method
active
method:empirical-comparison-method-for-degree-of-lifeEmpirical Comparison Method for Degree of Life
Alexander's method of spending 2-3 hours daily for twenty years comparing pairs of artifacts and buildings, asking which has more life, and identifying structural features correlating with greater wholeness
Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count
Thinkers (1)
thinker
- Christopher Alexanderintroduces
Frameworks (1)
framework
- The set of geometric properties that appear in all living structure: levels of scale, strong centers, boundaries, echoes, gradients, deep interlock and ambiguity, local symmetries, roughness, inner calm, not separateness, and others.
Methods (1)
method
- Paired Comparison for Degree of Liferelated_toExperimental method where subjects choose which of two items has more life, yielding agreement and a relative measure of life.
probe (1)
probe
- The fundamental phenomenological method Alexander used for twenty years and invites readers to replicate: look at any two artifacts or buildings side by side and ask which has more life
Chapters (1)
chapter
- The chapter that catalogs and analyzes the fifteen recurrent geometric properties found in systems that have life, connecting them to the deeper theory of centers and wholeness
Related by similarity (8)
cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edgeEntities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.
- A method to measure living structure by the degree of life people experience in themselves.
- The measure of how much living structure a thing possesses, ranging from high (tea bowl) to low (computer casing).
- Asking architecture students to choose which of two buildings/scenes has more life, then categorizing their willingness to answer.
- Ontological claim that the life quality resides in the object, not the observer.
- Part of the fundamental hypothesis, asserting empirical accessibility.
- Load-bearing assertion of objectivity, summarizing the chapter's thesis.
- Broadens the scope of life from aesthetics to a fundamental property.
- Practical prescription for design: evaluate life instead of checking functional lists.