These are some photos of the details that, we most of the time, don't think to notice. Just because your attention is not directly draw to these details, does not mean that they are not immensely effecting you. Our moods are effected and manipulated by our environments greatly, and in turn we respond by effectively manipulating our environment. All of these photos were taken in the San Fransisco bay area.
Christopher Alexander describes how we are able to make so many natural observations about what constitutes a "good" environment. This may include several key patterns or elements of design when considering the intended constructive order with building cities, buildings, and landscapes. The intention of the artist and architect is not just merely to make something out of nothing, but to also construct the necessities of life.The architect must consider how we work, how we play, and how we live our lives. The designer must consider sociological ideas of how we live our lives together as a whole machine or organism, and in turn reflect these considerations and mechanistic qualities with the construction of the environment we inhabit.
With the considering these qualities,we have a discussion of value in the forms of truth. However, Alexander points out that these values expressed as truth can be nothing but opinions dressed up as truth. When we want to discuss this idea of truth with considering the pros and cons of any particular action -in architecture, planning, landscape, each person involved is understood to have a particular personal perspective, attitude, or value orientation. These are based in turn, on their own ideals, thoughts, conceptions, and the relationship they have with their environment. When similar perspectives merge with common purpose and value, We can see how the construction of these ideals form the details, and general scheme of our environment.
Here we have two videos giving a tour through the streets of Berkeley, Ca. The first one is from 1906; this one does not have sound. The second video was done in 2006 and was created for promotional use, so I apologize for its corniness. I would suggest playing both of the videos together, side by side as a camparison.
Based on Christopher Alexander's section: The Destructive impact of Mechanistic thought on the Art of building. Within this reading, Alexander focuses on the highly negative impact of the mechanistic ideas of truth and how the effects of conflicting views within the process of building can result in a disruptive impact and general lack of harmonious order. Examples of this resulting impact can be seen within and throughout art and architecture of the 20th century. When designing and constructing ideas through mechanistic order, an artist and architect must consider and understand subjects within the realms of philosophy, sociology, psychology, history, material science, mathematics, engineering, and construction. Within each one of these subjects, each creator may maintain differences regarding the details of valued perspectives. When these differences in valued perspectives are compiled together without compromise, the result could be disruptive and without a sense harmonious order. This negative impact though the disruptions of lack of compromise can be seen in not only how we design buildings and city planning, but also in how we manipulate and distort environments within the world we live in.
Mars Ice island, Beaufort Sea Alaska. A 60 day exploratory well built offshore, 8 km off Cape Halkut near NPR-A.
Former President George W. Bush and his administration supported drilling in the Arctic Refuge, contending that it could "keep US economy growing by creating jobs, ensuring that businesses can expand, and it will make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy. President Barack Obama opposes drilling in the Arctic Refuge. In a League of Conservation Voters questionnaire, Obama said, "I strongly reject drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because it would irreversibly damage a protected national wildlife refuge without creating sufficient oil supplies to meaningfully affect the global market price or have a discernible impact on US energy security." Senator John McCain, while running for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, said, I don't want to drill in the Grand Canyon, and I don't want to drill in the Everglades. This is one of the most pristine and beautiful parts of the world."
This is a building located at the corner of Addison and Shattuck. Built during the great depression in 1934, it was built as S. H. Kress & Co.; the trading name of a chain of "five and dime" retail department stores in the United States, which operated from 1896 to 1981.
The upper level of the S. H. Kress building in Lubbock, Texas showing the characteristic architecture of the stores. This is an example of an architectural style that is shared and located all throughout the United States. With this, there is an identification and demonstration of a shared sense of order that characterized the thoughts and views of those involved in the construction and design of these building, in this case S. H. Kress & Co.
This is what the building looks like today. The architectural style and design maintains, there is even the original Kress lettering on the front, however the user intentions are now replaced. The business that operates out of this structure now , Half Price Books.
With these examples of Berkeley I wanted to focus on structures within Berkeley that had a fixed intention. I went looking for buildings that were built and designed from the ground up with the intention of permanence with use. These buildings are structures that can not be easily converted to serve any other purpose besides the one that they were built for. With this, these structures have a fixed nature of order.
This is an image of the architectural design and layout of the Berkeley public library building.
Special attention was given to the preservation of the exterior architectural elements and the restoration of the 45-foot tall Reference and Reading Rooms.
This is fourth street in Berkeley. This streets are lined with restaurants, shops, and art galleries. Each business on this street collectively share common views, ideals, and values that create a true sense of harmony within this environment. Visitors that come here as a predetermined destination may also share these common views, ideals, and values. This also contributes to the general sense of harmony in order within this environment.
Christopher Alexander describes new forms of order designed through new active mechanisms of thoughts, values, and observations. With this, our environment can transform and illuminate new views of value, and in turn creating a new shared harmony within our environment. The Berkeley end of Telegraph Avenue, along with Sproul Plaza, has been the site of numerous protests and riots beginning in the 1960s.Over the next couple of decades the Berkeley end of Telegraph became home to increasing numbers of homeless people and panhandlers, and by the 1990s had become a destination point for runaways from around the United States. The numbers of panhandlers have decreased since a series of police sweeps in the late 1990s, however; university students remain the largest daily population on Telegraph, which still serves as the anchor of food, culture and student life on the south side of campus. The free speech movement, political activism, and the counter culture movements experienced in the sixties helped transform telegraph ave. into the new value that we experience today. If you walk down telegraph ave.,you can not deny the shared values and ideals of the permanent crowd and in turn creating a truth in harmony.
After reading Christopher Alexander’s The Nature of Order, I went walking around Berkeley to document examples of the concepts and ideas expressed in the reading. Alexander’s definition of order seemed rightfully ambiguous, constituting the organization of ideas, thoughts, values, conceptions, and relations of those involved in creating and constructing. With this in mind, I walked around different parts of Berkeley and observed many examples of the different types of order Christopher Alexander describes.
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