The first word that comes to mind when I think of this book: Beautiful. In unparalleled form, Alexander takes us through the process by which humans have constructed their living spaces since time immemorial — backgrounding the profession of the ‘architect’ as an artifact of modern career-making. Alexander aligns architectural activity with the activity of life itself: to achieve the quality with no name. We all know this quality somewhere inside ourselves, it is the overwhelming bittersweetness manifest in tears of joy. Alexander reminds us that in this world we find ourselves, patterns of interactions are what are primarily ‘real’, and the material is the mere medium of these patterns. Further, the book reminds us that we make our world, and understanding the way we make worlds that are alive is essential for human flourishing.