Got a call from Benedict XVI, you know “good old Joe, but call me Al, Ratzinger”, formerly John Paul’s second Attack-Rottweiler, now Papa. He wondered if you didn’t need some earthquake insurance for the trip to Italy. He mumbled something about indulgences. I asked, “Do you mean beer?” He explained: “Not in Italy. No, no. […]
Month: February 2022
Psychological Testing
Background PSYCHOLOGICAL tests aren’t magic, so let’s get that clear right at the beginning. They assess and evaluate information that you give to the examiner, which is why the formal name of psychological testing is psychological assessment. You give this information either in the form of answers to interview questions or as answers on paper—or […]
Rip Van Winkler
The various roles of this story play in the shadow of the complex dynamics of their time, as collected in the chronicles of several German cities in the mid-20th century. Back then, there was a simple, average, basically contented young man named Rip Van Winkler. He was a good neighbor, who was always obedient and […]
Płakowice Castle, My birthplace
I was born in the village of Plagwitz, close to Löwenberg, in Germany, now Lwówek Śląski in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship in Poland. Members of my family were evacuated in February of 1945 to escape the onslaught of Russian troops, ending up and finding refuge with in-laws at the Dutch/German border. The Löwenberg area became […]
Music as a Guide
Music is full of phenomena which make up the construction of various styles and philosophical intentions of pieces when composed. So, why is it not at all possible to find parallels between the aural phenomena of music composition and the visual phenomena of typographic design, just to break away from the monotony of Bauhaus or […]
Openness and Closedness
If one prefers not to copy or plagiarize someone’s else’s concepts or work, still, for the emerged frames of perceptions, which make attempts to freeze the understanding, conclusion or position, one is obliged to learn how to translate the wonders of today into positive realities for tomorrow. About how easy it was for a young […]
Is “Meta” Better than Reality?
Can Life be Better without Reality?An “off the top” Response Unfortunately, I will always have to start at the beginning: Design has its intellectual roots in science and art and the daily human encounter with nature (and its physical/social environment/ecology). Otherwise, design is an empty vessel. It has no specific hold on knowledge because it […]
Christopher Alexander
•Community and Privacy, with Serge Chermayeff (1963)•Notes on the Synthesis of Form (1964)•A City is Not a Tree (1965)•The Atoms of Environmental Structure (1967)•A Pattern Language which Generates Multi-Service Centers, with Ishikawa and Silverstein (1968)•Houses Generated by Patterns (1969)•The Grass Roots Housing Process (1973)[46]•The Center for Environmental Structure Series, made up of The Oregon Experiment (1975)A […]
Charles Ives
One of my early discoveries was the musical work of Charles Ives (1874–1954), an American modernist composer of classical music. Oliver (Howie) Kline was a young designer who was hired by our office. He came from a family of opera and music performers, took me to some of the premiere performances of Ives’s work at […]
Robert Mann
Over the years at MIT, I found that especially the more seasoned faculty members were always more open for discussion. One did not have to be enrolled in their classes. While Professor Edgerton was always available for a lively chat or openly show his photographic work or share descriptions of his South American research trips […]