Notes on the Synthesis of Form

How does the practice of design relate to software engineering, or management?

That’s a really good question, with no good answer. But it’s a question worth exploring in some detail, given 1. both management and engineering work concerns designing systems, and 2. there is usually a large inferential distance between engineering and management. In Christopher Alexander’s Notes on the Synthesis of Form, the practice of design is cast as systematic process.

The author makes a case (in 1964) that for design to meet the needs of the imminent technology revolution, the practice of design needs to evolve along with the technology being designed. Decomposition is proposed as a way forward, to advance the practice of design by methodically and explicitly exposing design constraints. Highlights include:

  1. A credible attempt to quantify using design element decomposition, which is highly applicable to software engineering as well as general problem solving;

  2. Decomposition is treated as partitioning sets recursively, which is difficult when there are implicit dependencies between elements of a partition. And there is the more modern [mathematical] question of whether sets are an appropriate structure for modeling the notions advanced in thesis.

  3. “Goodness of fit” as an indicator of a successful design; remove “misfit” elements and the remaining element are “fit.

What emerges is vocabulary equally applicable to engineering and management, when the conversation can be cast in terms of design.

Published in 1964, Notes on the Synthesis of Form is written in a formal, somewhat ‘tweedy’ style. One imagines the author strolling behind the lectern, brow furrowed in concentration, elbow patches and horn rimmed glasses. This is not bad, the picture invites the reader to take the subject as seriously as the author, and might well be reward enough.

That said, this short work of 131 pages is not a work where one can easily jump into a paragraph or two and understand the main point of the argument. Each chapter advances and deepens the thesis. On the other hand, the book is riddled with penetrating observations as applicable now as in 1964.