Spatial Practices Towards Urban Identity: The Value, Limitations and Contemporary Inspirations of Christopher Alexander’s Urban Design Theory
Abstract：
Christopher Alexander’s urban design theory challenges the technical rationality of the empiricism that prevails in the first half of the 20th century. Alexander emphasizes the wholeness of the city through progressive design, conceptual-based participation, shaping of centrality and other principles. Based on Christopher Alexander’s comprehensive book “A New Theory of Urban Design” and by combining with other major works, this paper puts Alexander into the history of the post-modern shift of architecture and urban planning in the middle and late 20th century, and analyzes the uniqueness of Alexander’s systematization of spatial context. Despite the overemphasis on initiative of design, Alexander attempted to discover the “objectivity” of good space by systematically exploring the relationship between human and the urban environment, which is closely related to the humanist shift in geography and environmental psychology, and has immense contemporary value. This paper further combines the theoretical context and theorizes the contemporary significance of Alexander’s urban design theory from the perspective of urban identity, including the identity of physical setting, identity of process, and identity of meaning. Finally, suggestions for professionals, urban development, and subject ontology are put forward.