Loving & Hating Christopher Alexander
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LOVING AND HATING CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER [email protected] girlwonder.com activesocialplastic.com twitter: @mollysteenson
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School for Visual Arts (SVA) MFA in Interaction Design dotdotdot lecture, 4/15/2009. Interaction designers and computer programmers love Christopher Alexander. Architects hate him. Why?
Transcript of Loving & Hating Christopher Alexander
LOVING AND HATING CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER
girlwonder.comactivesocialplastic.com
twitter: @mollysteenson
CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER IS DIFFICULT
INTERACTION DESIGNERS AND COMPUTER
SCIENTISTS
INTERACTION DESIGNERS AND COMPUTER
SCIENTISTS
LOVE
INTERACTION DESIGNERS AND COMPUTER
SCIENTISTS
LOVECHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER
ARCHITECTS?
ARCHITECTS? NOT SO MUCH.
ARCHITECTS KIND OF HATE
CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER.
ALAN COOPER LOVES CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER.
HE IS, AFTER ALL, AN INTERACTION DESIGNER.
PETER EISENMAN?
NOT WHATSOEVER.
(HE’S AN ARCHITECT.)
ALAN COOPER LOVES CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER.
PETER EISENMAN?
NOT WHATSOEVER.
ALEXANDER AND EISENMAN
HAVE A COMMON LINEAGE
ALEXANDER EISENMAN
•Studied architecture at Cambridge•Formal logic & generative systems •Moving to the US in the same time•Eisenman hated Alexander’s dissertation•A vicious debate at Harvard in 1983
“Design today has reached the stage where sheer inventiveness can no longer sustain it.”—Christopher Alexander, 1963
BART
(A FAMILIAR INTERACTION DESIGN TOOL?)
Christopher Alexander and artificial intelligence (AI)?
MARVIN MINSKY
“I believe…that we are on the threshold of an era that will be strongly influence, and quite possibly dominated, by intelligent problem-solving machines.”--Marvin Minsky, 1960
SO WHY DO ARCHITECTS HATE
CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER?
“The biggest obstacle to improved design standards is the obsolescence of designers themselves.”
–Christopher Alexander & Serge Chermayeff
“Monument and doghouse alike bear the dreadful imprint of self-appointed genius or just plain incompetence.”
–Christopher Alexander & Serge Chermayeff
IT’S ALSO APPARENT WHY INTERACTION AND SYSTEM
DESIGNERS REALLY LIKE HIM
I’M NOT SURE WHERE I STAND, TO BE HONEST
CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER IS DIFFICULT
…BUT HIS DESIGN SYSTEMS STILL FASCINATE ME
AND THAT’S WHY I’M UNTANGLING HIS INFLUENCES
AND ARCHITECTURE’S LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM
