Christopher W. Alexander
Christopher Wolfgang John Alexander was an Austrian-born British-American architect and design theorist who served as emeritus professor at UC Berkeley.
His human-centered design theories influenced architecture, urban design, software, and sociology.
He designed and built over 100 buildings as both architect and contractor.
In software, Alexander is considered the father of the pattern language movement; Ward Cunningham credited Alexander's work as direct inspiration for creating the first wiki, which led to Wikipedia.
His work also influenced agile software development and the New Urbanist movement, empowering people to reclaim control over their built environments.
However, Alexander remained controversial among mainstream architects for his harsh criticism of contemporary architectural theory.
