Ways of Understanding Wholeness: Place, Christopher Alexander, and Synergistic Relationality
David Seamon
Department of Architecture
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS USA
Abstract
In this presentation, I discuss architect Christopher Alexander’s work in relation to a broader body of research and design focusing on a “phenomenology of place and place making.” I begin by describing two contrasting ways of understanding wholeness—what I call analytic relationality and synergistic relationality. In analytic relationality, wholes are pictured as sets of arbitrary parts external to each other and among which are located linkages involving stronger and weaker connections and relationships. In contrast, synergistic relationality interprets wholes as dynamic, generative fields that sustain and are sustained by intensive parts that integrally belong to and support the whole. I suggest that, in terms of synergistic relationality, places can be envisioned as interconnected fields of intertwined relationships gathering and gathered by a lived intimacy between people and world. I illustrate how Alexander’s approach to wholeness assumes a synergistic relationality and contributes to both understanding and making places that are whole, robust, and life-enhancing.
Key words
Christopher Alexander, pattern language, phenomenology, place, wholeness
[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/puarl2018/files/2020/06/PUARL2018_keynote.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]
25 years of Patterns at the University of Oregon
Chris Ramey
Former University Architect University of Oregon
[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/puarl2018/files/2020/06/Chris-Ramey.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]
Refugees and the City
A Pattern Learning Journey on a Global Challenge
Wolfgang Stark
Strascheg Center for Entrepeurship, Munich – Germany
University Network on Social Responsibility
Steinbeis Center on Innovation and Sustainable Leadership
University of Duisburg-Essen
[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/puarl2018/files/2020/06/Wolfgang-Stark.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google” ]