PROJECTS

HOUSE/OFFICE IN MARTINEZ

Martinez, CA 1987
designed and built by Christopher Alexander
and his collegues from The Center for Environmental Structure
with students from the architecture program at UC Berkeley
using techniques described in A Pattern Language
and The Timeless Way of Building

Martinez house site — The Martinez House site

The finished house — The Martinez gunite house, finished and painted

Side view — View from the side, after the shoot, and after roof surface and windows have been installed

Finished buildings

Finished buildings

Under construction — The Martinez house while under construction

Gunite shoot — After the gunite shoot

Early construction

Early construction

Drawings and plans

Drawings and plans

Drawings and plans

Drawings and plans

Drawings and plans — Alexander and his collegues wrote a pattern language for the project, which was published in 1969 by CES publishing as Houses Generated by Patterns, now out of print. This is a page from the book, the pattern is "front door bench"

Study of paint colors — An early painted study for the Martinez house

Study of paint colors — An early painted study for the Martinez house

Gunite house — Formation of the corner on a gunite house. The latent center at the corner, is made into a major structural and visual center, which holds the building emotionally and visually as well

Testing colors — Mixing and testing colors on the Martinez site to get the right wall color

Fireplace — Bare bones and quiet. Fireplace of the kitchen

Tile floor — Interior—the tile floor

Tile floor — Tile floor detail

Interior view

Light-filled room

Testing glaze colors — The workshop

Workshop — The tile shop in the offices and workshop complex in Martinez

Alexander teaching — Alexander teaching his students from the poured concrete fence with bench

Students on the concrete bench — The students taking a break on the concrete bench

Building the roof — Students building the roof

The concrete bench

Your browser is out of date!

Unfortunately, some features do not work on this browser. Update my browser now

Your browser is out of date!

Unfortunately, some features do not work on this browser. Update my browser now