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Making Sense without Meaning : Christopher Alexander and the Automation of Design

Miranda Carranza, Pablo LU (2023) In Forum Architekturwissenschaft 6. p.191-212
Abstract
In his contribution to the infuential “Architecture and the Computer”
conference in 1964, Christopher Alexander summarised the reorganisation of intellectual labour that, beginning in the 19th century,
became fnally concretised in the technologies of the computer. In
his opinion, computers should be regarded as nothing else than huge
armies of clerks, stupid and without initiative, but able to follow to
the letter millions of precisely written instructions. This essay examines how architectural design began being digitally transcribed so it
would conform to the logics of these armies of clerks, through a close
reading of the programs and computer code written by Alexander.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
host publication
Utopia Computer : The "New" in Architecture? - The "New" in Architecture?
series title
Forum Architekturwissenschaft
editor
Bredella, Nathalie ; Dähne, Chris and Lausch, Frederike
volume
6
pages
21 pages
publisher
TU Berlin University Press
ISBN
978-3-7983-3270-6
978-3-7983-3271-3
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
3302210c-9578-43e1-9e39-40a8a393e72a
date added to LUP
2025-02-10 17:12:31
date last changed
2025-02-11 13:15:58
@inbook{3302210c-9578-43e1-9e39-40a8a393e72a,
  abstract     = {{In his contribution to the infuential “Architecture and the Computer”<br/>conference in 1964, Christopher Alexander summarised the reorganisation of intellectual labour that, beginning in the 19th century,<br/>became fnally concretised in the technologies of the computer. In<br/>his opinion, computers should be regarded as nothing else than huge<br/>armies of clerks, stupid and without initiative, but able to follow to<br/>the letter millions of precisely written instructions. This essay examines how architectural design began being digitally transcribed so it<br/>would conform to the logics of these armies of clerks, through a close<br/>reading of the programs and computer code written by Alexander.}},
  author       = {{Miranda Carranza, Pablo}},
  booktitle    = {{Utopia Computer : The "New" in Architecture?}},
  editor       = {{Bredella, Nathalie and Dähne, Chris and Lausch, Frederike}},
  isbn         = {{978-3-7983-3270-6}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{191--212}},
  publisher    = {{TU Berlin University Press}},
  series       = {{Forum Architekturwissenschaft}},
  title        = {{Making Sense without Meaning : Christopher Alexander and the Automation of Design}},
  volume       = {{6}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}