Texts for a New Time: Christopher Alexander's The Nature of Order
A revelatory new worldview bringing wisdom to confused times
Texts for a New Time is where I amplify my inspirations — books, shows, and other content that helps bring out the best of humanity through times of change.
Christopher Alexander, the father of the seminal architectural work A Pattern Language, wrote an “essay” later in life titled The Nature of Order. It is four volumes, each around 400 pages, each designed as meticulously as a Christopher Alexander building. The first is titled The Phenomenon of Life.
The book is a revelation.
The discoveries he shares are momentous, an abruptly new and potent way of experiencing the world. Reading it, I feel I have been given words for things I always knew — lenses that help me see what is truly alive, in more and subtler contexts.
Life comes from “centers”
Alexander maintains that all space has life, to a greater or lesser degree. And that we can discern between degrees of aliveness. Liveliness comes from a structure’s centers, which have a specific Alexandrine definition. Centers according to him are zones that are distinct and salient, and also have a coherence, because of the way they are made out of other centers, and also fortified by nearby centers. Let me pull that out:
Centers are zones that are distinct and salient, and that have coherence, because of the way they are made out of other centers, and also helped by nearby centers.
I love the almost mystical recursiveness of this definition. Turtles, all the way down — and up, out and inward. He goes on to distinguish fifteen properties of living structures; each, in its way, is a different “personality” or “flavor” of centerness.
His writing is powerfully authoritative, precise, soulful. His grief and outrage with the conventional 20th century worldview and its effects is contained yet ruthless; his critiques are specific and lucid. His well-reasoned awe for beauty, for wholeness, for life has fueled a work of an epic nature. What a gift Alexander has left for a confused and searching world.
Discerning what makes us feel alive
The application of the model is so exciting to me. Asking the questions he proposes reinforces my own intuition about the liveliness of things as diverse as walkways, kitchens, stories, pens, gatherings, music. It helps me cut through my doubtful, anxious mind and feel with my heart.
And it also helps me understand in a deeper and more precise way why I’m drawn to certain places and modalities. Tango music is a potent “field of centers,” and so is a healthy milonga. A Montessori classroom is definitely one. It affirms my attraction to polyphonic music and writing. It helps me understand why the project-centric approach to adult learning experience design works well, and why my ritual-centered system of time management gives me such wellbeing.
One evening Stefan and I used the model to decipher exactly why we felt so comfortable in our favorite Northampton café, which is joyously alive and indeed a very well-woven field of centers. You can bet we’ll use this approach to create aliveness in our future community home.
Why now?
When I read
’s piece on Generating a Living World, and watched the video of Christopher Alexander speaking at a computer programmers’ conference, I became possessed with the need to read The Nature of Order.It was a strange urgency. I hadn’t felt this way after reading Alexander’s A Pattern Language the first time (about ten years ago) nor the second time (last year). I hadn’t felt drawn to the concept of living structure when I first heard Alexander interviewed about it on the radio fiveish years ago. I hadn’t been sparked to pick it up when I read his obituary last two years ago. But now, now, I needed to read The Phenomenon of Life. It was necessary.
It wasn’t easy to get my hands on a copy. Used copies were selling for between $100-$400. I noticed the Berkeley Public Library was selling their copy, which felt quite tragic; this reminded me of my dear Lilly Library down the street. The volume navigated the state-wide inter-library loan maze and I finally held the beautiful 400-page essay in my hands. I hope this post inspires you to get one in your hands.
And now volume two, The Process of Creating Life, is making its way to me, and I can not wait.
I leave you with a beautiful field of centers created by my wonderful artist friend Nesli Erten.
