Architecture Books : The Timeless Way of Building
The Phenomenon of Life: Nature of Order, Book 1: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe (The Nature of Order) (Bk. 1) | 
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 An Important Work
I re-read this book once a year.
There's so much of importance in Alexander's constructs, regardless of your professional field. The application of it's principles are endless. As an educator, I can't think of a work that has as much cross-over application as The Timeless Way of Building. Life is better with this book in it.
worth the flaws
The concrete examples are there, but you have to wait for them sometimes.
Alexander's method frees architecture from the prison of professional jargon and technical terminology. Buildings should be designed with the use in mind. What events, human or non-human will most often occur? Design should encourage the fullest expression of these events.
Chapters 1-10 outline Alexander's whole philosophy of language, when perhaps it would have been more effective to give more specific examples. But the examples do come, good ones too.
One he gives is that of a fountain. Should a fountain within a secluded garden have a trickle of water that spreads outward in four directions from the center? Or would a gushing flow be better? Thinking about intellectually likely tells us nothing, but anyone who experiences the two will instantly prefer the gush to the trickle. It is the feeling of freedom and aliveness. All architecture should seek to promote such a quality in the events that recur there.
Another good example comes on page 300 when he talks about building houses in Peru. He was criticized for wanting to put in an "Entrance Transition" room that would allow guests to experience a change in surroundings from the formal street to the comfort of a home. Most considered this room totally unnecessary, with an attitude that "people should be beyond such trivialities." A good architect moves beyond values when designing. It is authentic feelings that are important, that must be taken into account when designing, not our opinions about how things ought to be.
A complete pattern language for a building is one that recognizes all the authentic feelings that recur in and around the building. These smaller components make up the larger components that guide the decisions of the architect. Alexander's vision is insightful and well worth the look.
I love it
I bought it and left it on a bookshelf. Then I took it on holidays and haven't touched it for a whole holiday.
Than I started to read it on a ship back from holidays. O my god. The book is great. I bought it because it's supposed to help me understand software design patterns. But the book is much more, it describes the way things are and are supposed to be, the nature of being. The book helped me to understand the world just a bit better.
Things are the way they are, because that is the natural way, that is the way things should be.
Love it!
 Didactic, less practical than A Pattern Language
The Timeless Way is an important book and worth reading for anyone in the fields of architecture, design, development, construction, or community planning, and many others who are interested in the subject. However, it is didactic and requires several grains of salt to read.
Alexander is poetic and brilliant at times, annoying and luddite at others. This book is better read as a meditative 'centering' than as a practical exercise. For those who have some grounding in the concept or otherwise are looking for practical advice, the companion volume, A Pattern Language, is the better choice. Sure you can and perhaps should read both. But these are lengthy tomes and this one can actually be quite a turnoff at times.
If I hadn't read A Pattern Language first and practiced the patterns in action and seen how effective they Can be, I don't know if I'd have been able to trust much of Alexander in this one. His rhetoric can quickly become overblown and repetitive, and is best read in snippets. I did find it a restful way to spend my lunch over several months. Reading a few pages at a time, I could meditate on the poetry and the peace within and avoid the overtones of egotistic genius.
Very Harold Roarke in his insistence on his One True Way - ironically anti-Ayn Rand in his insistence on the community and collaborative process: Alexander essentially insists that architects and designers and city planners are not necessary. This is like insisting that we all grow our own food and weave our own cloth.
Having worked in one-on-one roles directly with clients, and also in community 'consensus driven' processes - I beg to differ with much of Alexander's essential theory: that any group of folk can automatically come together to design rooms, buildings, complexes of buildings, etc. in a virtually leaderless way simply by implementing the 'patterns.' And that construction drawings and written specifications are superfluous. In my experience the opposite is true - the more detailed the drawing and the tighter the written spec, the more fully realized the design is before ever breaking ground - the more successful the project is with less surprises, mistakes, stress, and costly problems.
Sure, much of contemporary architecture is dead, cold, barren. Sure, many, many, many architects and designers are lazy and uncreative, or many who are creative and talented are too ego-driven and care little for their occupants' experiences of the buildings they draw. But Alexander would have Lloyd Wright, Gropius, Philip Johnson et. al. consigned to the dustbin. This aspect is troubling. I do suggest reading The Timeless Way for those in the field and others who are so inclined, as it has much to offer. But I recommend A Pattern Language much more.
For other of my didactic (and meditative?) views on design and construction, see [...]
 Too philosophical for a non-architect
A colleague recommended this book to me. I am a software developer and he said that this would be a good book for me to read to better understand the concepts that are shared in this book.
I haven't finished it yet. I've been working on getting through the book for the past 2 months. I continue to pick it up and read a chapter or two and then put it down again.
It is so theoretical that I'm struggling with the concepts as they relate to what I'm doing.
Perhaps my opinion will change later on after I have finished the book, because I know a lot of people think very highly of this author, but for now, I'm not getting how it relates to what I do.
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