The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander
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ISBN 0195024028
From the cover ...
Alexander writes, "There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. And as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form as the trees and hills,and as our faces are."
The most idealistic of Alexander's three pattern books. The other two are (in order of increasing practicality) A Pattern Language, and The Oregon Experiment.
In my opinion it is not the truth that architecture should be planned in accordance with natural patterns, but that emergent constructs, such as governments, are the result of a shared pattern language.
''Perhaps your concept of natural patterns needs to extend to the human environment as well. Social space is as real as physical space.'' -- Anonymous Donor
A related reference is How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand. He acknowledges his debt to Alexander (and many others). The book covers the way in which buildings are adapted by users after the architect has left (if there ever was one) and describes three approaches to building:
the High Road - "durable independent buildings that steadily accumulate experience and become in time wiser and more respected than their inhabitants"
the Low Road - "swift responsiveness to their occupants. They are unrespectable, mercurial, street smart"
Magazine architecture - No Road Architecture
See original on c2.com 