Building, Aesthetics and Technology

Although recognizing some of the shortcomings of technology, the relationship between the idea of "building" and "aesthetics" is linked to an increasingly concentrated popular pressure for countries in the developing world to submit themselves to information from leading industrial societies. In his discussion of the modes of production, building, and world systems, Christopher Alexander saw this link as a clash between what he described as World System "A" and World System "B." He described "A" as the ordinary way; it is the way people use buildings and take part in creating them according to their needs - a slower but often better process. System "A" is a system of common sense. System "B" is controlled by the dictates of big money and technological images. It is defined by information and technology and not by human feelings. Information is power, and, as Noam Chomsky has observed, that power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of unaccountable institutions.