Message from Prof. Christopher Alexander

On September 5, 2011, Mr. Hiro Nakano, architect, interviewed Prof. Christopher Alexander, architect, at his home, Arundel, England.
Prof. C. Alexander said that many places are feeling a kind of "Despaired," so the question is what to do about it.
建築家クリストファー・アレグザンダー教授からのビデオメッセージ。
2011年9月5日、建築家中埜博氏によるインタビューでアレグザンダー宅で撮影された。
アレグザンダー氏は「多くの国々で、人々が失望感にとらえられている。問題は、どうすればよいのかです。」と話し、彼の「大いなること」を語った。

[@stevemadison7895]

Dr. Alexander came to dinner at our house in 2002. It was a personal thrill for me to have several hours to discuss the future of our town and to dig deeper into his groundbreaking work in pattern theory. I asked him how he got the idea that eventually became the A Pattern Language in 1977. He said that an Angel appeared before him one day and explained how God made the world. Janet made stew and bread and asked him to sign my original copy from college. I was too shy to ask. True story.

[@worldsystema]

fuck me xx tell me more about this xx i beg you 🖖🙂

[@worldsystema]

please xx

[@dmitrypetrouk8924]

@@worldsystema you can look for a book called Language of Creation by Matthieu Pageau, it doesn't relate to Christopher Alexander, but ideas there are deep and may help to understand more traditional mode of being in the world (in which their way of building itself was living). Symbolic language is a home for traditional pattern languages you can say. And this mode of being is still there - Jonathan Pageau channel here on youtube may help to explore more about symbolism in relation to modern phenomena.

[@worldsystema]

@@dmitrypetrouk8924 i was asking about the angel that appeared and told Christopher how God made the world

[@helmutleitner5784]

( people loughing ) ... ( someone says "it's time" "ok?" ) ... ( Christopher Alexander starts to speak ) so anyway, Hiro asked me to say a very short something because his feeling is that Japan is been in a special, rather bad, circumstance with of course the earthquake and the Zunami and that somehow people - I don't know this from myself, just I'm hearing through Hiro - that people are loosing their confidence altogether and don't quite know how to get back to a nourishing life and actually it's not just in Japan, I mean in the United States it's the same thing no-one really mentioned it yet but it's the same problem and also in England many many places are feeling this kind of dispair - really would not be too strong a word - so the question is what to do and I started a rather long time ago to take an orientation towards what is beauty and what is good and it sounds almost childish to say like that but I'm getting old now and I don't care to make a fool of myself and my advice to you is to make sure whatever you are deciding or whatever you are doing or whatever you are making - any action you are taking - make sure that it has inner beauty whether it is an action or a thing or a saying or a picture or a poem anything or just helping somebody get on the bus it should be to have some kind of inner beauty which you can help help it to have and if you take that seriously it will change everything of course when you first hear about it and somebody says "well, what good is that going to do" it's very easy get deflected or to get somebody tell you "oh, it's nonsense" all sorts of stuff like that but actually when you come face to face with real beauty it changes you and it changes the other people who are witnessing it or who are thinking it and they will take a different road and I think that - although this is so simple - it's extremely powerful because it only comes from the heart - kokoro is the right word for heart? right? - and so I think if you take this advice - I know it seems almost trivial - but if you take this advice it will change your own life and if you always trying just to find small beauties that exist in the world all over the place I mean we were talking about the sunlight coming through the leaves out there and you said "I really like the sunlight coming through the leaves" and it's not a big thing it's a huge thing and if you rearrange your life so that you are always looking for those kinds of situations for those kinds of gestures for those kinds of small touching events that happen in people's lifes nothing can cut that away you can - money, money be can cut and make ugly, it is, most of the time, so many things - but the sunlight shining through the green leaves there can't be disturbed that's all - thank you.

[@dgetzin]

+Helmut Leitner Transcription, nice, I was thinking of doing this myself, glad to see it, thank you.

[@helmutleitner5784]

you’re welcome.

[@dgetzin]

Also, you might be interested to know, there is a new Architecture Masters program starting in Naples Italy, www.buildingbeauty.net set up with Chris' greenlight by Sergio Porta, Maggie Alexander and others. It is a really exciting development where the students learn the process of unfolding and about the process of creating life by actually building things themselves.

[@worldsystema]

"it's not a big thing, it's a huge thing"

[@AnnMedlock]

@@worldsystema Yes, a great line.

[@lancsFrogger]

he's a legend, of course, both in terms of content & communication style. even if he does look like he's having a stroke during this interview unappreciated so far in his life, at least by the masses, his work has yet to find its 'popularizer'. though to popularize his work some prelim needs doing first. my grandma, for instance, actually has difficulty with the idea that architecture actually has ANY kind of benefit to life. i think she thinks of it purely as either decoration or some kind of 'style' choice

[@AnnMedlock]

He was, and is, not well. People watching this should be grateful he did the interview. Watch, be patient, learn.

[@helmutleitner5784]

Thank you for sharing this. I'll try to add a transcript.

[@picturesqmindproject5719]

最高のメッセージでした。

[@OlgaSokolovaMandodari]

I translated Christopher's speech into Russian using the below transcription. Here it is. Так или иначе, Хиро попросил меня сказать что-нибудь очень коротко потому что он считает, что Япония оказалась в особых, точнее довольно сложных обстоятельствах из-за землетрясения и цунами и что как-то люди - Я сам не знаю, просто слышу через Хиро - что люди теряют полностью уверенность и не совсем знают, как вернуться к полноценной жизни, а также на самом деле это не только в Японии, я имею в виду в США то же самое, никто ещё не упомянул об этом, но та же проблема также в Англии. Во многих частях света ощущается такое же отчаяние - Это действительно так и это не было бы слишком сильно сказано. Вопрос в том, что же делать? Я довольно давно Принял ориентацию в сторону понимания, что есть красота, а также то, что есть добро и это звучит почти по-детски, когда так высказываешься. Но я старею, и мне наплевать, что могут воспринять меня как дурака, а также мой совет вам такой - убедитесь в том, что когда вы решаете что-то сделать или чтобы вы не сделали то, любое действие, которое вы предпринимаете - убедитесь, что оно обладает внутренней красотой. Чем бы это не являлось, Каким - либо действием, или любой вещью, или что-то вы сказали, или изображение, или стихотворение, что-нибудь или просто помогая кому-то сесть в автобус, Это должно обладать своей внутренней красотой, которой вы можете помочь проявиться, а также если ты отнесёшься к этому серьёзно, то это изменит все. Конечно, когда вы впервые слышите об этом и кто-то может сказать "ну что же хорошего от этого случится" Очень легко сбиться. Или кто-нибудь может тебе сказать: "о, это ерунда" Или такого рода подобные вещи. Но на самом деле, когда ты встречаешься лицом к лицу с настоящей красотой, то это меняет тебя и это меняет других людей, тех, кто является свидетелем этого или тех, кто думает так и они пойдут другим путём. И я думаю, что хотя это звучит так просто - это чрезвычайно мощно, потому что это исходит только от сердца - «кокоро» - это правильное слово, обозначающее сердце? верно? Итак, я думаю, что если ты последуешь этому совету - Я знаю, это кажется таким тривиальным, но если ты последуешь этому совету, то это изменит твою жизнь и если ты всегда будешь пытаться найти даже незначительную красоту, которая существует в мире повсюду, я имею в виду красоту солнечного света, проходящего сквозь листья. и ты бы сказал: "Мне очень нравится солнечный свет, пробивающийся сквозь листья". Это не что-то маленькое, это огромная вещь. И если ты изменишь свою жизнь, ища такого рода ситуации такого рода действия всех видов маленьких трогательных событий, которые происходят в жизни людей, то ничто не может отсечь это. Ты можешь - Деньги, деньги могут быть отобраны, и они могут стать уродливыми, в большинстве случаев так часто и бывает - но солнечный свет, проходящий сквозь зелёные листья невозможно нарушить. Это все, спасибо.

[@acgatlin]

Since he speaks kind of slow, you can speed up the clip to 1.5x speed by clicking on the gear icon and it seems more like a conversational speed. Works really well.

[@markcarey8426]

Good bit of advice. I did. It did. Thanks.

[@dmitrypetrouk8924]

his pauses are like positive space of his speech by the way

[@DrunkenUFOPilot]

"I'm getting old so I don't care about making a fool of myself" gets a thumbs up!

[@worldsystema]

omg and wow. many thanks to Team Nakano and masanari for this darshan from the guru. "the different road" he speaks of leads to pattern (0) HEAVEN ON EARTH. praise the creation for christopher alexander and his work

[@OlgaSokolovaMandodari]

Dear Sajjad, don't you think this is so close to the theory of Hindu architecture - Vastu Vidya? Your comment is right on point! Thanks!

[@worldsystema]

this is religion xx collapse is coming 🖖🙂

[@nadenny]

thank you for sharing

[@jml3569]

well, he gave it a shot

[@user-ms3ru2dc6g]

He is talking about creating abundance from the heart in our unhealthy default economy we're all complicit in called capitalism which defaults to scarcity because it's organized around endless expansion and profits for the top 1or 10% elites. To take a stand for inner calm and simple beauty is an act of rebellion in our modern world where we've become separated from our true selves as part of nature.

[@fabianmiranda1868]

que le ocurre? porque esta así de triste?

[@codingandmathvideos]

As a programmer, how can I apply professor Alexander ideas to the codes that I write?

[@DrunkenUFOPilot]

I'm not sure that makes sense, though there have been attempts. Architecture: People live in it, walk past it, visit it, have trouble finding the restrooms, stand in awe at a great arching ceiling, and do so many times over and over. The result of design stands, to be experience afresh by new visitors, new residents. Software Development: A small number of people write it, don't look back at most of it except when chasing bugs or figuring out how to use an API in the next layer up. Maybe lots of end users use it. Certainly there is ugly bad-writ code, and there is elegant code inviting to change in the right way. There may be "new visitors" but only in the sense of someone stuck with maintenance programming, to fix or update old code, where the job is to find the place, to fix, fix it, and get out hopefully alive. In common: elegance is possible. The audience experiencing it is large and varied for achitecture, but small and specialized for software. You may have been living under a rock if you have not heard of "The Gang of Four" book, "Design Patterns" which was inspired by Alexander's approach to architecture. It has sold many copies, is in its 40th printing as I write this, and provide jargon for software developers. There are follow-up books and other literature focusing on specific areas of software, enterprise architecture, QA testing, and other subjects. But is it really carrying out the purpose for Software what Alexander had in mind for Architecture? I think not. In Architecture, the patterns were meant to be reminders, things to consider, when dealing with certain conditions. A broad flat wall, where a doors is needed - don't just stick a door in the wall, but have an interface, a patio, steps, a foyer, something that is between indoors and outdoors. It is not a rule to follow, or something one is required to incorporate. The GoF warned in the introduction of their book not to take their patterns as rules, as complete or proper or absolute. But many software developers have gone nuts, taking the book as a bible, to not be doubted, to be the mold into which all code must be force-fitted. That has lead to messes, unnecessary layers of abstraction and extraneous classes making software harder to understand. Code should be understandable on its own terms, assuming knowledge of the language and platform. Some situations may be recognized as benefiting from a certain approach. But few are the people who will enjoy the fruits of that labor. This is getting long for a KZbin comment, so I stop.

[@Nonduality]

+coding math I sure don't know, but I do hear him using words like "childish", "simple", and "extremely powerful", and I don't know how to apply that trinity to anything. My sense is that it is to be lived rather than applied to a particular project,. And if it is lived then any project one is working on -- whether helping someone onto the bus or programming a computer -- will have a chance of possessing inner beauty and that that's what matters.

[@corybarnes2341]

Create code that other's can easily "live" in. Meaning code that is easy to understand and easy to modify. Keep abstractions small and intuitively understood by how they are named. Imagine the code still existing and being "renovated" and "upgraded" to suit different needs (more clients, different environments) long after you are gone.

[@OlgaSokolovaMandodari]

You can create programming modules which can call each other and fit into each other like nested dolls. The pattern - or architecture of the application should be designed first and then you start creating modules with patterns.

[@h4ck3rd4wg]

Casey Muratori has a concept of 'compression-oriented' programming that i think hews closely to Alexander's ideas, because its all about step by step adaptation. This is what the object oriented people got backwards. They begin programs with patterns and impose them, rather than letting them emerge from the needs of the whole, which is what Casey does. Check his Hanade Hero series on game development