The Timeless Way of Building

The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher W. Alexander

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


While I'm not a student or master of architecture, this book still had a lot of insights to bring to me. I was suggested to read it by a coworker as it forms the basis of design patterns in computer science as well. As such, it does a great job at introducing the concept of patterns, searching for "the quality without a name" in architecture, and discovering and forming a universal language for how to design everything from the smallest corner in a room to entire neighborhoods and cities.

There were some great points in the book that can anyone working in a professional environment can relate to and which made me think, such as knowing how to speak to people without the same experience and knowledge. Do we speak to them in a language they can understand, or do we try to appear advanced and knowledgable while speaking over their head and level of understanding?

In terms of style and quality of writing, someone else described it as "not a masterpiece", and I think that's very accurate. While I really enjoyed reading reading the book and how the build-up went, there were a lot of unnecessary commas used throughout the book. Each sentence, felt split up, kind of like this, and it got really annoying. But that doesn't detract from the overall feel I got of the book, that there definitely is a better way of building and designing, and that it perhaps is time for us to pay a bit more attention to how things make us feel rather than just some standardized design and architecture.



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