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Fifteen Fundamental Properties (2022)

camillovisini.com

1–10 of 17 posts

Re: Fifteen Fundamental Properties (2022)

#3
> Objects and buildings feature a hierarchy of centers – distinctive features which attract the spectator's eye.

I think it's weird to consider the people interacting with buildings as "spectators". Presumably a building serves purposes other than being seen. Though these were posed by an architect, "residents", "occupants", "users" etc are never mentioned -- only "spectators".

Re: Fifteen Fundamental Properties (2022)

#4
post #3

> Objects and buildings feature a hierarchy of centers – distinctive features which attract the spectator's eye. I think it's weird to consider the people interacting with buildings as "spectators". Presumably a building serves purposes other than being seen. Though these were posed by an architect, "residents", "occupants", "users" etc are never mentioned -- only "spectators".

Indeed, it seems the author chose to separate behavior of the "user/creator" from aesthetic for the purpose of this argument. Which could be perhaps due to the author trying to separate their own ego from these sort of trueisms that they perceive to be inherent constructs that all structures/objects contain. However, it seems we can see their ego still in their use of the word "spectator", which I would argue is how the author has placed themselves.

Where I think they were going with this I'll explain in an example. If you take an urban city, the centers are the buildings, the shops, businesses, etc, where meaning and behavior has been centered and distributed across a grid of streets. The streets would represent the lowest hierarchy, as on the streets its anarchy of meaning wherein the occupants of the street bear little collective purpose. But once you enter a store, suddenly there is a unified purpose seen in the design of the store and the behavior of it's occupants that mutually reinforce each other. Such that these hierarchies are easily distinguishable(their attraction). To be attracted to something one must first define the boundaries of the object, one is attracted to a collection of behaviors or manifestations of nature that they construct as an object.

Re: Fifteen Fundamental Properties (2022)

#5
post #3

> Objects and buildings feature a hierarchy of centers – distinctive features which attract the spectator's eye. I think it's weird to consider the people interacting with buildings as "spectators". Presumably a building serves purposes other than being seen. Though these were posed by an architect, "residents", "occupants", "users" etc are never mentioned -- only "spectators".

Spector in the sense that they perceive in and move through the space. They don’t create or manipulate the space at the scale under consideration.

That is my interpertation.

Re: Fifteen Fundamental Properties (2022)

#6
post #2

This feels like astrology of design. It is just me?

Well one could consider them self evident and obvious.

The dialog is quite clear if one is fluent in design language. The point is trying to organize the thinking process to make sure all edge cases are explored. These edge case can be discussed in a context of the scale under consideration.

Re: Fifteen Fundamental Properties (2022)

#7
This is derived from Christopher Alexander, who people on HN might be more aware of as the (distant) intellectual progenitor of the pattern language movement (of which the "Gang of Four" Design Patterns are the most familiar incarnation) --- but he himself is an architect; I assume "A Pattern Language" isn't his most important book in his own field, but it's a lot of fun to flip through, and I'm glad I have it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Alexander

Re: Fifteen Fundamental Properties (2022)

#8
These properties are explained in great detail in volume 1 of Christopher Alexander's The Nature of Order.

Reading about these with accompanying images of spaces or objects demonstrating the presence or absence of these properties is what made it stick for me.

Re: Fifteen Fundamental Properties (2022)

#9
post #3

> Objects and buildings feature a hierarchy of centers – distinctive features which attract the spectator's eye. I think it's weird to consider the people interacting with buildings as "spectators". Presumably a building serves purposes other than being seen. Though these were posed by an architect, "residents", "occupants", "users" etc are never mentioned -- only "spectators".

I get what you're saying, and it kind of strikes me that way too. But: many modern homes (mine included) have fake shutters on each side of the windows. Why? I guess it's just for looks, as very very few houses have functional shutters.
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