Making the Garden by Christopher Alexander | Articles | First Things

Making the Garden by Christopher Alexander | Articles | First Things

The architect who developed a humane approach to architecture and city planning based on observed patterns of health and flourishing writes on the connection between an apprehension of God and beauty in our built environment:

"We will only see God in the world around us if the quality of the architecture is right--an almost unattainable condition in today's world. Why is it almost impossible? Because in an epoch when God was not acknowledged, it became virtually impossible for people to build the kinds of buildings where God appears. The whole purpose of the work I have done is to show that the presence of God in a matter-­configuration is an objectively existing condition, and that there are specific paths and methods and habits of thought through which we may create buildings where the presence of God can be seen and felt. ..."

"That new vision can become a new source of inspiration and motivation. I call it new not because it is at root genuinely new. Of course it is not--it is ancient. But it is entirely new in our era to take such a thing with full seriousness, and to be able to derive from it well-fashioned, scientifically endowed conceptions of what is needed to heal a given place. It will not be governed by money or profit; it will not be governed by social politics; it will be governed simply by the desire and firm intention to make beauty (which is to say, true life) around us.

"Perhaps that sounds as though it is not solid enough for sober and enlightened action. Quite the opposite is true. The vision of God we hold in our inner eye, which we draw from the hills and mountains, from the cities, towers, and bridges, from the great oak trees, and the small and tender arbors, from the stones and tiles that have been carefully laid, it is that which is God, and which we encounter as we try to find a vision of God in the world. It guides us, as if with a certain hand, towards a future which is yet more beautiful.

"The capacity to make each brick, each path, each baluster, each windowsill a reflection of God lies in the heart of every man and every woman. It is stark in its simplicity. A world so shaped will lead us back to a sense of right and wrong and a feeling of well-being. This vision of the world--a real, solid physical world--will restore a vision of God. Future generations will be grateful to us if we do this work properly."