THE NATURE OF ORDER, Volume 2, The Process of Creating Life

In my review of the first volume of The Nature of Order, I quoted Christopher Alexander's observation that 'our world is dominated by the order we create'. Despite advances on some fronts, our concept of order is largely shaped by the inheritance of a mechanistic world-view that still dominates cognitive psychology and molecular biology; the term 'vitalism' is considered archaic, as is a fundamental distinction between life and non-life, which only a mechanist could fail to appreciate. This framework corresponds to what Alexander calls a 'form structure' or pattern language since we cannot but operate with the ideas, tools and processes of which make up are conceptual and creative equipment.

If the first volume explained the geometry and beauty of living form, this second volume is about how to create 'living structures' by using the same generative and unfolding orderly processes found in nature. Such processes are, critically, based on definite sequences of unfolding. Accordingly, Part I explains the meaning of 'structure-preserving transformations' which are based on the principle of unfolding wholeness exemplifying the fifteen fundamental properties introduced in Volume 1 (levels of scale, strong centres, boundaries, alternating repetition, positive space, good shape, local symmetries, deep interlock and ambiguity, contrast, gradients, roughness, echoes, the void, simplicity and inner calm, non-separateness).

A key term is the 'unfolded structure', which the reader can appreciate applies both to living systems and the built environment. Alexander observes that 'all living structure is unfolded and all unfolded structure is living'. Dynamic order arises in the actual process of becoming (or differentiation, as explained in a later chapter). This puts process rather than pre-determined design at the heart of architecture. The principle of unfolding wholeness is defined as follows: 'in the evolution of an otherwise undisturbed system, the wholeness W is progressively enhanced and intensified'. The sequence of transformation is autopoietic (self-creating) in that they both emerge from and act upon this wholeness, also moving in a direction that reinforce the larger configuration that is unfolding. Moreover, the wholeness is sensed by feeling and perceived as beauty – a point that emerges more fully later on.

The Austrian forester said of nature that we should 'kapieren und copieren' – understand and copy. This is exactly what Alexander recommends: if we understand how nature creates structure then we can apply the same principles to architecture. The next move is to explain the nature of 'structure-preserving' transformations and their opposite – structure-destroying, tying these definitions in with the fifteen properties. He demonstrates that structure-preserving transformations lead to buildings with life while structure-destroying transformations are devoid of life. The key is that it is 'ultimately, the process, not the design, which gives life to the building'. This insight is elaborated later in the book when Alexander laments the gap between the architect (designer) and the structural engineer whose job it is to realise the plan. Ideally, the architect should be so involved with the making of the building that he makes fine adjustments to his plans based on a deep feeling for the building situation as it evolves. In this way the building is grown as much as it is planned.

In traditional societies, whether one looks at the construction of tipis, boats or wall designs, there is a smooth unfolding where the artist or craftsman is sensitive to the creative process. These people 'pay attention to wholeness' and context in a way that is commonly disregarded entirely by developers and planners. Old Algiers provides a graphic illustration of a structure-destroying development. In case the reader gains the impression that Alexander has no time for modern buildings, he provides an interlude of examples where unfolding did occur in a modern context.

Part II elaborates the detail of living processes, describing the following patterns: generated structure, the process of differentiation, the nature of adaptation through sensitive feedback processes, the process of enhancing the whole, the creation of 'living centres' within that whole, the sequence of unfolding, the uniqueness of each part in the unfolding process, the characteristics of 'pattern language', the centrality of deep feeling in relation to wholeness and beauty, the meaning of form language and style and the significance of simplicity. The reader goes through an iterative and unfolding process as layer upon layer of understanding is conveyed in this 300-page section.

Among the striking insights is the concept of mistakes that can arise when a structure or set of buildings is fabricated rather than generated. A section entitled 'a thousand trillion possible mistakes in a human embryo' highlights the contrasting ways of thinking of the holistic biologist and the genetic engineer. Nature makes few mistakes in generating structure, while it took biologists 287 trials before they successfully created Dolly the sheep! The science of manipulation is far less efficient than nature itself, despite the rhetoric of precision implied by the engineering metaphor.

I mentioned in my earlier review the importance of feeling in Alexander's ideas. In this volume he pursues this in a chapter explaining the relationship between deep feeling and wholeness. He expresses this by saying that the way forward in a living process is the 'step which most intensifies the feeling of the emerging whole'. It is important to note that he does not mean the expression of feelings (plural) in art but rather it is the work as it unfolds that generates feeling in the artist: 'it comes from the object back to me after it is made'. The reader gets a vivid sense of what this means from Alexander's application of the principle to paintings and furniture design. It comes down, as he says, to 'life v. mechanism'. We are nourished by living things but stimulated by machines, which do not create the same sense of deep feeling. The final chapter in this section evokes a 'spiritual simplicity of the heart' which is related to the unnameable ground (no-thing) and to beauty. Living simplicity is not the same as the stark and lifeless geometry of the international style.

The last part is entitled 'A New Paradigm for Process in Society', or evolution towards a society where living process is the norm. Here Alexander analyses the massive difficulties inherent in shifting the current patterns in education, planning, development and economics. He therefore advocates a piecemeal, morphogenetic (form-creating) approach, sometimes using what he calls a 'single snippable gene', of which the small-scale Grameen Bank is an interesting example. The gene should then initiate a new process or sequence of transformations that may form networks of sequences with other similar processes. This is modest but surely achievable, and leads on to a wider consideration of the role of the architect and the prospects for a 'life-based society' based fundamentally on deep feeling rather than exciting technology. This is not to decry technology, but rather to put it in its place, with life at the centre. And in our situation, the next steps imply a large-scale healing operation as pockets of nourishing wholeness emerge. It is a process in which we can each play our own unique part and for which this remarkable volume is a rich compendium.