The eternal path of architecture and workflow model

This article is the opening part of chapter 3 of "The path of the process", which is jointly written by Xin Peng.

Dao, Dao ke Dao, very Dao; nameable, very famous. This is part of the Tao Te Ching, our ancestor Lao Tzu. It means that the Tao can be described in a language rather than a real Tao. The Tao can be named by name, and this name cannot be described properly. The ultimate idea is that due to the limitations of human understanding, all the things we call are just a part of the true truth, and we cannot see the full picture of the truth. Of course, Lao Tzu later said in "Jing": "I do not know its name, but I have a strong name that says" Dao '". That is to say: "Although the word" Dao "is not Xiao, I (Lao Tzu) should first call this ultimate truth" Dao ."

"Tao" can be interpreted as truth, path, truth, direction, and method. According to Lao Tzu, everything in the world has its own essence and ultimate truth, but "I do not know its name, and I have a strong name for" Dao '". In modern times, we have taken Tao as the essence of things. C. alexander [1] said in his book The Eternal path of building: "The Eternal path is a process in which only we can bring order, A building or a city can survive only by setting foot on the eternal path ".

The characteristics of cities and buildings are endowed by the event model where they occur. When it comes to Lijiang, we will first think of beautiful encounters, because beautiful encounters occur in Lijiang again and again, therefore, it is endowed with its unique bar culture, and the event model cannot be separated from the space it occurs, simple buildings, people, and repeated encounters, all these created the Lijiang culture. The Event Mode and building mode jointly create the characteristic-culture of the city and the building. We can feel different company characteristics from the different decoration styles of the two companies: open space, ubiquitous whiteboards, and heated discussions; one is monotonous, dense lattice, and lengthy process. The characteristics of a company are also endowed by the architectural model and the event model that occurs there.

C. alexander described 253 architectural patterns. He led the writing of a series of five slave books on architectural design [2] and first proposed the concept of Pattern Language. Pattern is a methodology for solving a certain type of problems. Summarize the methods for solving a certain type of problem to the theoretical level, that is, the mode. It is a kind of guidance and a kind of best practice for solving certain types of problems. With the help of the model, we can use the experience and wisdom of our predecessors to make excellent design solutions to get twice the result with half the effort. Pattern Language is a set of patterns that correspond to those that make a wonderful building, and are the sum of your understanding of how to build it. The eternal path of architecture lies in the architectural model. We have a consistent understanding of architecture, that is, we have a common model language.

This book is named "the eternal path of process", so it also applies the classic of C. Alexander.Famous saying: "The Eternal path is a process in which only we can bring order, and the process will be vibrant only when we embark on the eternal path ". What is the permanent path of the process? Throughout the preparation training and implementation of this project, we will experience three permanent ways. The first permanent path, that is, the permanent path of process compaction, isWorkflow Mode.

Complain: in ancient times, farmers built their own houses, and they all had patterns of intuition. In the era of industrialization, people think that they cannot design, they must rely on designers, and designers are also fascinated by the popular models to design indynamic things. So what we lack is the pattern, or we don't know how to identify what a "dynamic" pattern is. Why not today's software field? We have seen a lot of so-called architects and designers talking about a set of models, but the software architecture we have designed is incredibly bad, and some do not even convert the architecture into a framework. It is far worse than the ancient peasants. Therefore, we believe that if you really want to become a good architect or designer, you must read the book "The Eternal path of architecture. It tells you what is the Tao, the pattern. This is the soul and the core. This is to make it "dynamic", rather than making it happen. If you have time, read the second architectural model language. Finally, I would like to remind you that the so-called architects and designers have become real designers instead of reading the works of several masters. Architects and designers take a long period of time from "theory-practice-Summary-theory-practice-Summary" (and at least 7-8 years).

After complaining, let's get down to the truth, in C. alexander's second book, architectural patterns language, details 253 architectural patterns. This book was also named the most important book on architectural design published in the 20th century.

The mode is divided into three parts:

• The first is the context of the problem, that is, the environment and status of the problem in the current mode, that is, the condition under which the mode works;
• The second is motivation, which is the purpose or expectation of this model;
• Finally, the solution is the core of the solution used to achieve the expected goal or solve such problems.

Through the above description, we can draw a conclusion that the essence of the model is to discover and abstract patterns from repeated events, which is a highly summarized conclusion of experiences in solving problems. As long as it appears repeatedly, there may be a pattern. When a domain gradually matures, the pattern of this domain will naturally emerge. With the help of C. Alexander's pattern theory, gof proposed 23 Design Patterns in the software field. Similarly, in the process field, the "workflow mode" appears naturally ".

As the soul of a process, workflow is time-independent (timeless). It is related to people and culture. It will not lag behind with the development of time and new technologies, so it can be called permanent. The Tao also said: "Tao Sheng Yi, life 2, LIFE 3, LIFE 3 ". This statement applies to the workflow mode, which is very accurate. There are no two identical conditions in the world, so the details of the mode are not the same, there are always changes and inconsistencies. We need to constantly sum up and think about them in the application. The workflow mode can generate one ,..., Finally, everything was born and evolved into a process composed of countless different models.

[1] C. alexander, the winner of the highest medal from the American Institute of Architects, is a practical architect and builder, a professor of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and head of the environmental structure center.

[2] five books from "The Eternal path of building", "architectural model language", "Oregon Experiment", "New Urban Design Theory", and "residential Manufacturing.