Abstract
This article considers architect Christopher Alexander’s work in relation to a broader body of research and design focusing on phenomenologies of place and placemaking. The article begins by describing two contrasting ways of understanding wholeness—what are called 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. The argument is made 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. The article illustrates how Alexander’s approach to wholeness assumes a synergistic relationality and contributes to understanding, envisioning, and making places that are whole, robust, and life-enhancing.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Key works include Alexander (Citation1979, Citation1981, Citation1993, Citation2002a, Citation2002b, Citation2004, Citation2005, Citation2007), Alexander et al. (Citation1975, Citation1977, Citation1985, Citation1987, Citation1995, Citation2012). Useful overviews of Alexander’s work are Davis (Citation2023), Grabow (Citation1983), Pontikis and Rofè (Citation2016).
3 Useful discussions of place include Casey (Citation2009), Janz (Citation2005), Malpas (Citation2001, Citation2012, Citation2018), Manzo and Devine-Wright (Citation2021), Mugerauer (Citation1994), Relph (Citation1976), Seamon (Citation2004, Citation2005, Citation2016, Citation2018, Citation2023), Stefanovic (Citation2000).
4 These six processes are justified and elaborated in Seamon (Citation2018).
Janz, B. (2005). Walls and borders: The range of place. City & Community, 4(1), 87–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1535-6841.2005.00104.x Malpas, J. (2001). Comparing topographies: Across paths/around place: A reply to Casey. Philosophy & Geography, 4(2), 231–238. https://doi.org/10.1080/10903770123850 Malpas, J. (2012). Putting space in place: Philosophical Topography and relational geography. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 30(2), 226–242. https://doi.org/10.1068/d20810 Malpas, J. (2018). Place and Experience (2nd edn.). Cambridge University Press. Manzo, L. and Devine-Wright, P. (Eds.). (2021). Place Attachment: Advances in Theory, Methods and Research (2nd edn.). Routledge. Mugerauer, R. (1994). Interpretations on Behalf of Place. State University of New York Press. Relph, E. (1976). Place and Placelessness. Pion. Seamon, D. (2004). Grasping the Dynamism of Urban Place: Contributions from the Work of Christopher Alexander, Bill Hillier, and Daniel Kemmis. In T. Mels (Ed.), Reanimating Places (pp. 123–145). Ashgate. Seamon, D. (2005). Making better worlds. [A review of C. Alexander, The Nature of Order, vols. 2-4], Traditional Building (pp. 186–188). Seamon, D. (2016). Christopher alexander and a phenomenology of wholeness. In K. Pontikis and Y. Rofѐ (Eds.), Pursuit of a Living Architecture: Continuing Christopher Alexander’s Quest for a Humane and Sustainable Building Culture (pp. 50–66). Common Ground. Seamon, D. (2018). Life Takes Place: Phenomenology, Lifeworlds, and Place Making. Routledge. Seamon, D. (2023). Phenomenological Perspectives on Place, Lifeworlds, and Lived Emplacement. Routledge. Stefanovic, I. (2000). Safeguarding our Common Future. State University of New York Press. Seamon, D. (2018). Life Takes Place: Phenomenology, Lifeworlds, and Place Making. Routledge.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3709-7398
![Sample our Health and Social Care journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5938/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Health-Social-Care.jpg"})