IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/urbpla/v8y2023i3p185-187.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Structure That Structures Us

Author

Listed:
  • Jaap Dawson

    (Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Christopher Alexander explored the world of built structures. He longed for buildings and spaces that touched and triggered our own psychological and spiritual structure. From his examples of spaces we experience as alive he distilled his Fifteen Properties: aspects and qualities in buildings that quicken us. As architects, we want to learn how we can create structures that embody the Fifteen Properties. Can we do so through consciously attempting to design them? In my experience of designing, we need more than a conscious attempt. We need an awareness of the goal of our designing. And Alexander himself gives us a glimpse of that goal in The Linz Café: Our goal is nothing short of designing as an offering to God. What might an offering to God mean? What might it mean as an attitude free from ideology or embalmed belief? The discoveries C. G. Jung made can help us get in touch with such a goal. Our goal is our own divine centre. Our challenge as architects is to open ourselves to the images and structures that appear on our paper or screens as we design. What is their source? Can we see ourselves in them? Can we meet our divine centre in them?

Suggested Citation

  • Jaap Dawson, 2023. "The Structure That Structures Us," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 185-187.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v:8:y:2023:i:3:p:185-187
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/6889
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael W. Mehaffy & Tigran Haas, 2023. "Introduction: Toward a “Post-Alexandrian” Agenda," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(3), pages 148-152.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v:8:y:2023:i:3:p:185-187. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.