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

In the patterns marked with one asterisk, we believe that we have made some progress towards identifying such an invariant: but that with careful work it will certainly be possible to improve on the solution. In these cases, we believe it would be wise for you to treat the pattern with a certain amount of disrespect—and that you seek out variants o

Do everything possible to enrich the cultures and subcultures of the city, by breaking the city, as far as possible, into a vast mosaic of small and different subcultures, each with its own spatial territory, and each with the power to create its own distinct life style. Make sure that the subcultures are small enough, so that each person has acces

It is quite possible that the collective cohesion people need to form a viable society just cannot develop when the vehicles which people use force them to he 10 times farther apart, on the average, than they have to he. This states the possible social cost of cars in its strongest form. I t may be that cars cause the breakdown of society, simply b

As far as possible, implementation should be loose and voluntary, based on social responsibility, and not on legislation or coercion. Suppose, for example, that there is a citywide decision to increase industrial uses in certain areas. Within the process here defined, the city could not implement this policy over the heads of the neighborhoods, by

This pattern for a mosaic of subcultures was originally proposed by Frank Hendricks. His latest paper dealing with it is “Concepts of environmental quality standards based on life styles,” with Malcolm MacNair (Pittsburg, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh, February 1969). The psychological needs which underlie this pattern and which make it ne

am suggesting that in the Europe of the future we shall see England split down into Kent, Wessex, Mercia, Anglia and Northumbria, with an independent Scotland, Wales and Ireland, of course.

Each group makes its own decisions about the environment it uses in common. Ideally, each group actually owns the common land at its “level” And higher groups do not own or control the land belonging to lower groups—they only own and control the common land that lies between them, and which serves the higher group. For instance, a community of 7000

In Norway, England, Austria, it is commonly understood that people have a right to picnic in farmland, and walk and play—provided they respect the animals and crops. And the reverse is also true—there is no wilderness which is abandoned to its own processes—even the mountainsides are terraced, mown, and grazed and cared for. We may summarize these

Jura Federation of watchmakers, formed in the mountain villages of Switzerland in the early 1870’s. These workers produced watches in their home workshops, each preserving his independence while coordinating his efforts with other craftsmen from the surrounding villages. (For an account of this federation, see, for example, George Woodcock, Anarchi