Notes on the Synthesis of Form (Harvard Paperbacks)
Category: Books,Engineering & Transportation,Engineering
Notes on the Synthesis of Form (Harvard Paperbacks) Details
Review “One of the most important contemporary books about the art of design, what it is, and how to go about it.”―Industrial Design“Christopher Alexander has outlined an ambitious proposal that could revolutionize the approach to architectural design… His method cannot help but become ‘a very powerful tool indeed’ for those who would deal with projects of the complex present and the growing complexity of the future.”―Progressive Architecture“The success or failure of the designed environment will remain, as always, a human responsibility… Alexander’s assertions are not only challenging and stimulating but informative.”―American Institute of Architects Journal“An important book for the urban designer and planner…stimulating and certainly controversial… It may one day prove to be a landmark in design methodology.”―Journal of the American Institute of Planners Read more
Reviews
Anyone who designs things --even little things like where to put the chair by the bed, or slightly larger things like a skyscraper or the internet-- should read this book. It's architecture: the thought processes of moving through the phases of panic/ignorance to discovery/fascination to the magical moment when your design begins to talk back to you, and tell where YOU need to go, and when you've made a mistake, Or when your design shows you a brilliant idea that never would have occurred to you.I've designed little tools, rooms, houses, musical instruments and gigantic computer networks. It's scary.There are virtually no books on the joys and angst of the design thought process, so this book is priceless. Peripherally related are Malraux's "Voices of Silence" and Jacques Maritain's "Creative Intuition In Art And Poetry", both about thought processes/aesthetics across multiple disciplines.. Don Norman's "The psychology Of Everyday Things" is a wonderful exploration of the gut-level design disasters we all deal with all the time. Bottom line: IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT.
