Books Worth Reading (Draft)

Notes on the Synthesis of Form

Christopher Alexander (1964). Harvard University Press.

This is a first "sketch" of the idea later published on "A Pattern language", which influenced both architects and computer scientists alike. In this book, though, the author focuses on design as a primitive human activity (as in, before academic interest), and how it develops almost as Darwinistic process of solutions that survive over time given the natural environment — in other words, fitting forms to the context.

This has been an extremly influental book to me, and changed how I approach problem solving – by first indentifying constraints, and later finding a solution that harmonizes all the conflicts.

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