Dear all,
Attached is the transcript of Alexander's 1982 lecture at Harvard GSD
just before his famous debate with Peter Eisenman. Someone commented on
the debate, saying that Alexander won that debate but lose the field -
the mainstream of architecture, which is still dominated by developers,
and profit oriented construction. Note that at that time of lecture, his
very first version of The Nature of Order was already produced. He
started a war with modern architecture, and this battle continues:
https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Life-Beauty-Earth-World-Systems/dp/0199898073/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1476605061&sr=8-3&keywords=The+Battle+Alexander
I cannot help sharing with you of his lecture, since the new cosmology
he conceived (see details in Book 4 of The Nature of Order) is also
reflected in the last week announced Nobel physics prize, as well as the
2017 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize (topological orders):
https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/prizerecipient.cfm?last_nm=Wen&first_nm=Xiao-Gang&year=2017
The kind of topological thinking embedded in space syntax is really a
powerful thinking towards a better understanding of urban structure and
dynamics:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308202040_Topological_and_scaling_ways_of_thinking_for_understanding_space_and_human_behavior
However, we should go beyond the understanding of underlying living
structure towards creation or design (or healing) of buildings or cities
with the kind of living structure, in particular with differentiation
and adaptation principles. As he put, the earth has been suffering from
the so called modern architecture. The design and construction of
buildings, towns and cities must come back to the hands of ordinary people:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299337109_A_Mathematical_Model_of_Beauty_for_Sustainable_Urban_Design
Thanks and cheers.
Bin
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Bin Jiang
Division of GIScience
Faculty of Engineering and Sustainable Development
University of G?vle, SE-801 76 G?vle, Sweden
Phone: +46-26-64 8901 Fax: +46-26-64 8758
Email: [log in to unmask] Web: http://fromto.hig.se/~bjg/
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Academic Editor: PLOS ONE
Associate Editor: Cartographica
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ICA: https://sites.google.com/site/commissionofica/
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[Högskolan i Gävle]
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För en hållbar livsmiljö för människan
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