Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Davis, Howard, 1948-
2. Martinez, Julio.
3. Corner, Donald.

Description

1. 381 pages : illustrations (some color); 21 cm

Summary

1. As an innovative thinker about building and planning, Christopher Alexander has attracted a devoted following. His seminal books--The Timeless Way of Building, A Pattern Language, the Oregon Experiment, and The Linz Café--defined a radical and fundamentally new process of environmental design. Alexander now gives us the latest book in his series--a book that puts his theories to the test and shows what sort of production system can create the kind of environment he has envisioned. The Production of Houses centers around a group of buildings which Alexander and his associates built in 1976 in northern Mexico. Each house is different and the book explains how each family helped to lay out and construct its own home according to the family's own needs and in the framework of the pattern language. Numerous diagrams and tables as well as a variety of anecdotes make the day-today process clear. The Mexican project, however, is only the starting point for a comprehensive theory of housing production. The Production of Houses describes seven principles which apply to any system of production in any part of the world for housing of any cost in any climate or culture or at any density. In the last part of the book, "The Shift of Paradigm," Alexander describes, in detail, the devastating nature of the revolution in world view which is contained in his proposal for housing construction, and its overall implications for deep-seated cultural change. --Publisher description.

Series statement

1. Center for Environmental Structure series ; v. 4

Uniform title

1. Center for Environmental Structure series ; v. 4.

Subject

1. Alexander, Christopher 1936-2022
2. House construction
3. House construction
4. Architektur
5. Selbsthilfe
6. Wohnungsbau
7. Architekturtheorie
8. housing
9. construction industry
10. case study
11. project design
12. architect
13. economic evaluation
14. human capital
15. industrial production
16. Habitação popular
17. Sistemas e processos construtivos
18. Architecture, Domestic > Mexico
19. logement
20. bâtiment et travaux publics
21. étude de cas
22. élaboration de projet
23. architecte
24. évaluation économique
25. capital humain
26. production industrielle
27. vivienda
28. industria de la construcción
29. estudio de casos
30. elaboración de proyectos
31. arquitecto
32. evaluación económica
33. capital humano
34. producción industrial
35. Mexiko
36. Mexico
37. developing countries
38. pays en développement
39. países en desarrollo

Genre/Form

1. illustration.
2. photograph.
3. research paper.
4. étude de recherche.
5. photographie.
6. estudio de investigación.
7. fotografía.
8. ilustración.

Contents

1. Introduction -- I . The system of production -- II . The Mexicali project. The architect builder ; The builder's yard ; The collective design of common land ; The layout of individual houses ; Step by step construction ; Cost control ; The human rhythm of the process -- III . Large scale production -- IV . The shift of paradigm -- Postscript on color.

Owning institution

1. Princeton University Library