worldsystema

christopher alexander teaching at the workshop creating generative code for a new neighborhood of houses in strood, 15 sept, 2005

inshallah, i will be allowed to help this work come into being

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i am trying to port all the entries from all the blogs to this new installation of movable type and am dreading the fact that it may become a handjob. we could be here for some time

however, i cannot resist resurrecting an entry

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edward r tufte may have just become the third person on my list of living people i'd like to meet. i am using his work to improve a graphic for the brookings document and just thought of sending it to randall schmidt

"Graphical excellence is the well designed presentation of interesting data-a matter of substance, of statistics, and of design.

Graphical excellence consists of complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision, and efficiency.

Graphical excellence is that which gives to the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink in the smallest space."

or it will be stewart brand

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christopher alexander leading the workshop on creating the generative code for a new neighborhood of houses

yesterday in deal brian hanson came bearing christopher's newest version of the strood riverside plan

i gave phil my copy of "tools for conviviality" and offered to help with the model making. stayed up talking till far too late

i am trying to imagine building the houses

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nikos salingaros thoroughly eviscerates the nonsense that passes for deconstructionist architectural "theory" and goes on to explain why it won't just go away and die. with considerable precision and wit he characterises the deconstructionist meme as "the derrida virus" and shows how it propagates within society and results in the cult that is the contemporary architectural establishment

as obligate intracellular parasites viruses are extremely hard to deal with. the hope of the world lies in immunising the population by injecting the culture with the humane architecture of christopher alexander and "the nature of order"

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i thought i'd already blogged jeff vail's book "a theory of power" which is a succinct analysis of why hierarchy is inherently bad for us but in between asking canterbury library to buy it and trying to get bill to get it out of the library i forgot to scan the cover. noam chomsky thinks it's fascinating and he's right. i have been reading jeff's blog for a while and sent him an email asking if he knew alexander's "a city is not a tree" and he responded by linking to worldsystema which i think is the first time that's happened

i think i must be having a cyber high. only connect

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