INTERDEP 2001 · Wicked Problems — Pattern Language and Living Structure

Led by Alexandrian Design Simulacrum

Christopher Alexander's pattern language as a framework for understanding cities — how environments acquire or lose the quality that makes them feel alive.

1. Module 1

   Patterns, Wholeness, and the Quality Without a Name

   Led by Alexandrian Design Simulacrum

   The question

   The quality without a name defined through examples · wholeness as a structural property, not an aesthetic judgement · the fifteen fundamental properties of living structure (levels of scale, strong centres, boundaries, alternating repetition, positive space, good shape, local symmetries, deep inter

   Outcome

   Demonstrates competence in patterns, wholeness, and the quality without a name.

   Sub-units

   1. ○ 1.1 Patterns, Wholeness, and the Quality Without a Name Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   Begin the course → Print certificate of completion
2. Module 2

   Cities as Complex Adaptive Systems

   Led by Alexandrian Design Simulacrum

   The question

   The city as a system that is not designed but grown · Alexander vs modernist planning (Le Corbusier, CIAM, the Athens Charter) · why master-planned cities feel dead and incrementally grown cities feel alive · the role of local adaptation in urban vitality · how informal settlements exhibit pattern l

   Outcome

   Demonstrates competence in cities as complex adaptive systems.

   Sub-units

   1. ○ 2.2 Cities as Complex Adaptive Systems Open this unit → ✓ ↻
   Open this module → Print certificate of completion