A New Theory of Urban Design
Authors:
Christopher Alexander, Hajo Neis, Artemis Anninou & Ingrid king
Key Questions:
• Why our modern cities so often lack a sense of natural growth?
• What kind of laws, at how many different levels, are needed, to
create a growing whole in a city or a part of the city?
ByEshan Praveen
Debjyoti Saha
The Planning Context
•
The venerable cities of the past, like Amsterdam or Venice
convey a feeling of wholeness, an organic unity that surfaces in
every detail, large or small.
•
But this sense of wholeness is lacking in modern urban design,
with architects absorbed in problems of individual structures.
•
In this book, Architect and plannner Christopher Alexander
presents a new theory of urban design which attempts to
recapture the process by which cities develop organically.
•
To discover the kinds of laws needed to create a growing whole
in a city, Alexander proposes here a preliminary set of seven
rules which embody the process at a practical level and which
are consistent with the day-to-day demands of urban
development.
About the Author- Christopher Alexander
Christopher Alexander was born in Vienna, Austria in 1936. He was
raised in England, and he holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture
and Master's Degree in Mathematics from Cambridge University,
and a PhD in Architecture from Harvard University. In 1958 he
moved to the United States, and he has lived in Berkeley, California
since 1963. Alexander taught architecture at the University of
California, Berkeley, where he is now an Emeritus Professor of
Architecture. In 1967 he founded the Centre for Environmental
Structure, and he remains its President. Christopher Alexander is a
practicing architect, builder, and Emeritus Professor of Architecture
at the University of California, Berkeley.
"Good languages are in harmony with geography, climate and culture."
About the Author- Hajo Neis
Hajo Neis, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Architecture at
the University of Oregon. He teaches urban architecture and urban
theory in the Portland program with emphasis on city building and
the art of building. Prior, he has taught at the University of
California in Berkeley in the ‘Building Process area of emphasis’,
where he also directed the area. He has taught at the University of
Applied Science in Frankfurt, Germany, and he was involved in
the Prince of Wales Urban Design Task Force Program.
About the Author- Artemis Anninou
Artemis Anninou started her academic and research activities in
1974 as a lecturer in the School of Architecture, Aristotle University
of Thessaloniki, Greece; and continued when she was admitted to
the University of California, Berkeley, in 1978. She studied and
worked with Professor Christopher Alexander both at the
University and in the Center for Environmental Structure for
thirteen years. Between 1978 and 1990, besides completing the
M.Arch and Ph.D. degrees at UC Berkeley, she was actively
engaged in a series of architectural projects in the United States,
Israel, Venezuela, Colombia and Japan.
About the Author- Ingrid king
Ingrid was borm on 18th May. Ingrid is a former veterinary hospital
manager. Her popular blog, The Conscious Cat, is a comprehensive
resource for conscious living, health, and happiness for cats and
their humans. The Conscious Cat has won multiple awards in 2011,
2012, 2013, and 2014. Ingrid lives in Northern Virginia with her
tortoiseshell cats Allegra and Ruby.
The Perspectives
At the root of the entire book, the perspective is to present a new
theory of urban design which describes an entirely new attitude to
architecture and planning. It is intended to provide a complete
working alternative to our present Precedes about architecture,
building, and planning an alternative which will gradually replace
[Graphic]
[public oriented space]
current ideas and practices.
About the Book
•
A New Theory of Urban Design, published by Christopher
Alexander and The Centre for Environmental Structure
attempts to recapture the process by which cities develop
organically.
•
To discover the kinds of laws needed to create a growing
whole in a city, a set of preliminary rules were set.
•
These laws were tested by doing an extensive experiment
which involved a large number of people, over a long period
of time. The set rules formed the foundation of the
experiment.
•
It involved carrying out an urban redesign
simulation in the high density part of San Francisco.
Book Parts and Chapterisation
1.
Part one- Theory
•
Chapter 1- The idea of a growing whole
•
Chapter 2- The overidding rule
•
Chapter 3- The seven detailed rules of growth.
2.
Part two- Experiment
3.
Part three- Evaluation
Part one- Theory :
Chapter 1- The idea of a growing whole.
•
Wholeness is the continuous creator of ongoing growth.
•
This quality of wholeness (coherence) does not exist in newer towns
because there isn’t any discipline, be it architecture, urban design or
city planning which actively sets out to create it.
•
City planning- Preoccupied with implementation of certain
ordinances.
•
Architects- Preoccupies with problems of individual buildings.
•
Urban Design seems like a discipline which comes closest to
accepting responsibility for the city’s wholeness.
•
The task of creating wholeness in the city can only be dealt with a
p r o c e s s and not merely a form.
•
An entirely new kind of urban process was imagined, that was
guided entirely by this single ‘ C e nt er i n g ’ process.
Part one- Theory :
Chapter 1- The idea of a growing whole.
•
In each of the growing wholes, there are certain fundamental and
essential features
1.
The whole grows piecemeal
2.
The whole is unpredictable.
3.
The whole is coherent.
4.
The whole is full of feelings.
•
This can be accomplished by a process which has the creation of
wholeness as its overriding purpose, and in which every increment
of construction, no matter how small is devoted to this purpose.
•
This poses the question: What kind of laws, at how many
different levels, are needed, to create a growing whole in
a city or a part of the city?
Part one- Theory :
Chapter 2- Overriding Rule.
•
In detail, the growth of a town or a city is made up of many
processes- construction, development, gardening, public works,
maintenance etc.
•
now, a single process that exists throughout the town, at many
levels and propose a single overriding rule:
Every increment of construction must be made in such a way as to
heal the city.
More simply put:
Every new act of construction has just one basic obligation: it must
create a continuous structure of wholes around itself.
Part one- Theory :
Chapter 2- Overriding Rule.
•
This process is hard to grasp. In a city where thousands of
people cooperate in the creation of the city, there must be
some practical system of rules or procedures.
•
Thus seven intermediate rules were created which gave people
instructions about what to do, and how to do it.
Part one- Theory :
Chapter 3- The seven detailed rules of growth.
The seven intermediate rules which have been defined are:
1. Piecemeal growth
2. The growth of larger wholes
3. Visions
4. The basic rule of positive urban space
5. Layout of large buildings
6. Construction
7. Formation of centres
The more these intermediate rules are understood, the less
necessary the rules are, and the more the users will approach a real
understanding of the one rule.
These rules will have to be adjusted according to the local context.
Part one- Theory :
Chapter 3- The seven detailed rules of growth.
RULE 1: Piecemeal Growth
This rule defines the small size of the increments.
It is necessary that the idea of piecemeal growth be specified exactly
enough so that we guarantee a mixed flow of small, medium and large
projects in equal quantities.
In order to guarantee the piecemeal nature of growth, the following
sub rules are mentioned:
1. No building increment may be too large.
2. Guarantee of a reasonable mixture of sizes.
3. Guarantee of a reasonable distribution of function.
Part one- Theory :
Chapter 3- The seven detailed rules of growth.
RULE 2: The Growth of Larger Wholes
Every building increment must help to form at least one larger whole in the
city, which is both larger and more significant than itself.
The seven sub rules for this are:
1. In the process of growth, certain larger structures or centres emerge.
2. These larger centres emerge slowly
3. These larger centres arise spontaneously
4. However, awareness of these emerging centres, plays an essential role in
the process by which they emerge. Each of these larger centres have a very
definite natural history.
5. The complexity of the process is seen when we recognize that any one
increments of construction will usually play simultaneous, but different
rolls, in different larger centres.
6. The total number of larger centres are surprisingly great.
Part one- Theory :
Chapter 3- The seven detailed rules of growth.
RULE 3: Visions
It describes the content and character of the individual increments.
Every project must first be experienced, then expressed, as a vision
which can be seen in the inner eye. It must have the quality to be
communicative and felt by others as a vision.
The vision is an answer to the fundamental question:
What shall we build in any given place, where a project is going to be
undertaken?
In order to see the whole, it is necessary to enter into a more
fundamental and primitive relation to the question. And the mode of
thought which is most capable of creating and identifying relationships
to the whole, is precisely the one which we call ‘visionary’
Part one- Theory :
Chapter 3- The seven detailed rules of growth.
RULE 4: Positive Urban Space
Currently the urban spaces have become negative: the leftover after
buildings are built.
Every building must create coherent and well shaped public space
next to it.
The five sub rules are:
1. Each time a building increment is built, it is shaped and placed in
such a way that it creates well shaped pedestrian space.
2. Building volume of the increment is simple and well shaped.
3. Often, but not always the building will be shaped to create a garden.
4. The nearest road is extended to give direct access to the building.
5. A tally is kept of total available parking space. If not enough, new
garages must be built.
Part one- Theory :
Chapter 3- The seven detailed rules of growth.
RULE 5: Layout of Large Buildings
We cannot expect to have wholeness in the large, wholeness in the city
or the neighbourhood, if the buildings themselves are un whole
internally.
The entrances, the main circulation, the main division of the building
into parts, its interior open spaces, its daylight, and the movement
within the building, are all coherent and consistent with the position of
the building in the street and in the neighborhood.
The book has formulated a precise process for laying out the buildings,
in such a way that these elements become well ordered, and well
integrated.
Part one- Theory :
Chapter 3- The seven detailed rules of growth.
RULE 6: Construction
This rule deals with the details of the buildings.
The structure of every building must generate smaller wholes in the
physical fabric of the building, in its structural bays, columns, walls, windows,
building base, etc- in short, in its entire physical construction and appearance.
It contains roughly formulated rules at two levels:
1. The first set of rules is concerned with the global three-dimensional
organization of the building structure. These rules guarantee that the
physical structure will be in harmony with the volumes and the spaces
of the building.
2. The second set of rules is concerned with details. These rules guarantee
that the exterior of the building will be in harmony with the exterior
public space.
Part one- Theory :
Chapter 3- The seven detailed rules of growth.
RULE 7: Formation of Centers
This rule deals with the geometric shape of all the wholes, at all
scales within the process.
It describes certain geometric rules which will make sure that a
building as a volume, or any increment of a building, or even any small
detail, is capable of making wholes which include both the building and
the space.
Every whole must be a ‘center’ in itself, and must also produce a
system of centers around it.
Definition of center- A thing, not a point, that happens to be a center
of some larger field.
Part two- Experiment :
•
The experiment consists of a simulated process of urban growth,
which is entirely based on the single rule and the seven rules
which embody it.
•
For the simulation, a part of the San Francisco waterfront was
chosen, which was destined for development in the near future.
•
It is located to the north of Bay Bridge,
with an area of about 30 acres.
Area to be developed
•
It includes several existing streets. Piers and buildings.
•
The simulation itself consists of about 90 developments.
Part two- Experiment :
•
In the simulation, the actual projects were created by eighteen
students, who represented developers and community groups.
•
The 90 projects fell into 3 broad categories:
large, medium and small in equal numbers.
•
The original authors of the experiment took the role of the
committee responsible for checking and administering the
growth process.
Map of the completed project
Part two- Experiment :
PROJECT 1: Gateway
After deciding from where to enter the site and what should be the
entrance, one of the students came up with the vision of a gate,
which creates a sense of the whole street which is to follow.
PROJECT 2: Hotel
According to the rule, the next project should enhance this whole,
enlarge, strengthen and heal it. Hence a hotel was proposed to shape
a pedestrian street behind the gate. A small garden at the back
proved to be a smaller whole.
Part two- Experiment :
PROJECT 3: The Café
The vision of the café was describes as: When you pass through the
gate, on your right you see a café, the front of the café faces the busy
pedestrian sidewalk. The back has a sunny terrace which opens onto a
public garden.
PROJECT 4: Market and Fishing Pier
After walking through the gate, on the left after crossing a not yet
clearly defined path, stands a beautiful dome in front of the freeway,
which leads to the market under the freeway, and that in turn leads to
a fishing pier on the far side of the freeway.
Part two- Experiment :
PROJECT 5: Community Bank
To form the mall more clearly, a bank which is a group of three
buildings built around a square was proposed. This square was to form
the end point of Stuart street mall.
The next four projects were large ones which continued to fill out
the structures which has been defined so far:
6. Building Complex
7. Apartment Building
8. Apartment Building
9. Parking Garage and Apartments
Part two- Experiment :
PROJECT 10: Hedges and Paving
After having a definite character, its ends had to be defined. Hence
details of having and planting were proposed to set the character.
PROJECT 11: Fountain and Kiosk
They were proposed to give the square two smaller centers, not
one, to balance its complicated shape.
PROJECT 12: Educational Center
This was the last increment to complete the south west side of the
square.
Part two- Experiment :
Stages of Development
Part two- Experiment :
Stages of Development
Part three- Evaluation :
Success
•
Most obviously of all, the city which has been created, does have
some of the positive character and structure that we see in the old
cities.
•
It does have the organic, personal and human character which we
associate with many of the most beautiful cities of the past.
•
It clearly does not have the obsessive, dead character of most ‘urban
design’ projects of recent times.
Part three- Evaluation :
Drawbacks
•
The large scale structures were not as profound as imagined. The
whole setting did not yet have a profound unity like Amsterdam or
Venice.
•
The physical character of the building was rather weird. To
make sure the buildings contribute physically to the formation
of unity, as a side effect- a very particular style which was not
intended was produced.
The Conclusion
•
This process which is motivated and guided by the search for
wholeness, produces an entirely different effect from current practice in
urban design, and goes far tp remedy the defects which cities have
today
•
[Graphic]
Urban process can only generate wholeness, when the structure of the
city comes from the individual building projects and the life they
contain, rather than being imposed from above.
•
Wholeness only occurs whrn the larger urban structure, and its
communal spaces, spring from these individual projects.
The Accolades
"Alexander's approach presents a fundamental challenge to us and our style-obsessed age.
It suggests that a beautiful form can come about only through a process that is meaningful
to people. It also implies that certain types of processes, regardless of when they occur or
who does them, can lead to certain types of forms." - Thomas Fisher, Progressive Architecture
"In these postmodern times of distortional post-structural theories and cynical
deconstructivist designs, Alexander's work is a beacon illuminating a way to make the
world more robust, beautiful, and kind... this vision and work may well inspire a new
generation of practitioners and thinkers, and so a virtuous circle may proceed." - David
Seamon, Professor in the Department of Architecture, Kansas State University
"Five hundred years is a long time, and I don't expect many of the people I interview will
be known in the year 2500. Christopher Alexander may be an exception." - David Creelman,
Editor of HR Magazine