The Timeless Way of Building

• A building or town will only be alive to the extent that it is governed by the timeless way.

  • It is powerful and fundamental — any building can be made as beautiful as any place with the timeless way.
  • The timeless way is at the core of any successful project. It has existed throughout history. It is the one, invariant process that allows things to come alive.
  • Even if it is invariant, it does not mean that it is mechanical. Instead, it helps us realize processes that are intrinsically within every human.
  • Such a method is emergent in nature. It is not bound by any mechanistic rules that we may impose but arises naturally.
  • The timeless way involves learning the discipline that teaches us our relationship within nature, and then giving it up to act as nature does.

• The timeless way is the process that brings order out of nothing but ourselves; it cannot be attained, but it will happen on its own accord, if we will only let it.

• It involves the following:

  • A way of looking at things (patterns)
  • A way of understanding how these things come about.

• It is the pattern languages that we find the way to create the structures around us. It is not expertise that is required, rather a pattern language that is alive and used extensively

  • Buildings are the result of a myriad of smaller acts.
  • Yet, this process is not chaotic. It hinges on both creation and repair — both making structures and correcting any mistakes. The creative process is always in flux.
  • The self-correcting nature is due to the fact that everything is systemic and interconnected.

Incorporating The Way in Design §

• Design is often thought of as a process of synthesis where the whole is created by creating together parts. But it is impossible to form anything natural using preformed parts.

  • It is impossible for modular parts to create something unique and alive.
  • Each part must be modified in the process of creating the structure. Each part must be modified within the context of the larger whole
  • A design is generated by a sequence of patterns, and following this sequence always has the end whole in mind.

• First, lay out the patterns that we would like to incorporate into the structure. This constitutes the language.

• And in laying out the patterns in sequence, we must imagine it as if we were laying out the most wonderful instance of that pattern in the world. This is how we reify the pattern and concretely bring it to life.

  • It is only when one takes the pattern seriously that they can bring it to life. All it takes is bringing it to mind.
  • The mind is a medium within which the creative spark that jumps between the pattern and the world can happen. Let the patterns form themselves
  • Importantly, we must focus on one pattern at a time. We cannot fully realize one pattern if we are worried about the next pattern in the sequence. Indeed, we need not worry about patterns breaking other patterns because we can simply transform these patterns
  • When one pays attention to each pattern, we can let it have its fully intensity.

• In following the way, the design can be done completely in the mind. In the mind, representation is very fluid.

  • The representation is rooted in language and you become the medium in which the patterns come to life.
  • The language itself is fluid. It can change based on both the ideal and the reality of things.
  • The design cannot be made alive if it is made concrete immediately. Making it concrete suggests a “final” form that is inflexible.

• When realizing the design and building the actual structure, the patterns operate in a similar way, except not on a mental image but on physical objects.

  • Importantly, the essential character of a structure can only be retained if it is built in the same way it is designed — in a sequential and linguistic way that lets the structure emerge on its own, or in such a way that the details in the design are carried through.
  • It is alright to have standardized design specifications as long as we are flexible and in reifying the design, we allow the structure to adapt to its surroundings.
  • The structure, by the end, has a certain roughness, but it is full of feeling and it forms a whole.

• No structure is ever perfect. Our designs are never accurate. Thus, we must adapt the structure to real events.

  • When things are first built, the gaps between the parts are often left un-whole. As designers, we must address these gaps.
  • In In the process of iterating we address issues in a practical manner, and in repairing these issues, we end up giving the structure a richer character.
  • Repair is not about reverting something to its original state. It is a transformative process which creates a different whole.
  • The process of repair is powerful because it can make larger and more complex structures. It fills in the gaps.

• For larger structures and larger projects, the design is not a byproduct of one person or a coherent team, but millions of individual acts.

  • Yet, larger structures emerge naturally.
  • Patterns emerge because of individual acts that are repeated. Yet, each larger pattern is unique as it is dynamically shaped by many smaller patterns.
  • Smaller units act individually and generate larger units. Hence, larger structures emerge because of a notion of hierarchy.
  • Larger structures that are alive, therefore, cannot be designed or planned. It emerges.

Timelessness §

• People, without realizing it, fall back to the same patterns over and over again

• A structure’s character is marked by its underlying patterns.

• Timeless structurers are marked by a sense of differentiation, but more importantly, by a balance of order and disorder.

  • And it is marked, in feeling, by a sharpness and a freedom and a sleepiness which happens everywhere when people are free in their hearts.
  • It is not necessarily complicated nor simple.
  • It comes from the fact that every part is a whole ¹

• This character emerges whenever any part of the world is healed.

  • When gaps are filled in and there are no clear divisions between levels of the structure.
  • Every part is integral to the whole.

• This character cannot be generated or designed. It simply emerges as a consequence of internal and external forces. It is natural. The timelessness is a byproduct of nature’s timelessness

• Timelessness is only achieved if we are egoless

  • The quality cannot be achieved if they are made to convey some image to the outside world.
  • The quality can only be achieved if we do not think of how the world will perceive our work. They simply are.
  • We can never design something timeless if we have an image in mind. Start with nothing and let the patterns emerge

Topics §

• The Nameless Quality
• The Language of Patterns
• Pattern Structure

Links §

• The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander
  • Ch. 21 - 26 - gives a demonstration for how to design a building

Footnotes §

1. Every part is, in itself, a system. Every part is a subsystem of the whole. ↩