The first keynote of PURPLSOC 2017 was given by Max Jacobson under the title "A Building is not a Turkish Carpet". Its subject was Christopher Alexander's search for beauty in architecture and in the whole made environment.
Jacobson studied architecture at Berkeley and worked for eight years at the Center for Environmental Structure with Alexander. He is also a coauthor of A Pattern Language, which gives his account a close view of how the ideas developed.
The talk follows the question of beauty from buildings to the wider landscape of streets, rooms, and objects. Rather than treating beauty as decoration, Jacobson presents it as a quality that can be recognised in the life of a place.
The full keynote is now online. It is a good companion to the reading tour, especially for readers who want to hear how the ideas sounded in the room where they were discussed.