where these kinds of changes are demonstrated in action. We may describe the clients with whom we seek to work, as people who themselves have a vision of change that is needed to make the earth whole. We are not concerned, for the time being, whether the scope of our clients is large or small. We are concerned that people who have the power to effect change, in large or small corners of the earth, and who have understood that fundamental changes are needed to bring this about.
3. Creation of nature.
Some of the most radical damage which has been done to the earth, is in the realm of roads, signs, bridges, freeways, traffic control, and the relation of these elements to the actual unspoiled nature. There has been a growing tradition of nature preserves, where nature is protected; but little sense yet, of the management of the environment in such a way that nature, and roads, and industry, and bridges, and traffic control, all come together in a single unified whole, which has its life. We need to develop a conception of the world as nature, but yet as a creation of ours. The world, in short, must be natural, but created as an artifact: a created nature. We need an approach where the artifacts of the modern world, roads, bridges, etc. are united with nature in a new form of man-made construction where we are once again consciously creating nature.
4. Professional organization.
It is our aim to encourage similar ideas to emerge - as they are doing anyway - in various other organizations throughout the world. To this end, we explicitly seek connections with individuals and organizations throughout the world, whom we regard as possible sister organizations, linked by ties of common purpose, and with whom sharing of information is likely to be productive, and with whom joint projects of similar kinds might be undertaken. Our mission and aim are above all professional. We seek to create examples, and to build new communities and new projects, so that within a finite time - ten years - we can point to examples of many different kind, and in many parts of the world, which embody the ideals represented here.
5. The traditional world.
All this is relevant to tradition. In our mental image of the traditional world - and it is largely accurate - we imagine a world in which each part was nurtured, cared for, and integrated harmoniously into nature, and into the threads of human existence. We seek a process which is capable of returning the world to a state, in which people are themselves, can discover themselves, and are truly free in a psychological and emotional sense. It is this freedom - an inner freedom of the spirit - which is the ultimate target of our work. In the process of consultation, design, planning, and construction, we seek those procedures, and those conditions, which will allow this self discovery, and this ultimate real expression of each individual person, to find its place. We see the work on which we have embarked as uniquely of the 21st century. The effort to evolve a hyper-modern industrial society, in which each person is practically and spiritually free, will create conditions utterly unlike those of the pre-industrial age.
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