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In book two of this four-volume work, Alexander explains in detail
the kinds of process that are capable of generating living
structure. The unfolding of living structure in natural systems is
compared to the unfolding of buildings and town plans in
traditional society, and then contrasted with present-day building
processes. The comparison reveals deep and shocking problems which
pervade the present day planning and construction of buildings.
Pervasive changes are needed to create a world in which living
process - and hence living structure - are possible; these are
changes which are ultimately attainable only through a
transformation of society. It is the use of sequences which makes
it possible for each building to become unique, exactly fitted to
its context, and harmonious. And it is also this use of sequences
which makes it possible for people to participate effectively in
the layout of their own buildings and communities
In Book 3 of this four-volume work, Alexander presents hundreds of
his own buildings and those of other contemporaries who have used
methods consistent with the theory of living process.
Nearly seven hundred pages of projects, built and planned in
many countries over a thirty-year period, illustrate the impact of
living process on the world. The book provides the reader with an
intuitive feel for the kind of world, its style and geometry, which
is needed to generate living structure in the world and its
communities, together with its ecological and natural
character.
The projects include public buildings, neighborhoods, housing
built by people for themselves, public urban space, rooms, gardens,
ornament, colors, details of construction and construction
innovation. The many buildings shown, and the methods needed to
design and build these buildings, define living structure in a
practical way that can be understood and copied.
." . . 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, former editor of "Progressive
Architecture."
Christopher Alexander is a fellow of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, architect, builder, and author of many books and
technical papers. He is the winner of the first medal for research
ever awarded by the American Institute of Architects, and Emeritus
Professor of Architecture at the University of California,
Berkeley, where he taught for 40 years.
The first edition of Tunisia was released just nine months before
the eruption of the Arab Spring. The most substantial period of
political unrest felt by the Arab world in a half century
originated in Tunisia, a fact that confounded expectations about
Tunisian politics. This new edition builds upon the first edition's
overview of Tunisia's political and economic development to examine
how one of the region's hardiest authoritarian orders was toppled
by a loosely organised protest wave. Providing the most up-to-date
introduction to Tunisia's post-independence and post-Arab Spring
politics, concisely written chapters cover topics such as: state
formation domestic politics economic development foreign relations
colonialism the Arab Spring; its factors and repercussions Key to
this new edition is the examination of Tunisian history, politics
and society alongside the subsequent upheaval following the
outbreak of revolts in December 2010. It looks at how political and
economic changes after 2001, including economic deterioration and
rising inequality and corruption, had already begun to erode bases
of Ben Ali's government, and explores why Tunisia is the sole Arab
Spring country to construct a democracy thus far, and the
challenges that this new democracy still faces. An essential
inclusion on courses on Middle Eastern politics, African politics,
and political science in general, this accessible introduction to
Tunisia will also be of interest to anyone wishing to learn more
about this significant region.
"These notes are about the process of design: the process of
inventing things which display new physical order, organization,
form, in response to function." This book, opening with these
words, presents an entirely new theory of the process of design.
In the first part of the book, Mr. Alexander discusses the
process by which a form is adapted to the context of human needs
and demands that has called it into being. He shows that such an
adaptive process will be successful only if it proceeds piecemeal
instead of all at once. It is for this reason that forms from
traditional unselfconscious cultures, molded not by designers but
by the slow pattern of changes within tradition, are so beautifully
organized and adapted. When the designer, in our own self-conscious
culture, is called on to create a form that is adapted to its
context he is unsuccessful, because the preconceived categories out
of which he builds his picture of the problem do not correspond to
the inherent components of the problem, and therefore lead only to
the arbitrariness, willfulness, and lack of understanding which
plague the design of modern buildings and modern cities.
In the second part, Mr. Alexander presents a method by which the
designer may bring his full creative imagination into play, and yet
avoid the traps of irrelevant preconception. He shows that,
whenever a problem is stated, it is possible to ignore existing
concepts and to create new concepts, out of the structure of the
problem itself, which do correspond correctly to what he calls the
subsystems of the adaptive process. By treating each of these
subsystems as a separate subproblem, the designer can translate the
new concepts into form. Theform, because of the process, will be
well-adapted to its context, non-arbitrary, and correct.
The mathematics underlying this method, based mainly on set
theory, is fully developed in a long appendix. Another appendix
demonstrates the application of the method to the design of an
Indian village.
The Silk Road conjures images of the exotic and the unknown. Most
travellers simply pass along it. Brit Chris Alexander chose to live
there. Ostensibly writing a guidebook, Alexander found life at the
heart of the glittering madrassahs, mosques and minarets of the
walled city of Khiva - a remote desert oasis in Uzbekistan -
immensely alluring, and stayed. Immersing himself in the language
and rich cultural traditions Alexander discovers a world torn
between Marx and Mohammed - a place where veils and vodka, pork and
polygamy freely mingle - against a backdrop of forgotten carpet
designs, crumbling but magnificent Islamic architecture and scenes
drawn straight from "The Arabian Nights". Accompanied by a large
green parrot, a ginger cat and his adoptive Uzbek family, Alexander
recounts his efforts to rediscover the lost art of traditional
weaving and dyeing, and the process establishing a self-sufficient
carpet workshop, employing local women and disabled people to train
as apprentices. A Carpet Ride to Khiva sees Alexander being
stripped naked at a former Soviet youth camp, crawling through
silkworm droppings in an attempt to record their life-cycle, holed
up in the British Museum discovering carpet designs dormant for
half a millennia, tackling a carpet-thieving mayor, distinguishing
natural dyes from sacks of opium in Northern Afghanistan, bluffing
his way through an impromptu version of "My Heart Will Go On" for
national Uzbek TV and seeking sanctuary as an anti-Western riot
consumed the Kabul carpet bazaar. It is an unforgettable true
travel story of a journey to the heart of the unknown and the
unexpected friendship one man found there.
The first edition of Tunisia was released just nine months before
the eruption of the Arab Spring. The most substantial period of
political unrest felt by the Arab world in a half century
originated in Tunisia, a fact that confounded expectations about
Tunisian politics. This new edition builds upon the first edition's
overview of Tunisia's political and economic development to examine
how one of the region's hardiest authoritarian orders was toppled
by a loosely organised protest wave. Providing the most up-to-date
introduction to Tunisia's post-independence and post-Arab Spring
politics, concisely written chapters cover topics such as: state
formation domestic politics economic development foreign relations
colonialism the Arab Spring; its factors and repercussions Key to
this new edition is the examination of Tunisian history, politics
and society alongside the subsequent upheaval following the
outbreak of revolts in December 2010. It looks at how political and
economic changes after 2001, including economic deterioration and
rising inequality and corruption, had already begun to erode bases
of Ben Ali's government, and explores why Tunisia is the sole Arab
Spring country to construct a democracy thus far, and the
challenges that this new democracy still faces. An essential
inclusion on courses on Middle Eastern politics, African politics,
and political science in general, this accessible introduction to
Tunisia will also be of interest to anyone wishing to learn more
about this significant region.
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Expert Book-keeping - a Practical Work for the Use of Business Men; Shareholders, Directors, Officers, Auditors, &c., of Joint Stock Companies, Associations, Societies, Municipalities, &c., and for Advanced Students in the Science of Accounts (Paperback)
C A (Christopher Alexander) Fleming
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R704
Discovery Miles 7 040
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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