The Oregon experiment

Used copy. Published in 1975 by Oxford University Press. First edition.

This publication is the third volume in a series of three books written by Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure. The three books are The Timeless Way of Building, A Pattern Language, and The Oregon Experiment.

At the core of this series is the idea that people should design for themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be radical (it implies a radical transformation fo the architectural profession) but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people.

This book is the master plan for the University of Oregon, and is now being implemented at that university; but it shows at the same time how any community the size of a university or small town might go about designing its own future environment-with all members of the community participating personally. It is a concrete example at the Center's theories in practice, showing in simple detail, with numerous illustrations, how to implement six guiding principles: organic order, participation, piecemeal growth, patterns, diagnosis, and coordination.

Christopher Alexander, Murray Sioverstein, Shlomo Angel, Sara Ishikawa, Denny Abrams
20 X 14 cm, 190 pages

*In good condition with small tears on the dust jacket. Illustrations in black & white. Picture of actual book.