Editing Christopher Alexander (section)

==Influence==

===Architecture===
Alexander's work has widely influenced architects; among those who acknowledge his influence are [[Sarah Susanka]],<ref name="Sarah Susanka 2001">Sarah Susanka: ''Not So Big House'', Taunton Press, 2001, {{ISBN|1-56158-376-6}}</ref> [[Andres Duany]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.katarxis3.com/Duany.htm|title=Andres Duany, Architect and Urban Theorist|website=www.katarxis3.com}}</ref> and [[Witold Rybczynski]].<ref name="nbm.org">{{Cite web |url=http://www.nbm.org/support-us/awards_honors/scully-prize/christopher-alexander.html |title=Christopher Alexander |access-date=12 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216001841/http://www.nbm.org/support-us/awards_honors/scully-prize/christopher-alexander.html |archive-date=16 February 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Robert Campbell (journalist)|Robert Campbell]], the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the ''Boston Globe'', stated that Alexander "has had an enormous critical influence on my life and work, and I think that's true of a whole generation of people."<ref name="nbm.org"/>

Architecture critic [[Peter Buchanan (architect)|Peter Buchanan]], in an essay for ''[[The Architectural Review]]''{{'}}s 2012 campaign ''The Big Rethink'', argues that Alexander's work as reflected in ''A Pattern Language'' is "thoroughly subversive and forward looking rather than regressive, as so many misunderstand it to be." He continues:
{{blockquote|Even architects not immune to the charms of the places depicted, are loath to pursue the folksy aesthetic they see as implied and do not want to engage with such primitive construction—although the systemic collapse now unfolding may force that upon them. The daunting challenge for architects then, if such a thing is even possible to realise, would be to recreate in a more contemporary idiom both the richness and quality of experience suggested by the pattern language.<ref>[http://www.architectural-review.com/the-big-rethink/the-big-rethink-transcend-and-include-the-past/8629373.article?blocktitle=Towards-a-Complete-Architecture&contentID=4950 The Big Rethink: Transcend And include The Past], 24 April 2012 (accessed 5 January 2012)</ref>}}

Many urban development projects continue to incorporate Alexander's ideas. For example, in the UK the developers [[Living Villages]] have been highly influenced by Alexander's work and used ''A Pattern Language'' as the basis for the design of The Wintles in Bishops Castle, Shropshire.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://transitionculture.org/2009/02/24/a-wander-round-the-wintles/|title=A Wander Round the Wintles » Transition Culture|first=Rob|last=Hopkins|website=transitionculture.org}}</ref> [[Sarah Susanka]]'s "Not So Big House" movement adapts and popularizes Alexander's patterns and outlook.<ref name="Sarah Susanka 2001"/>

===Computer science===
Alexander's ''[[Notes on the Synthesis of Form]]'' was said{{by whom|date=January 2025}} to be required reading for researchers in computer science throughout the 1960s. It had an influence<ref name="naur">{{cite conference |first=H. |last=Kilov |title=Using RM-ODP to bridge communication gaps between stakeholders |book-title=Communications H Kilov |conference=Workshop on ODP for Enterprise Computing 2004 |citeseerx=10.1.1.161.553 |quote=Peter Naur proposed in 1968 to use Christopher Alexander's work…}}</ref> in the 1960s and 1970s on [[programming language design]], modular programming, [[object-oriented programming]], software engineering and other design methodologies. Alexander's mathematical concepts and orientation were similar to [[Edsger Dijkstra]]'s influential ''A Discipline of Programming''.<ref>{{Cite book
 |edition=Facsimile
 |publisher=Prentice Hall, Inc.
 |isbn=978-0-13-215871-8
 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/disciplineofprog0000dijk/page/217 217]
 |last1=Dijkstra
 |first1=E. |author1-link=Edsger Dijkstra
 |title=A Discipline of Programming
 |date=28 October 1976
 |url=https://archive.org/details/disciplineofprog0000dijk/page/217
}}</ref>

The greatest influence of ''[[A Pattern Language]]'' in computer science is the [[design patterns]] movement.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/Chris.text.html#COMPUTER |title=Christopher's Alexander's influence on Computer Science |author=Nikos A. Salingaros |access-date=8 February 2014 |archive-date=15 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415002236/http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/Chris.text.html#COMPUTER |url-status=dead}}</ref> Alexander's philosophy of incremental, organic, coherent design also influenced the [[extreme programming]] movement.<ref name="accu">{{cite web|url=http://accu.org/index.php/journals/509|title=ACCU :: eXtreme Programming An interview with Kent Beck|first=ACCU|last=Members|website=accu.org}}</ref> The [[Wiki]] was invented<ref name="C2 Wiki Front Page"/><ref name="c2.com"/> to allow the [[Hillside Group]] to work collaboratively on programming [[design patterns]]. More recently the "deep geometrical structures" as discussed in ''[[The Nature of Order]]'' have been cited as having importance for [[object-oriented programming]], particularly in C++.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~chang/budha/coplien.htm|title=Space: The Final Frontier|website=www.cs.pitt.edu}}</ref>

[[Will Wright (game designer)|Will Wright]] wrote that Alexander's work was influential in the origin of the ''[[SimCity]]'' computer games, and in his later game ''[[Spore (2008 video game)|Spore]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iconeye.com/architecture/features/item/3261-will-wright-interview|title=Will Wright interview|website=iconeye.com}}</ref>

Alexander often led his own software research, such as the 1996 Gatemaker project with [[Greg Bryant (computer scientist)|Greg Bryant]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gatemaker.org|title=Aspen – early 1997|website=gatemaker.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first1=Bryant |last1=Greg |date=2013 |url=http://www.rainmagazine.com/archive/2014/gatemaker |title=Gatemaker: Christopher Alexander's dialogue with the computer industry |website=Rain Magazine}}</ref>

Alexander discovered and conceived a recursive structure, so called wholeness, which is defined mathematically, exists in space and matter physically, and reflects in our minds and cognition psychologically. He had his idea of wholeness back to early 1980s when he finished his first version of ''The Nature of Order''. His idea of wholeness or degree of wholeness relying on a recursive structure of centers resemble aspects of Google's PageRank.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Jiang |first1=Bin |date=27 March 2015 |title=Wholeness as a Hierarchical Graph to Capture the Nature of Space |journal=International Journal of Geographical Information Science |volume=29 |issue=9 |pages=1632–1648 |doi=10.1080/13658816.2015.1038542 |bibcode=2015IJGIS..29.1632J |s2cid=8209848 |arxiv=1502.03554}}</ref>

===Religion===
The fourth volume of ''[[The Nature of Order]]'' approaches religious questions from a scientific and philosophical rather than mystical direction, focusing in human feelings, well-being and nature interaction rather than metaphysics. In it, Alexander describes deep ties between the nature of matter, [[human perception]] of the universe, and the geometries people construct in buildings, cities, and artifacts. He suggests a crucial link between traditional practices and [[belief]]s, and recent scientific advances.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.natureoforder.com/summarybk4.htm|title=Summary of Book Four of The Nature of Order|website=www.natureoforder.com}}</ref> Despite his leanings toward [[Deism]], and his naturalistic and anthropologic approach to religion, Alexander maintained that he was a practicing member of the [[Catholic Church]], which he believed to have accumulated, within its knowledge, a great deal of human truth.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Alexander |first1=Christopher |date=February 2016 |url=http://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/02/making-the-garden |title=Making the Garden |website=First Things}}</ref>

===Design science===
The life's work of Alexander is dedicated to turn design from unselfconscious behavior to selfconscious behavior, so called [[design science]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Jiang |first1=Bin |date=March 1, 2019 |title=Christopher Alexander and His Life's Work: The Nature of Order |journal=Urban Science |language=en |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=30 |doi=10.3390/urbansci3010030 |issn=2413-8851|doi-access=free|bibcode=2019UrbSc...3...30J }}</ref> In his very first book ''Notes on the Synthesis of Forms'', he set what he wanted to do. He was inspired by traditional buildings, and tried to derive some 253 patterns for architectural design. Later on, he further distilled 15 geometric properties to characterize living structure in ''[[The Nature of Order]]''. The design principles are differentiation and adaptation.

===Complex networks===
In his classic [[A City is Not a Tree]], he already had some primary ideas of [[complex networks]], although he used semilattice rather than complex networks. In his 1964 book [[Notes on the Synthesis of Form]] (p.&nbsp;65), he prefigured [[community structure]] in complex networks{{or|date=February 2025}}{{failed verification|date=February 2025}}, a topic that emerged around 2004{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}.