NOTES ON THE SYNTHESIS OF FORM

Christopher Alexander, with their book A Pattern Language, has been a celestial reference from the beginning. So I was intrigued when I realized that they wrote Notes On The Synthesis of Form. He provides a comprehensive theory on design, and he provides drawings which substantiate his theories.

Alexander divides design into either unselfconscious, or self conscious realms. Indigenous building traditions, for example, the Eskimo igloo, is unselfconscious design. Self conscious design, by contrast, is what we do now. He makes the interesting comparison of the igloo, which is a built form resulting from eons of minute refinements responding to culture, to any form that we build today, which is the result of one person’s problem solving over a short time. In short, good design fits, and mediocre design is a miss fit.

“To achieve in a few hours at the drawing board what once took centuries of adaptation and development, to invent a form suddenly which clearly fits it’s context – the extent of the invention necessary is beyond the average designer.” p59.

Their solution is to utilize mathematical quantification of design variables. With a scientific overlay, he establishes methods to both identify and then inter correlate the variables which shape our forms. A set of, say, 100 design variables are categorized into subsets. Each of these subsets is solved. And then all of the subsets are put together into one solution. And, amazingly, he devises a way to assign either the value of 1 or 0 to each variable, as a formulae for determining how the variables fit and relate to each other. There are entire pages of mathematical formulae.

This process is solely to get you to respond to the context. With this method, you are able to design outside of your cultural reflexes. The system is a method to bring unselfconscious design into the modern world. It increases the Provenance Quotient. And with this approach, your design will provide a good fit.

The two quotes below are resonant, as they echo Transparent Drawing.

“The opposition between these two aims, analysis and synthesis, has sometimes led people to maintain that in design, intellect and art are incompatible, and that no analytical process can help a designer form unified well-organized designs.” p116.

“Since cultural pressures change so fast, any slow development of form becomes impossible. Bewildered, the form-maker stands alone. He has to make clearly conceived forms without the possibility of trial and error over time. He has to be encouraged now to think his task through from the beginning, and to “create” the form he is concerned with, for what once took many generations of gradual development is now attempted by a single individual.” p5.

We both believe that the mindset that we bring to our designs can be improved. We both believe that there is value in alternate methodologies. We both believe that we should draw outside our culture, and, in fact, Draw Like a Byzantine. What occurs as we put lines on paper is hugely important. Alexander takes a numerical approach. I take what might be called a visual approach. But both are working to get out of preconceived form generating methods. Both are looking for ways to spark or trigger the imagination.

1. Alexander, Christopher. Notes on the Synthesis of Form. Harvard University Press. 1964.