2019-02-11

February 11 (the second Monday of the month) was the 64th meeting for Systems Thinking Ontario. The registration is on Eventbrite.

Systems Changes: Learning from the Christopher Alexander Legacy

The 1977 book, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction is prominent in public library collections around the world.  It represents, however, only one stage of the many works by Christopher Alexander, from his first book published in 1974, to his final book released in 2012.  In addition multiple international conferences continue his legacy, in architecture and urban design (PUARL, for 10 years), in software development (PLoP, for 25 years), and in social change (PURPLSOC, for 5 years).  Alexander was a builder of environment structure -- an architect -- and other communities have aspired to adopt the approach that he championed.

This Systems Thinking Ontario session will review pattern languages in three parts:

• The Eishin School project (1985, published as a book in 2012);

• Multi-Service Centers (1968); and

• Beyond Built Environments, cross-appropriating the approach from architecture to other domains.

The pursuit of "systems generating systems" at the foundation of Christopher Alexander's pattern language has generally not been appreciated, and deserves a deeper inquiry.

Venue:

• OCADU, sLab (Strategic Innovation Lab), 205 Richmond Street West, Room 410

Suggested pre-reading: 

Attendees are not expected to have read any works by Christopher Alexander.   David Ing will step through a presentation that aims to make sense of Alexander's evolving body of knowledge.

• Diligent readers may find searching on "alexander" on the Coevolving Innovations blog fruitful.

• The 2012 book "The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth: A Struggle Between Two World-Systems" will be outlined as part of the presentation.

• The 1968 book "A Pattern Language which Generates Multi-Service Centers" is hard to find.  Some of the content is digested at http://wiki.coevolving.com/view/a-pattern-language-which-generates-multi-service-centers-1968 .

• The presentation slides will be available (shortly) before the meeting, for those who wish to follow along.

Agenda

Post-meeting artifacts

Bloggers are encouraged to write about their learning and experiences at the meeting. Links will be added to this page.