Notes on the Conceptual Wiring of the Early 1960’s Architectural Vanguard, and the Conditions of its Extension into the Present

Abstract

Influenced by the ideas of cyberneticists William Ross Ashby, Norbert Wiener, and John von Neumann, by the architectural theories of John Summerson, and by the tradition of philosophical rationalism, Christopher Alexander made, in the early 1960’s, an important contribution to architecture theory: he purified functionalism and took it to its extreme conclusion. In his doctoral dissertation of 1962, which got published two years later as Notes on the Synthesis of Form, he theorized the process of architecture’s historical institution up until its crisis, in the twentieth century, suggesting that this crisis was a result of the discipline’s inability to deal with the challenges posed to it by modernity. Alexander argued that although the project of modern functionalism had been properly formulated by MarcAntoine Laguier and Carlo Lodoli already in the 18th century, it had never been fully realized. His theory was advanced as a response to a perceived crisis, and as an attempt to carry the tradition of architecture-as-service to its fruition. In his response to this crisis, Alexander crossfertilized Cartesian rationalism with elements from cybernetics, systems theory, structuralism, and Kantian philosophy, elaborating a neo-humanist ontology of architecture that is founded on allegedly scientific notions such as “objective structure of requirements”, and ethical ideas, like “goodness of fit”. In doing so, Alexander not only furnished one the earliest and most referenced contributions to the discourse of user needs, but provided an overarching historical and philosophical account of architecture.