Non-living structures damage our ability to feel relatedness and can make us insane.

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

• Buildings and objects with living structure enlarge our capacity for relatedness; those without deaden it, even in nature.claim0.875
  Practical consequence for architecture and urbanism.
• Human beings can violate the tendency to preserve wholeness either by acting disrespectfully toward it or by failing to perceive it accurately, which explains why modern buildings often lack living structure.claim0.805
  Alexander's explanation for the 'temperamental' nature of the principle: it can be overridden by human agency
• The impact of the geometry of the environment—its living or not-living structure—has a trace-like, catalytic effect on emotional, social, spiritual, and physical well-being.claim0.801
  Analogy to trace elements and enzymes.
• The structures where life occurs just cannot be made in any other way.quote0.793
  Categorical assertion about the necessity of the living process.
• The structure of wholeness, the more you encounter it, makes you more and more able to feel the reality and existence of the Ground.claim0.790
• In nature the principle of unfolding wholeness creates living structure nearly all the time. Human designers, who are not constrained by this unfolding, can violate the wholeness if they wish to, and can therefore create non-living structure as often as they choose.quote0.790
  Encapsulates the distinction between natural and human-made order, central to Alexander's critique of contemporary architecture.
• The relatedness we experience with living things is not a psychological illusion but a real, actual material connection between self and matter.claim0.790
  Central thesis of the chapter: the feeling of connection is literal and fundamental.
• The creation of living structure cannot be done in any other way.claim0.789