The Linz Cafe / Das Linz Cafe (Center for Environmental Structure Series)

by Christopher W. Alexander

English, German

Genres: Architecture

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 14, 1982

About the author

Christopher Wolfgang John Alexander was an Austrian-born British-American architect and design theorist. He was an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His theories about the nature of human-centered design have affected fields beyond architecture, including urban design, software, and sociology. Alexander designed and personally built over 100 buildings, both as an architect and a general contractor.

In software, Alexander is regarded as the father of the pattern language movement. The first wiki—the technology behind Wikipedia—led directly from Alexander's work, according to its creator, Ward Cunningham. Alexander's work has also influenced the development of agile software development.

In architecture, Alexander's work is used by a number of different contemporary architectural communities of practice, including the New Urbanist movement, to help people to reclaim control over their own built environment. However, Alexander was controversial among some mainstream architects and critics, in part because his work was often harshly critical of much of contemporary architectural theory and practice.

Reviews

[Sriraam · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is an essay on the design of the LInz Cafe built on the banks of Danube river in Austria for an exhibition. It is a demonstration of the timeless way of building. It is an early experiment in the career of Christopher Alexander.

[Prashanth Bhat]

Books written by Christopher Alexander never fail to amaze me. This book shows practical example of how christopher designed a small cafe for human feelings in Austria. A quick read, i could finish it in a day, but needs you to study the pattern language to understand this.