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question:why-does-the-principle-that-creates-living-structure-sometimes-break-down-at-the-macroscopic-scale-of-modern-building-production

Why does the principle that creates living structure sometimes break down at the macroscopic scale of modern building production?

Alexander's puzzle about why a natural principle fails in human design contexts, requiring explanation

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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.
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Alexander's explanation for the 'temperamental' nature of the principle: it can be overridden by human agency

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

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

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.quote0.828
Encapsulates the distinction between natural and human-made order, central to Alexander's critique of contemporary architecture.
Nature always produces living structure because it follows a process of unfolding wholeness; human designers can create non-living structure by violating this process.claim0.826
Core distinction between natural and designed configurations, explaining why properties are ubiquitous in nature but rare in bad design.
Living structure in buildings can only be GENERATED. It cannot be created by brute force from designs.claim0.811
Core thesis of Book 2, stated at the transition to Part Two.
The creation of living structure cannot be done in any other way.claim0.811
Life and living structure will appear in the world inevitably because the mathematical way space gives rise to structure necessarily reinforces wholeness as part of its most normal evolution.claim0.810
Alexander's strongest ontological claim: living structure is not probabilistically improbable but mathematically necessary given the principle of unfolding wholeness
Such a process will not—in general—create living structure.claim0.804
To have living modern architecture, society must have a process capable of generating building form dynamically, step by step, at all scales.claim0.803
The need for a new kind of process in society.
Individual mechanical explanations for each property are too specific to provide a general explanation for why living structure repeatedly appears across all domains.claim0.802
Alexander's argument that case-by-case mechanical explanations fail to address the universal recurrence of living structure