A pattern language

Towns, Buildings, Construction Center for Environmental Structure

by Christopher Alexander

1171 pages

English language

Published Oct. 30, 1977 by Oxford University Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-19-501919-3
OCLC Number:: 3132495

(12 reviews)

Alexander and his co-authors present us with over two hundred (roughly 250) "patterns" that they believe must be present in order for an environment to be pleasing, comfortable, or in their words, "alive." The patterns start at the most general level -- the first pattern, "Independent Regions," describes the ideal political entity, while another of my favorite patterns, "Mosaic of Subcultures," described the proper distribution of different groups within a city. The patterns gradually become more specific -- you'll read arguments about how universities should relate to the community, the proper placement of parks, the role of cafes in a city's life. If you wonder about the best design for a home, the authors will describe everything from how roofs and walls should be built, down to how light should fall within the home, where your windows should be placed, and even the most pleasant variety of chairs in the …

3 editions

luxon reviewed A pattern language by Christopher Alexander (Center for Environmental Structure)

Review

4 stars

This is a wonderful book to stimulate thinking. I don’t think it makes for good front-to-back reading material, but the pattern-based style works great for flipping through, and every once in a while I struck on one that immediately made sense to me and appealed. Some of the patterns feel dated (I really hope we will not need so many patterns around how to defend ourselves against cars in thirty years!), but more interesting were those bits were things felt missing – there’s no pattern for a community house except for large families, nothing to think about more temporary living situations, and no help in how to set up a space for a party. But the way of describing a pattern is so straightforward that each lacuna made me want to design my own, and even if the book had only produced that feeling, it would have been enough.

The …

The patterns for designing a livable city made me sad – it all makes sense, but it’s at best an aspiration for where we want to get. As a utopia, I enjoyed it.

maxbittker reviewed A pattern language by Christopher Alexander (Center for Environmental Structure)

Review of 'A pattern language' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

i love this angle on understand human spaces, tons of thoughtful digestible insights. the format is weird, it would actually work better as a website- think an opinionated TV tropes for architecture and interior design.
5 stars if it had a modicum or class awareness

Eduardo Santiago reviewed A pattern language by Christopher Alexander (Center for Environmental Structure)

Review of 'A pattern language' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I didn't mean to read it. I picked it up intending to skim, scan, browse. It didn't work out that way.

This book is amazing. Not only do the authors have an eerie sense for human factors, they can communicate their findings. Well organized, well written, almost even inspirational. It was moment after moment of “aha!”, recognizing so many examples of what I've seen in real life to work and not to work. The gift of genius is to explain something so well that it seems obvious in hindsight; the authors accomplish that.

I think this has the potential to be a life-changing book. I wish I’d read it twenty years ago.

Laura Lemay reviewed A pattern language by Christopher Alexander (Center for Environmental Structure)

Review of 'A pattern language' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This was a tremendously influential book, both on architecture and urban planning as well as software design, and that was the lens with which I read it. It's not really a book that you read -- it's a huge very dense book, and a lot of the patterns themselves seem like they would be unworkable in the real world. I skimmed most of it (conveniently, the book is printed with the main argument for each pattern printed in boldface). Nonetheless I found this a fascinating book for its structure and ideas.

So five stars for the impact, and four for the content.