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Before any viewers move on to glance at one of my houses I would like to plug a book by somebody else. Its title is The Timeless Way of Building; the author, Christopher Alexander; the publisher, Oxford University Press, New York, 1979. This unique work explains why a driveway or a path must curve to make us happy; why walls that seem two feet thick make us feel at home; and why we fall in love with a roofline -- of a sagging cottage in an orchard, for example -- that has succumbed to the charm of pleasing decay. Such concepts are both simple and profound. Here are the first words of the table of contents: ..."A building or a town will only be alive to the extent that it is governed by the timeless way. It is a process which brings order out of nothing but ourselves; it cannot be attained, but it will happen of its own accord, if we will only let it." ...In the approximately fifty houses that I have so far designed and built, I always wished to "let it happen". In the handful whose roof beams and gardens I loved most, I think I got close. |
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