Christopher Alexander & the space we are shaping

[Artur Silva]

Hi, Doug:
 
In my opinion, what gives shape to the space are what I call the foundations of OST: the circle, the invitation, diversity, the Law, etc. In fact, we build the garden.
 
The "thing" that the organization or community desires to create is the content, or the building. That is made possible by the OST design and foundations we have created - the garden, as you said.
 
Regards
 
Artur  
 
PS: For more about OST "foundations" make a search in the OSLIST Archives.
-------------- 

--- On Sun, 9/6/09, douglas germann <76066.515 at compuserve.com> wrote:


From: douglas germann <76066.515 at compuserve.com>
Subject: [OSLIST] Christopher Alexander & the space we are shaping
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Date: Sunday, September 6, 2009, 10:20 AM


Hi--

Still reading Christopher Alexander and finding lots of parallels to OS:

        Most important of all, it was the space (more than the building)
        which was being formed. That flies against 20th-century
        awareness, which places too much emphasis on buildings. What
        mattered about the building is the contribution it makes to the
        formation of shaped, coherent, public space. That was where the
        inspiration came from, and it was that—later—which made it
        possible to make the building beautiful. Christopher Alexander,
        The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and The
        Nature of the Universe, Book Three: A Vision of a Living World,
        p 138

In another instance, he says that in designing a home, it is best to
design the garden first: when that is placed in the most health-giving,
nurturing spot, then the house is made that much better, that much more
wonderful. Garden first!

The question this raises for me for OS is: most often the communities in
which we are opening space want to accomplish some *thing*. This thing
is Alexander's building. But he does not look first at the building;
rather he tries to shape public space--give it volume, life. What are we
trying to shape when we open space?

It is easy for me to throw in a glib "we simply are there to open
space," but I think the inquiry needs to go deeper than that. What is
the shape of opened space? What makes it coherent? What are the factors
which give it shape?

            :- Doug.

*



      

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20090906/a36659f5/attachment-0016.htm>