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Notes on the Synthesis of Form (Harvard Paperbacks) | 
 enlarge | Author: Christopher Alexander
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
Buy Used: $14.12
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 139967
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 0674627512
Dewey Decimal Number: 720
EAN: 9780674627512
ASIN: 0674627512
Publication Date: October 24, 1964
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Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Previous owner's (presumably) last name written on the first page. strong binding; normal minor to moderate used book wear
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Product Description
"These notes are about the process of design: the process of inventing things which display new physical order, organization, form, in response to function." This book, opening with these words, presents an entirely new theory of the process of design. In the first part of the book, Mr. Alexander discusses the process by which a form is adapted to the context of human needs and demands that has called it into being. He shows that such an adaptive process will be successful only if it proceeds piecemeal instead of all at once. It is for this reason that forms from traditional unselfconscious cultures, molded not by designers but by the slow pattern of changes within tradition, are so beautifully organized and adapted. When the designer, in our own self-conscious culture, is called on to create a form that is adapted to its context he is unsuccessful, because the preconceived categories out of which he builds his picture of the problem do not correspond to the inherent components of the problem, and therefore lead only to the arbitrariness, willfulness, and lack of understanding which plague the design of modern buildings and modern cities. In the second part, Mr. Alexander presents a method by which the designer may bring his full creative imagination into play, and yet avoid the traps of irrelevant preconception. He shows that, whenever a problem is stated, it is possible to ignore existing concepts and to create new concepts, out of the structure of the problem itself, which do correspond correctly to what he calls the subsystems of the adaptive process. By treating each of these subsystems as a separate subproblem, the designer can translate the new concepts into form. The form, because of the process, will be well-adapted to its context, non-arbitrary, and correct. The mathematics underlying this method, based mainly on set theory, is fully developed in a long appendix. Another appendix demonstrates the application of the method to the design of an Indian village.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 A life-changing book June 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Certainly, this book has produced a great impact on various fields related to design and architecture. The author tells us about the most amazing process in human life -- the conscious process of creating things. He has a good mathematical background and is very practical in his hypotheses.
I bought this book because I heard that his theories led to the concepts of design patterns in programming. As a software developer I think that every modern program is a design problem even if it is a pure server-side software. You have to take into account a huge amount of factors and analyze lots of third party components before you come to a relatively optimal solution. Talking in Christopher's terms, the software is a form which we have to synthesize. And his ideas are still actual after more than 40 years.
If you are a real software developer, you'll certainly be delighted in reading this book. It may even change your life.
 deep insights, bold suggestions January 4, 2008
A deep and nuanced analysis of patterns in design failures and successes - the author clearly has astounding comprehension of the modern design situation. I found the "unselfconscious design" vs "selfconscious design" analysis fascinating (although to be politically correct it should be something like "self designer" and "delegated designer" instead). The determination and use of (relatively) independent sub-systems to prune the overall design space is profound.
Part 2 (chapter 6, page 73) is a highly structured "program" for design. I found this section of the book much less compelling, and I'm not sure how it necessarily falls out from Part 1. For me, Alexander's biggest insight is that a good design process involves iterative periods of change and stasis - specifically, designing by modifying single (or small numbers of) factors individually and allowing the design to reach "equilibrium" before making additional changes. From this standpoint, designing a whole village at the beginning (as is started in appendix I) may not ever be a good design approach - even with Alexander's "program"
 Read Appendix I first, to see if you need to read the rest of the book December 29, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Tip: Start by reading Appendix I. It is an example of the technique that the author spends the whole book explaining. In fact, Appendix I may be all you need to get the gist of the technique.
Art anticipates Science? August 30, 2005
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
Alexanders 'Notes' anticipates the paths that major sciences would take decades after its publication.
This is no mean feat for a work of science but here youre dealing with a book on architecture- or better, on what architecture could and ought to be.
readers with scientific interests will notice Alexander inventing- from purely architectural phenomena - such models as
fitness landscapes, adaptation measures according to 'gene' frequency, evolutionarily stable strategies.
The general system of analysis in the book serves as one of the best guides for understanding cellular automata and the startegy of isolating variables anticipates the justly famous work of Dawkins on selfish genes.
Alexander had almost nothing to work with in the early sixties apart from some pioneering formulations in early AI and a very acute insight into the paradoxes of optimisation strategies.
His foresight is best witnessed by reading the footnotes to the book which are in themselves an uncanny selection of what would come to dominate epistemology, evolution and modelling decades later.
People teaching history and philosophy of science should prescribe this book as the pre-eminent case study 'consilience'
On the strength of this one book, Alexander joins C S Pierce, Boole, Babbage and Minsky as one of the greatest pathfinders in the recent history of knowledge-- too bad that architecture as a discipline hardly rose to his challenge and is now drowning in couture (and more credit to the software makers who have kept this unmined treasure in print).
The first book of design for all designers August 15, 2005
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
Design is a difficult process that is often associated more with art than science. With principles of style, concerns about how design works.
While many wring their hands about this, Alexander breaks the problem down, organizes it and then provides a framework for design that is relatively design neutral. That is a feat in deed.
By thinking about how one structures a problem space and the bias that creates -- Alexander give the practioner a powerful tool for setting up the design process and scope. He then goes on to discuss the design process and he makes important distinctions between concious and unconcious design.
Notes on Synthesis and Form are the foundation for Alexander's work on design patterns. This is the must read book before spending time on these other works.
For the practioner, this book provides a powerful and applicable framework for addressing problems in multiple disciplines.
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