Reviews (15)

Building and Poetry, Entwined :)
This book should really be read twice.

It is one of the most powerful books that I have ever read.
It is poetic, and yet very precise and concrete, about the state of things as one perceives them in nature.

First he explains what is the Quality without a Name. Then he proceeds to distinguish it in our acts of construction by highlighting it in nature.

I have to confess that I am currently biased by General Systems Theory, Emergence and all these relatively new concepts, and cannot help but analyze this book from that perspective. It is a wonderful book that talks about stability in natural systems, and how this very beautiful and poetic stability is reached through natural processes. Nature has a way of 'stabilizing' its own systems. Nature itself is constantly changing in order to cope with this ever changing conditions.
The author assumes heavily that human beings, when letting themselves be free and at peace, are able to identify at the most profound levels with stable systems in nature. Everything nature does awakens our natural and hidden intuitions of beauty and stability, and it is at this moment, when we 'let go' of thoughts and ideas, that this beauty can be apprehended and completely acknowledged, making us whole, and by doing so, becoming a part of the Place as much as the place becomes a part of us.

The proposed way of building mimics, to the extent this is possible, nature's way of building, and constructs things in the world organically, this is, build them as if they were being generated from a seed, not "composed".
One starts with the very basics On Site, and lets go its preconceived ideas and images, and focuses only in the site, and in the specifics of the site: paths the Sun light travels, trees nearby, roads, accidents in the ground, previous buildings and, most importantly, the use that will be given to the building by those that will actually use it. This way, whatever the end results, the building thus created is constantly able to adapt to its surroundings, being able, through specific applications of the patterns proposed, to resolve the ever changing systems of conflicting forces which are constantly found as development progresses.

It is a truly beautiful book, even if you have no business in architecture, as is my case (Software Engineer). I can see how and why this book had such a tremendous impact on Software Development when it came out. However, this book actually goes much beyond the ideas in design and enterprise architecture patterns. It is a book for your heart. It is a book that will definitely change the way you face the world, the way you let yourself be in places, the fact that a building is much more than the geometries and materials used to build it.

A book everyone should read. Really everyone.

The Etymology of Software Architecture
I found this book so mesmerizing that I read it twice.During the first pass, I was surprised that the book was so philosophical and poetic in describing architecture. I expected something more technical.Later during the second pass, my goal was to find derivatives and analogies in software architecture.Based on what I found, I think every software architect would enjoy this book.

The writing style that I noticed in my first read of the book made me feel like I was reading an architecture bible.I hesitate to describe the book as religious, but the book's description "the power to make buildings beautiful lies in each of us already" and the description of the word "alive" giving architecture "the quality without a name" triggered an epiphany when recalling that the Bible says "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." and, "So God created man in his own image."This is why I'd say this book has a primal, sacred aspect, and this is why we like to build.Additionally, the book especially moved me so my mind's eye was opened to see "alive" patterns and to think about the morphology of architecture filling voids and generating towns.

On the second pass of reading, I was struck by this software architecture analogy in the table of contents:"16. Once we have understood how to discover individual patterns which are alive, we may then make a language for ourselves for any building task we face.The structure of the language is created by the network of connections among individual patterns: and the language lives, or not, as a totality, to the degree these patterns form a whole."Could this be the guidebook for designing enterprise software architecture?

Obviously this book was the inspiration for the philosophy and vocabulary for software architecture, and I thought some of the following excerpts were noteworthy paradigm shifts.

"The patterns are not just patterns of relationships, but patterns of relationships among other smaller patterns, which themselves have still other patterns hooking them together---and we see finally, that the world is entirely made of all these interhooking, interlocking nonmaterial patterns."This sounds like the difference between patterns of software architecture and object-oriented software design patterns.

"Each pattern is a three-part rule, which expresses a relation between a certain context, a problem, and a solution."Deja vu for software patterns.

"You may be afraid that the design won't work if you take just one pattern at a time...There is no reason to be timid...The order of the language will make sure that it is possible."Likewise in software architecture design, as one design pattern is considered at a time to see how it fits needs into the large picture of design.If this pattern is later deemed to be dead, it can be replaced by an "alive" design pattern.

"Next, several acts of building, each one done to repair and magnify the product of the previous acts, will slowly generate a larger and more complex whole than any single act can generate."This correlates to software refactoring.

"It is essential, therefore, that the builder build only from rough drawings: and that he carry out the detailed patterns from the drawings according to the processes given by the pattern language in his mind."When I read this, I thought about the metaphor to the software architect's vision and design.The software architect's design needs to be abstract enough to accommodate change easily, but yet simple enough so software programmers can understand it, finish the detailed component design and build the component to fit the architectural whole.

Isbn: 0919741843
Sales Rank: 1373372
Subjects:  1. Artifact Typology    2. Industrial Archaeology   

Reviews (34)

Heartbreakingly Beautiful...
Upon reaching the end of this text, I literally had to hold the book vertically in front of me so that the steady flow of tears (of overwhelming joy and sadness) would not drench it.

This book is a guide to being a support person.

This book is a guide to living and dying.

This book is biographical and autobiographical.

This book is one of the most vulnerable and skillfully conveyed pieces of practice I have ever encountered.

Please read this book AT LEAST once.

Namaste!

lover of grace
This is simply THE most wonderful book I have ever read , Ken is amazing and so real, And she just IS.