1. How Buildings Learn - Stewart Brand - 1 of 6 - “Flow”

Stewart Brand
7 HN recommenders · recommended in 11 months, 2013–2022
YouTube
115K views · 14 years ago · documentary · evergreen

The first of six episodes of Stewart Brand's BBC series How Buildings Learn, based on his book, titled Flow. Brand looks at how buildings change over time as people use and adapt them, and at how architects and the way buildings are built often ignore that.

HN people call it an eye-opening documentary on buildings that also holds lessons for software architecture, and point to it in threads on office design, zoning and building design.

“It really opened my eyes to the importance of buildings.”
ArchitectureDesign philosophy & principles
#stewartbrand#howbuildingslearn#architecture#adaptivebuildings#bbcdocumentary#buildinguse

18 comments from Hacker News

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@monkeypizza2020 · in “Whole Earth Software Catalog (1984)”
Stewart Brand has done lots of good stuff. My favorite is the 6 part BBC series on "How Buildings Learn". It really opened my eyes to the importance of buildings. Very relevant to the frequent discussions here about zoning, design, etc. But also just an amazing, clear, well-informed amateur analysis of how the US has been doing in this field over the last 100 years. ▶ this video
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@lqet2019 · in “Paint Is Colored Glue”
Ah, yes, I watched this series a few years ago and just realized that it may have inspired my post above a bit. PS: I just shamelessly throw in another excellent BBC documentary series here: How Buildings Learn, by Stewart Brand [0]. I sometimes see it mentioned here on HN, but it cannot be mentioned too often. If you haven't seen it, please please do. [0] ▶ this video
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@asplake2022 · in “Layers of change: How buildings and software are alike”
Good book, better (great) TV series ▶ this video
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@rwmj2022 · in “Christopher Alexander has died”
It's a really good series, and the accompanying book is also recommended (I read the book first, not aware that it was a book-of-a-TV-series). Christopher Alexander is in Episode 1 from about 20'50". ▶ this video
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@lqet2020 · in “Connections by James Burke (1978)”
I fear that another BBC favorite of mine, How Buildings Learn [0], is too modern (90ies) to have been produced on film... [0] ▶ this video
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@ivank2019 · in “How Buildings Learn (1997) [video]”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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@den1k2018 · in “Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?”
stewart brand how buildings learn - free on youtube: ▶ this video (uploaded by the man himself)
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@asplake2018 · in “Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?”
How Buildings Learn, based on (and in some ways better than) the Stewart Brand book. Definite takeaways for software architecture, and includes appearances by Christopher Alexander, a key instigator of the patterns movement. Produced by the BBC in the 90's, now on Youtube - ▶ this video Turns out that many architects of the built environment are just as prone as those of the software kind to not caring about the usability and maintainability of their systems, let alone how how they will evolve over extended periods of time.
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@steveeq12018 · in “Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice”
video documentary of the book with Stewart Brand hosting for anyone that's interested: ▶ this video Saw the documentary and now reading the book, it's good.
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@rwmj2017 · in “Dangerous Skyscrapers Channel Wind and Sun, Topple Pedestrians and Start Fires”
There's a great BBC TV series (and book) which covers exactly this topic: link ▶ this video
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@rwmj2017 · in “What makes the perfect office?”
There's a really good BBC TV series about this topic, which also covers the MIT Radio Lab that Tim mentions: ▶ this video "How Buildings Learn" (1997)
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@rwmj2016 · in “"How Buildings Learn" Complete BBC TV Series (1997)”
Submitted the video to Hacker News.
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