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The Linz CafelDas Linz Cafe, by Christopher
Alexander, 1981,94 pp., $19.95
from:
Oxford University Press
200 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016
. . . the building comes above all from the
desire to make something which is simple,
ordinary and comfortable. This simple comfort
depends on certain definite and specifiable
patterns . . . many of them described in
A Pattern Language, their interaction and
use described in The Timeless Way of Building.
People get enthusiastic about Christopher
Alexander's books. Five years ago, he and his
colleagues at the Center for Environmental
Structure in Berkeley wrote A Pattern Language,
a book that has since become a Bible
for architects and planners. I discovered the
book in the Next Whole Earth Catalog,
where Stewart Brand speculated that it was
the best and most useful book in the Catalog.
Once I got a copy of the book, I spent the
next few months studying it daily and stopping
friends on the street to tell them about
the ideas at length. What exciting ideas! And
what a combination of practical suggestions
and inspiring ideals!
The Linz Cafe describes the ideas in practice—an
example of their potential. (A Pattern
Language is still the best introduction to
these ideas, however.) Organizers of a summer
exposition in Austria, who commissioned
the Linz Cafe, wanted Christopher
Alexander to "build something which thoroughly
expressed his ideas and feelings about
architecture."
How to design and build: start with the
site; rough out design, using the appropriate
patterns; refine the details as you build—try
out each nook and cranny, each bench edge
and window frame, until it feels right and
fits into the whole—
work each detail out, very exactly, by trial
and error, using full scale mockups to get
size and shape and proportion just exactly
right. For example, in the case of the alcoves,
I spent several hours in the office,
playing with chairs, tables, and pieces of
plywood, until I had the dimensions of the
alcove exactly right. I knew I had it right
when it felt so comfortable, that everyone in
the office clustered round, sat in the simulated
alcove drinking brandy, and refused to
leave.
Color and ornament are also essential details.
Alexander explains his ideas on color —
he hand-mixed the paints to get precisely the
right colors — and ornament. Half of the
book is photographs of shimmering clarity,
many in color, whose presence accounts for
the book's steep price. (Half of the text is a
German translation, incidentally, so the
book is short enough for a quick first reading
in a bookstore if your library doesn't have
it.)
My main concern, is to make something
in which a person sees himself reflected, in
which we may claim to see the world, in
miniature, and which I can make, as some
kind of offering ... a gift to the universe.
Of course, what we have here, is a handful
of sticks, quickly thrown together .. .
and to make too high a claim, would lay it
open to laughter and make it seem ridiculous.
But it can, perhaps, be understood as a
kind of exercise ... a preliminary exercise in
which what it takes to make such a thing,
has been laid out on the table . . . made ...
tested ... and in which we have the opportunity
to see whether it is possible, in our time,
to make something in which we see a whole
world, in which we see ourselves . . . in
which we feel not only simply happiness, but
a vision of an ordinary person, at home with
a cup of tea.
Ideas of subtle power and magical simplicity,
elegantly illustrated. — Tanya Kucak
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