Christopher Alexander & the space we are shaping

[douglas germann]

Artur--

Thank you for helping me think this through.

I have been reading further in Christopher Alexander and find myself in
a chapter where he speaks of the mass and the space of a building as
interlocking. This gives me a new light, I think, on my question and on
your response.

What the question asks is subtle but for all that very real. We are
shaping some space and the circle, the wall, the law, the diversity are
the things with which we shape that space: they are the form, the mass.
But I want to look at the space itself: what is its shape?

This takes a change in perspective, much like an artist looking at the
negative space that surrounds a maple leaf. We know the shape of the
circle and the breathing in and breathing out from small to large
groups; what shape is that which meets this shape?

Here we are probably left to using word pictures, stories and the like.
I remember someone once using "banter" to describe one characteristic of
the space we are shaping. What is the shape of the space we are
touching?

			:- Doug.



On Sun, 2009-09-06 at 11:22 -0700, Artur Silva wrote:
> 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.
>         
>         *
>         
> 
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