Notes on Notes on the Synthesis of Form by Christopher Alexander

A great resource for the analysis of form making, Christopher Alexander has written Notes of the Synthesis of Form (1964) and A Pattern Language (1977), both which have given me insight on how I will design something from my socioeconomic and cultural research.

NPR Interview with Alexander
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"Christopher Alexander's Nature of Order" by Jennifer Ludden
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4469331


Notes on Notes on the Synthesis of Form

From the offset of my search for a solution to rural development problems, I have sought a humanist point of view about the individual’s ability to control his or her destiny with the least intrusion by my product. At the root of my objective to avoid meddling in the decisions of an individual is the balance between interpreting a situation that I am not the most familiar and using education to facilitate its solution.

“What does make design a problem in real world cases is that we are trying to make a diagram for forces whose field we do not understand.” (p. 21)

We are led to believe that academic research can educate us about all that is necessary to solve problems like the rural exodus and poor living standards for the lower classes while making beautiful places. Yet, there are far too many minute and personal complexities that will inevitably fall through the cracks of the filter with which the designer makes form.

“I shall call a culture self-conscious if its form-making is taught academically, according to explicit rules.” (p. 36)

In a developing world that is transitioning from vernacular methods of Alexander’s unselfconscious process to the first world’s individualistic inclination, the relationship between the designer and dweller (regardless if they are the same or different persons). Specifically in Latin America, the ideals of individualistic societies of the Western World are particularly and deeply rooted in the community developments and form-making process of its societies. In the grazing lands of the Pampas, the gaucho perhaps epitomizes the idea of the rugged individual conquering the land and creating space with his bare hands from scratch – much like the North American cowboy of the Manifest Destiny. From this nearly anarchical process of land claims has come one of the strongest and most stubborn cultures of independent life and self-empowerment.

“The form-maker’s assertion of his individuality is an important feature of self-consciousness.” (p. 57)

Regionalist theory bred by Bernard Rudofsky, Hassan Fathy, and Amos Rapoport has concentrated on the vernacular approaches to building dwellings and the interactions between them that are integral to the form-creating strategy of a particular structure.

“We know by definition that building skills are learned informally, without the help of formulated rules.” (p. 46)

Alexander points out the formalization of form-making as a creation of a self-involved cycle of academic study that may trickle down eventually to the vernacular of a place, although it is in reality more likely to cling to high-style design instead.

“The academies are formed. As the academies develop, the unformulated precepts of tradition give way to clearly formulated concepts whose very formulation invites criticism and debate.” (p. 58)

It is inevitable that the educated elite formalizes the design process to the extent that it becomes intellectual masturbation with few tangible results. The “criticism and debate” in the academic circles rarely trickles down far enough to reach the individual home builder-dweller. Hassan Fathy was one of the first to experiment with passing on information to the individual in an attempt to join the experience of vernacular form-making and technical training of an architect. He suffered far many more difficulties than he could have imagined, as he made clear in his book. He was not greeted as a messiah of design but instead with much resistance. In broad studies of societal development, regionalist theory has prioritized the human aspect of a man’s connection with the material construction of his property.

“Closely associated with this immediacy is the fact that the owner is his own builder, that the form-maker not only makes the form but lives in it. Indeed…there is a special closeness of contact between man and form which leads to constant rearrangement of unsatisfactory detail, constant improvement.” (p. 49)

Vinicius de Moraes and Chico Buarque wrote a song in 1969 about the humble people that are Brazil’s lower class. They are portrayed as a people, a community that defines the identity of its individuals, a societal structure losing its influence in most of the developing world as access and wealth bring with it more power to consumption, financial and material growth, and pride. The studies of regional architecture concentrate on the small or individual increments of design improvements, but in fact observe the process of individual design as only a step in a societal evolution of form. Alexander talks about individual pride of design as something essential to architects but that has become a part of every person in self-conscious societies.

“In present design practice, this critical step, during which the problem is prepared and translated into design, always depends on some kind of intuition.” (p. 77)

Pride brings with it confidence and with that an individual takes more assurance in intuition. Perhaps the intuition of form making is actually the informal education of vernacular building techniques, but there is an interesting and charming amount of pride that comes with arbitrary design decisions. The gaucho raises his own cattle, pours his own mate, builds his own house, and makes his own decisions about every aspect of his life. He wants no interference from a “design-expert” because they are not experts of the gaucho’s life.

“Each form is now seen as the work of a single man, and its success is his achievement only.” (p. 59)

As a stubborn gaucho myself, the unwritten rules of our people include never interfering in a man’s life unless one is called upon for help since we are all brothers, otherwise we are risking a brisk knifing (verbal or literal). I am also part of the intellectual elite and have a very unstable place in determining form making in the pampas. In this situation Johan Van Lengen may have found the most effective strategy to implement education to the people at need with his book The Barefoot Architect. His book was first published in Mexico in 1982 and was distributed to thousands of public libraries to provide locals with a manual for basic construction techniques.
Alexander goes into depth in the second half of Notes on the Synthesis of Form about diagrams and process of design in regards to the communication of form design and form making.

“We shall call a diagram constructive if and only if it is both at once – if and only if it is a requirement diagram and a form diagram at the same time.” (p. 87)

In my proposal to establish a village of small agricultural workers through self-help processes, the power of suggestion through visual communication and the providing of access are the primary advantages of the professional to provide help to the individual in his building of a home, workplace, and income source.

“…the building of a house is a ceremonial occasion.” (p.47)

The education and preparation of the individual to begin the building of a house are the first phases of the ceremony. The access and to information from a simple pamphlet or manual can significantly improve and facilitate the design and construction of incrementally built structures that will provide for the small businesses of the rural developing world. The principles of Van Lengen’s book can be edited and extrapolated to capitalize on a specific site’s opportunities and eccentricities. In essence, access gives the individual the power to incrementally solve his design problems to satisfy his needs as he and only he sees fit.