Mastodawn

great, long-form article on the failure of architects and architectural industry to integrate the people-sized theories of christopher alexander

you may or may not recognize the name, if you're a programmer: alexander's "pattern language" became a foundational part of the terminology used in some computing science disciplines. (sadly, most of his theories are deeply misused and misunderstood in CS)

this article provides a deeper look into alexander's architectural theories, and how they became marginalized in architectural design.

https://thesideview.co/journal/why-christopher-alexander-failed-to-humanize-architecture/

#architecture #design

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Josh Justice Dec 30

@vga256 really excited to read this. I recently read The Timeless Way of Building and it really helped me put words to the kind of humanized software development that Kent Beck and others have advocated. Sadly I feel like their effect on software has been similarly limited

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vga256 Dec 30

@macinjosh that is the superior book in his earlier works!

everyone (at least claims) to read A Pattern Language, and then go on to derive all the wrong conclusions about it... turning programming theory into a kind of pattern-application like sewing clothing.

the funny thing is that I suspect none of them actually read Alexander - I suspect they all read Richard P. Gabriel's Patterns of Software, and then misunderstood that book too 🤣

I think Gabriel really does 'get' Alexander though - his arguments for small-scale development sound a lot like alexander's human-sized architecture