permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
This would be useful for permaculture systems designers as well as teachers 
of the design process.

Synthesis of Form
by Christopher W. Alexander

* Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.62 x 8.22 x 5.34
* Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr; (June 1970)
* ISBN: 0674627512
$17.95 from Amazon.com
http://ez2find.com/go.php3?site=book&go=0195037537
---------------------------------

This would be a good companion to the above book:

The Timeless Way of Building
by Christopher Alexander
* Hardcover: 568 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.23 x 8.10 x 5.60
* Publisher: Oxford University Press; (1979)
* ISBN: 0195024028
$38.50 from Amazon.com
http://ez2find.com/go.php3?site=book&go=0195037537

A few reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Changes how you look at everything, August 5, 2000
Reviewer: Leonard R Budney (see more about me) from Pittsburgh, PA USA
``The Timeless Way of Building'' explains the idea of patterns in architecture. A pattern is a way to solve a specific problem, by bringing 
two conflicting forces into balance.

Here's a very simple example of a pattern. When a room has a window with a view, the window becomes a focal point: people are attracted to 
the window and want to look through it. The furniture in the room creates a second focal point: everyone is attracted toward whatever point 
the furniture aims them at (usually the center of the room or a TV). This makes people feel uncomfortable. They want to look out the window, 
and toward the other focus at the same time. If you rearrange the furniture, so that its focal point becomes the window, then everyone will 
suddenly notice that the room is much more ``comfortable''.

I applied that pattern to my own living room, by moving the TV under the window and rearranging the furniture, and I was amazed what a 
difference it made! That's a very simple example, and there are literally hundreds more in this book and its sequel. Simply reading them is 
fascinating; it will convince you that you can make your own home into something as wonderful in its own way as the Taj Mahal--which is 
Alexander's whole point.

In fact, the book's main idea is much more powerful than that. It applies to almost every aspect of life, not just to architecture. When a 
situation makes us unhappy, it is usually because we have two conflicting goals, and we aren't balancing them properly. Alexander's idea is 
to identify those ``conflicting forces'', and then find a solution which brings them into harmony. It's a simple concept, but once you 
appreciate it you realize how deep it really is.

This is definitely one of the best books on my shelf. It has really changed 
the way I look at...everything.

<><>

5 out of 5 stars A Powerful Way of Thinking, May 4, 2003
Reviewer: Arjan Schutte from Minneapolis, MN USA
Alexander's "A Timeless Way of Building" is a philosophical treatise which has informed my thinking profoundly. Without any formal training 
or interest in architecture, per se, this book has opened a world of awe for me. Awe of language, of systems, of people. It almost reads as 
a spiritual text - but with the credibility afforded only to those who clearly address specific content (architecture and city planning, in 
this case). Alexander's writing is clean and precise. His ideas are powerful, they are more true today than in '79 and in more domains than 
architecture. I recommend this to anyone who is curious about how systems work.

<><>

5 out of 5 stars this book blew me away, April 13, 2003
Reviewer: nikolaus heger from san francisco, ca United States
I bought this book because i am about to build a house. Coincidentally, i am also a senior software engineer and very familiar with design 
patterns in my field - i use them every day. They work very well for programming computers.

This book, however, literally takes the concept of living patterns to 
architecture, and, by extension of the act of creation, to life itself.

At the same time as being a great philosophical read, it's also a handy guide to building a house. Bonus points for the author: The book can 
be read in 15 minutes (reading the "detailed table of contents"), in one hour (reading only the headlines), or in the full. These modes of 
reading the book come from the author's emphasis of the whole over the parts, e.g. the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

I am not entirely sure that, as the author promises, i will now be able to go and build a house, without drawing a plan... but that this 
idealistic goal is in practice hard to attain does not make the incredibly deep insights in this book any less true or any less practical.

Like another reader said - the book changed the way i think about... 
everything!

Patterns as described in this book are far more refined than anything we use in computer science, and that he sees them in a much broader 
light. The central grandiose idea is the one of complete interconnectedness of the patterns - the whole, which is more than the sum of its 
parts.

--
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech