Great find – Christopher Alexander’s The Origins of Pattern Theory: The Future of the Theory, and the Generation of a Living World. IEEE charges $10, which is a reasonable price for this speech for anyone interested in the application of pattern languages. Here’s an excerpt from the introduction:
The timing and audience of the venue
afforded Alexander the chance to reflect on his own
work and on how the object-oriented programming
community had both hit and missed the mark in
adopting and adapting his ideas to software. As
such, the speech was a landmark event that raised
the bar for patterns advocates, for object-oriented
programmers, and for software practitioners everywhere.
Beyond that, this speech has timeless relevance
to any engineering, scientific, or professional
endeavor.