The Death and Life of Great American Cities A Book by Jane Jacobs www.amazon.com Dead citiesThe dishonest mask of pretended orderThe plan must anticipate all that is neededThe city's most vital organsEyes on the street+48 More 125 Best Architecture Books urbanismcities
109. Long Thin House Problem The shape of a building has a great effect on the relative degrees of privacy and overcrowding in it, and this in turn has a critical effect on people’s comfort and well-being. Solution In small buildings, don’t cluster all the rooms together around each other; instead string out the rooms one after another, so that distance between each room is as great as it can be. You can do this horizontally—so that the plan becomes a thin, long rectangle; or you can do it vertically—so that the building becomes a tall narrow tower. In either case, the building can be surprisingly narrow and still work—8, 10, and 12 feet are all quite possible. Christopher Alexander, Murray Silverstein & Sara Ishikawa, A Pattern Language Einmal Ist KeinmalThe linear city