The Lost Prophet of Architecture
Few thinkers are more difficult to categorize than architect Christopher Alexander. Is he a visionary genius of the built world? An intolerant utopian? A New Age Martha Stewart for narcissists? Or all of the above?
Christopher Alexander believes he has the answer to one of the supreme challenges of human existence: How do we create beauty? Once the province of artists and architects, the question has become one of the great democratic conundrums, engaging more and more people as affluence, education, and leisure breed discontent with the ugliness of suburban sprawl, dysfunctional cities, and soulless houses and office buildings. In large numbers, city dwellers and suburbanites alike have been following Alexander, and this vast audience thinks he is on to something.
His fame rests on A Pattern Language--a book that appeared 25 years ago--and a stream of subsequent writings. Translated into six languages and often one of the 1,000 top-selling titles on Amazon.com, A Pattern Language is among the most widely read architectural books of all time, and is commonly called a design "bible." When it appeared in 1977, Architectural Design magazine declared that "every library, every school, every environmental action group, every architect, and every first-year student should have a copy." Today, it has legions of devotees, some of whom simply value its practical advice, while others savor its New Age speculations. The enthusiasts include yuppies fixing up their country houses in Vermont, gray-haired do-it-yourselfers in comfortable shoes, and ponytailed counterculturalists. Real-estate agents proudly present copies to their clients once the deal is done and renovations are about to begin.