Christopher Alexander on Freshness

“What was lost in the 20th-century building was the freshness of our buildings …. it is not style that makes a building living or dead, but the freshness of its response to its surroundings; the truthful and spontaneous unfolding of order within its own fabric.

… the essence of all life in any system at all, lies in the adaptive response of each new development in the system to the previous existing state …

… Although the adaptive sequences are highly ordered, and seem predefined, because they define steps and transformations in a disciplined sequence, it is the character of these sequences to help the user, the artist, the builder RESPOND to what is there, rather than to IMPOSE on what is there. And this too, stands as the foundation of any world where we experience true belonging. It cannot be achieved by a mechanical framework, by any mechanical system, nor by any stereotyped or stylistic response.”

Christopher Alexander – The Nature of Order – Book 3: A Vision of a Living World