A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series)

List of Patterns

See the README for an explanation and discussion about this project and how to use it.

The Patterns

A pattern language has the structure of a network. [...] The sequence of patterns is both a summary of the language, and at the same time, an index to the patterns. — p. xviii

Town Patterns

We begin with that part of the language which

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Christopher Alexander was known for his theories on bringing humanity into architecture. He believed everyone possessed the ability to create and design a space that he called alive. His book, Pattern language, is based on core belief that people should design their own communities. Observation is that some of the best places in the world were desi

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From Christopher Alexander foreword to Richard Gabriel's "Patterns Of Software": In my life as an architect, I find that the single thing which inhibits young professionals, new students most severely, is their acceptance of standards that are too low. If I ask a student whether her design is as good as Chartres, she often smiles tolerantly at m... See more

The universal patterns and principles the cosmos uses to build stable, healthy, and sustainable systems throughout the real world can and must be used as a model for economic-system design.

Put more directly, The Pattern is partly about the systems we live in, partly about our innate drive to fit in, compete, and seek status, and partly about wanting to feel secure in increasingly complex, chaotic world.

Alexander is inspired by how design occurs in the natural world. "Things that are good have a certain kind of structure," he told me. "You can't get that structure except dynamically. Period. In nature you've got continuous very-small-feedback-loop adaptation going on, which is why things get to be harmonious. That's why they have the qualities tha

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