Christopher Alexander: Pioneer of the Second Renaissance with Rufus Pollock
The Nature of Order Webinar, April 16, 2026
In this talk we present Alexander as a pioneering second renaissance (aka integral, metamodern etc.) thinker and practitioner. Specifically in:
(Re) Introducing value and beauty as real - specifically in a domain of architecture and aesthetics dominated by modern/post-modern relativism
Providing a rigorous evidencing for this claim — one that includes and uses reason
Whilst … transcending reason and including the transrational, mystical element (see luminous ground etc)
Providing practical techniques for applying this in building - pattern language, nature of order etc.
Rufus Pollock is an entrepreneur, activist and author as well as a long-term zen practitioner. He is passionate about finding wiser, weller ways to live together.
He has founded a variety of initiatives including Life Itself, Open Knowledge Foundation, and Datopian which have had global impact. His 2018 book Open Revolution is about making a radically freer and fairer information age and has been translated into multiple languages. His next book "Wiser Societies" is about the cultural dark matter that enables societies to be wiser (and weller). Previously he has been the Mead Fellow in Economics at the University of Cambridge as well as a Shuttleworth and Ashoka Fellow. A recognized global expert on the information society, he has worked with G7 governments, IGOs like the UN, Fortune 500 companies as well as many civil society organizations. He holds a PhD in Economics and a double first in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge.
For anyone interested to learn more about the Second Renaissance, there is a short course starting tomorrow. See the details here: https://secondrenaissance.net/course