Christopher Alexander. The need for rationality

Abstract

Contesti dedicates the Readings section of this issue to the introduction of Christopher Alexander’s book Notes on the synthesis of form published in English by Harvard University Press in 1964 and translated into Italian in 1967 and included in the Saggiatore’s series entitled Urban structure and form founded in that same year by Giancarlo De Carlo. In Notes on the synthesis of form Alexander pursues the ambitious task of proposing an alternative design method, not linked to individual intuition, a position heavily criticized in the introduction, but based on deductive reflection assisted by the use of the electronic calculator.