Introduction
(Source: C. Alexander, The Nature of Order: Book 1, pp. 239–41.)
Christopher Alexander identified these fifteen properties.1 They occur repeatedly in those artifacts which have life. They also occur repeatedly throughout all of nature.2
The fifteen properties are interdependent. This interdependence seems to contain a hint of something else, which somehow lies behind the properties.3
The fifteen properties are, in other words, rough approximations of some “deeper” structure. This “deeper” structure is a “something” which allows the fifteen properties to emerge from it.4
This “something” is some kind of field in which centers create wholeness and wholeness intensifies centers. Life occurs in space as an attribute of space itself.5
1. Levels of Scale
2. Strong Centers
3. Boundaries
4. Alternating Repetition
5. Positive Space
6. Good Shape
7. Local Symmetries
8. Deep Interlock
9. Contrast
10. Gradients
11. Roughness
12. Echoes
13. The Void
14. Simplicity & Inner Calm
15. Not-Separateness
Notes
1 Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order: Book 1, pp. 239–41.
2 Ibid., p. 237.
3 Ibid., p. 238.
4 Ibid..
5 Ibid..