To understand Christopher Alexander’s ideas about architecture, and to understand the man himself, it helps to know something about the Julian Street Inn--a shelter for the homeless in San Jose. Alexander designed the shelter in 1990, and he still drives down from his Berkeley home to talk with residents and collect their impressions of how the building works as a living space. Before even starting his design, in fact, he interviewed dozens of homeless people about what they wanted; they were, after all, going to live there.

“I’ve always found their comments to be extremely instructive,” the architect says in a faintly British accent. “I remember once sitting with a (homeless) guy and saying, ‘What do you think of the place?’ And he said, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever been in a building where absolutely everything is necessary.’ He meant it. It’s about the highest praise I ever had.”

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