Dear list members
At the end of last year, as I was giving a new course on design management theory and history, we discussed Christopher Alexander´s „Notes on the Synthesis of Form.“
By researching Alexander´s work, I learned that he passed away on March 17, 2022.
An interesting text (in German only) about him and his work can be read at https://www.swiss-architects.com/en/architecture-news/gefunden/altmodisch-und-doch-aktuell-zum-tod-von-christopher-alexander
The „legendary debate“ between Christopher Alexander and Peter Eisenmann, quite revealing in general terms regarding design philosophies, can be read here:
http://www.katarxis3.com/Alexander_Eisenman_Debate.htm
As an alumnus of the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology, I remember that the core idea of what we did in the Structured Planning systems class with Chuck Owen was based on Christopher Alexander´s „program“ in terms of „the analytical nature of the program“ and the „synthetic nature of its realization“ as outlined in „Notes on the Synthesis of Form“ (1964, Sixteenth printing 2000, pages 93/94).
Chuck and his wife put the concepts into two software programs that would run on Unix computers to create a function structure of the system (analytical) and eventually generate an information structure (synthetical) containing a hierarchical order of new system elements/concepts.
See also „A Tribute to Chuck Owen at: https://id.iit.edu/story/a-tribute-to-chuck-owen/
Hugh Dubberly and Paul Pangaro did a social graph in which Alexander and Owen appear in the larger context of cybernetics. See „How cybernetics connects computing, counterculture, and design.“ at http://www.dubberly.com/articles/cybernetics-and-counterculture.html
Hans Kaspar Hugentobler, MDes, Dipl-Kom
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland
Member Core Team, Design Management International Program
www.hslu.ch
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