SOME NOTES ON CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER ….doc

SOME NOTES ON CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER.By Dr. Nikos A. Salingaros. ? BIOGRAPHY PUBLICATIONS BUILDINGS INFLUENCE ON COMPUTER SCIENCE INFLUENCE ON INFORMATION STRUCTURES AND ORGANIZATIONS INFLUENCE ON ORIENTAL CARPET STUDIES PHILOSOPHICAL CONTRIBUTIONS THE NATURE OF ORDER CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDERS IDEAS ON OFFICE FURNITURE AND INTERIORS [I have tried here to put together a summary of Christopher Alexanders wide-ranging contributions, utilizing what is already posted on the Web. In-text links are usually to external pages by other authors, which can be looked up on a second reading. Additional pages, listed at the end, explore some topics in greater detail.] ? BIOGRAPHY Christopher Alexander was born in Vienna, Austria, and raised in Oxford and Chichester, England. He graduated from Cambridge University, where he studied Mathematics and Architecture. He then obtained a Ph. D. in Architecture at Harvard University. For his Ph. D. Thesis, later published as the book Notes on the Synthesis of Form, he was awarded the first Gold Medal for Research by the American Institute of Architects. Since 1963 he has been Professor of Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley, and Director of the Institute for Environmental Structure. In 1980, Professor Alexander was elected member of the Swedish Royal Academy; and in 1996 he was elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Christopher Alexander is a Trustee of the Prince of Waless Institute of Architecture. ? PUBLICATIONS Dr. Alexander is the author of numerous books and papers. He has initiated a new approach to architectural thinking, in which the same set of laws determines the structure of a city; a building; or a single room. He has spent most of his life in searching for these laws. His approach to solving this universal problem takes advantage of scientific reasoning, and totally opposes other, unscientific approaches based on fashion, ideology, or arbitrary personal preferences. This is so