A Pattern Language

  1. ​Its place in the web of nature​
  2. ​9. Scattered Work​
  3. ​21. Four-Story Limit​
  4. ​51. Green Streets​
  5. ​53. Main Gateways​
  1. ​Deliberate acts​
  2. ​patternsof.design​
  3. ​125 Best Architecture Books​
  4. ​The Timeless Way of Building​
  5. ​The design systems between us​
  6. ​Collaborative Information Architecture at Scale​
  1. Its place in the web of nature

    This is a fundamental view of the world. It says that when you build a thing you cannot merely build that thing in isolation, but must also repair the world around it, and within it, so that the larger world at that one place becomes more coherent, and more whole; and the thing which you make takes its place in the web of nature, as you make it.

    1. ​Crafting repair​
  2. 9. Scattered Work

    Problem

    The artificial separation of houses and work creates intolerable rifts in people’s inner lives.

    Solution

    Use zoning laws, neighborhood planning, tax incentives, and any other means available to scatter workplaces throughout the city. Prohibit large concentrations of work without family life around them. Prohibit large concentrations of family life without workplaces around them.

    1. ​Men are not an abstraction​
  3. 21. Four-Story Limit

    Problem

    There is abundant evidence to show that high buildings make people crazy.

    Solution

    In any urban area, no matter how dense, keep the majority of buildings four stories high or less. It is possible that certain buildings should exceed this limit, but they should never be buildings for human habitation.

    1. ​In every skyscraper​
    2. ​It begins with a trip down the stairs​
    3. ​Low wooden silhouettes​
    4. ​Skyscrapers are frowned upon​
  4. 51. Green Streets

    Problem

    There is too much hot hard asphalt in the world. A local road, which only gives access to buildings, needs a few stones for the wheels of the cars; nothing more. Most of it can still be green.

    Solution

    On local roads, closed to through traffic, plant grass all over the road and set occasional paving stones into the grass to form a surface for the wheels of those cars that need access to the street. Make no distinction between street and sidewalk. Where houses open off the street, put in more paving stones or gravel to let cars turn onto their own land.

  5. 53. Main Gateways

    Problem: Any part of town—large or small—which is to be identified by its inhabitants as a precinct of some kind, will be reinforced, helped in its distinctness, marked, and made more vivid, if the paths which enter it are marked by gateways where they cross the boundary.

    Solution: Mark every boundary in the city which has important human meaning—the boundary of a building cluster, a neighborhood, a precinct—by great gateways where the major entering paths cross the boundary.

    1. ​112. Entrance Transition​
  6. 66. Holy Ground

    Problem

    What is a church or temple? It is a place of worship, spirit, contemplation, of course. But above all, from a human point of view, it is a gateway. A person comes into the world through the church. They leave it through the church. And, at each of the important thresholds of their life, they once again step through the church.

    Solution

    In each community and neighborhood, identify some sacred site as consecrated ground, and form a series of nested precincts, each marked by a gateway, each one progressively more private, and more sacred than the last, the innermost a final sanctum that can only be reached by passing through all of the outer ones.

    1. ​Einmal Ist Keinmal​
  7. 70. Grave Sites

    Problem

    No people who turn their backs on death can be alive. The presence of the dead among the living will be a daily fact in any society which encourages its people to live.

    Solution

    Never build massive cemeteries. Instead, allocate pieces of land throughout the community as grave sites—corners of parks, sections of paths, gardens, beside gateways—where memorials to people who have died can be ritually placed with inscriptions and mementos which celebrate their live. Give each grave site an edge, a path, and a quiet corner where people can sit. By custom, this is hallowed ground.

  8. 80. Self-Governing Workshops and Offices

    Problem

    No one enjoys their work if they are a cog in a machine.

    Solution

    Encourage the formation of self-governing workshops and offices of 5 to 20 workers. Make each group autonomous—with respect to organization, style, relation to other groups, hiring and firing, work schedule. Where the work is complicated and requires larger organizations, several of these work groups can federate and cooperate to produce complex artifacts and services.

  9. 104. Site Repair

    Problem

    Buildings must always be built on those parts of the land which are in the worst condition, not the best.

    Solution

    On no account place buildings in the places which are more beautiful. In fact, do the opposite. Consider the site and its buildings as a single living ecosystem. Leave those areas that are the most precious, beautiful, comfortable, and healthy as they are, and build new structures in those parts of the site which are least pleasant now.

    1. ​Einmal Ist Keinmal​
    2. ​Repair​
    3. ​But then the knoll was gone​
    4. ​Composition and revision​
    5. ​Rethinking Repair​
  10. 106. Positive Outdoor Space

    Problem

    Outdoor spaces which are merely “left over” between buildings will, in general, not be used.

    Solution

    Make all outdoor spaces which surround and lie between your buildings positive. Give each one some degree of enclosure; surround each space with wings of buildings, trees, hedges, fences, arcades, and trellised walks, until it becomes an entity with a positive quality and does not spill out indefinitely around corners.

  11. 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.

    1. ​Einmal Ist Keinmal​
    2. ​The linear city​
  12. 112. Entrance Transition

    Problem: Buildings, and especially houses, with a graceful transition between the street and the inside, are more tranquil than those which open directly off the street.

    Solution: Make a transition space between the street and the front door. Bring the path which connects street and entrance through this transition space, and mark it with a change of light, a change of sound, a change of direction, a change of surface, a change of level, perhaps by gateways which make a change of enclosure, and above all with a change of view.

    1. ​Walking through doorways causes forgetting​
    2. ​53. Main Gateways​
    3. ​At the Green Mosque​
    4. ​The wind's pulling us in​
    5. ​One who has trodden this garden path​
    6. ​A more spiritual place​
  13. 126. Something Roughly in the Middle

    Problem

    A public space without a middle is quite likely to stay empty.

    Solution

    Between the natural paths which cross a public square or courtyard or a piece of common land, choose something to stand roughly in the middle: a fountain, a tree, a statue, a clock-tower with seats, a windmill, a bandstand. Make it something which gives a strong and steady pulse to the square, drawing people in toward the center. Leave it exactly where it falls between the paths; resist the impulse to put it exactly in the middle.

  14. 127. Intimacy Gradient

    Problem

    Unless the spaces in a building are arranged in a sequence which corresponds to their degrees of privateness, the visits made by strangers, friends, guests, clients, family, will always be a little awkward.

    Solution

    Lay out the spaces of a building so that they create a sequence which begins with the entrance and the most public parts of the building, then leads into the slightly more private areas, and finally to the most private domains.

  15. 134. Zen View

    If there is a beautiful view, don’t spoil it by building huge windows that gape incessantly at it. Instead, put the windows which look onto the view at places of transition—along paths, in hallways, in entry ways, on stairs, between rooms.

    If the view window is correctly placed, people will see a glimpse of the distant view as they come up to the window or pass it: but the view is never visible from the places where people stay.

  16. 135. Tapestry of Light and Dark

    Problem

    In a building with uniform light level, there are few “places” which function as effective settings for human events. This happens because, to a large extent, the places which make effective settings are defined by light.

    Solution

    Create alternating areas of light and dark throughout the building, in such a way that people naturally walk toward the light, whenever they are going to important places: seats, entrances, stairs, passages, places of special beauty, and make other areas darker, to increase the contrast.

    1. ​Einmal Ist Keinmal​
  17. 159. Light on Two Sides of Every Room

    Problem

    When they have a choice, people will always gravitate to those rooms which have light on two sides, and leave the rooms which are lit only from one side unused and empty.

    Solution

    Locate each room so that it has outdoor space outside it on at least two sides, and then place windows in these outdoor walls so that natural light falls into every room from more than one direction.

    1. ​Daylight should not tyrannize architecture​
  18. 168. Connection to the Earth

    Problem

    A house feels isolated from the nature around it, unless its floors are interleaved directly with the earth that is around the house.

    Solution

    Connect the building to the earth around it by building a series of paths and terraces and steps around the edge. Place them deliberately to make the boundary ambiguous—so that it is impossible to say exactly where the building stops and earth begins.

    1. ​Deep Interlock​
  19. 172. Garden Growing Wild

    Problem

    A garden which grows true to its own laws is not a wilderness, yet not entirely artificial either.

    Solution

    Grow grasses, mosses, bushes, flowers, and trees in a way which comes close to the way that they occur in nature: intermingled, without barriers between them, without bare earth, without formal flower beds, and with all the boundaries and edges made in rough stone and brick and wood which become a part of the natural growth.

    1. ​Introduction to Permaculture​
    2. ​The garden is a riot​
    3. ​Chef's Table: Jeong Kwan​
  20. 179. Alcoves

    Problem

    No homogeneous room, of homogeneous height, can serve a group of people well. To give a group a chance to be together, as a group, a room must also give them the chance to be alone, in one’s and two’s in the same space.

    Solution

    Make small places at the edge of any common room, usually no more than 6 feet wide and 3 to 6 feet deep and possibly much smaller. These alcoves should be large enough for two people to sit, chat, or play and sometimes large enough to contain a desk or a table.

  21. 180. Window Place

    Problem

    Everybody loves window seats, bay windows, and big windows with low sills and comfortable chairs drawn up to them.

    Solution

    In every room where you spend any length of time during the day, make at least one window into a "window place".

  22. 190. Ceiling Height Variety

    Problem

    A building in which ceiling heights are all the same is virtually incapable of making people feel comfortable.

    Solution

    Vary the ceiling heights continuously throughout the building, especially between rooms which open into each other, so that the relative intimacy of different spaces can be felt. In particular, make ceilings high in rooms which are public or meant for large gatherings (10 to 12 feet), lower in rooms for smaller gatherings (7 to 9 feet), and very low in rooms for one or two people (6 to 7 feet).

  23. 197. Thick Walls

    Problem

    Houses with smooth hard walls made of prefabricated panels, concrete, gypsum, steel, aluminum, or glass always stay impersonal and dead.

    Solution

    Open your mind to the possibility that the walls of your building can be thick, can occupy a substantial volume—even actual usable space—and need not be merely thin membranes which have no depth. Decide where these thick walls ought to be.

    1. ​Zeniba's house​
  24. 205. Structure Follows Social Spaces

    Problem

    No building ever feels right to the people in it unless the physical spaces (defined by columns, walls, and ceilings) are congruent with the social spaces (defined by activities and human groups).

    Solution

    A first principle of construction: on no account allow the engineering to dictate the building’s form. Place the load bearing elements—the columns and the walls and floors—according to the social space of the building; never modify the social spaces to conform to the engineering structure of the building.

    1. ​Form follows function​
  25. 207. Good Materials

    Problem

    There is a fundamental conflict in the nature of materials for building in industrial society.

    Solution

    Use only biodegradable, low-energy-consuming materials, which are easy to cut and modify on site. For bulk materials we suggest ultra-lightweight 40–60 lbs. concrete and earth-based materials like tamped earth, brick, and tile. For secondary materials, use wood planks, gypsum, plywood, cloth, chickenwire, paper, cardboard, particle board, corrugated iron, lime plasters, bamboo, rope, and tile.

    1. ​Zeniba's house​
  26. 239. Small Panes

    Problem

    When plate glass windows became possible, people thought that they would put us more directly in touch with nature. In fact, they do the opposite.

    Solution

    Divide each window into small panes. These panes can be very small indeed, and should hardly ever be more than a foot square. To get the exact size of the panes, divide the width and height of the window by the number of panes. Then each window will have different sized panes according to its height and width.

    1. ​Einmal Ist Keinmal​
    2. ​Protected, yet tuned in​
    3. ​We have lost our sense of intimate life​
  27. 247. Paving With Cracks Between the Stones

    Problem

    Asphalt and concrete surfaces outdoors are easy to wash down, but they do nothing for us, nothing for the paths, and nothing for the rainwater and plants.

    Solution

    On paths and terraces, lay paving stones with a 1 inch crack between the stones, so that grass and mosses and small flowers can grow between the stones. Lay the stones directly into the earth, not into mortar, and, of course, use no cement or mortar in between the stones.

  28. 249. Ornament

    Problem

    All people have the instinct to decorate their surroundings.

    Solution

    Search around the building, and find those edges and transitions which need emphasis or extra binding energy. Corners, places where materials meet, door frames, windows, main entrances, the place where one wall meets another, the garden gate, a fence—all these are natural places which call out for ornament.

    Now find simple themes and apply the elements of the theme over and over again to the edges and boundaries which you decide to mark. Make the ornaments work as seams along the boundaries and edges so that they knit the two sides together and make them one.

  29. 250. Warm Colors

    Problem

    The greens and grays of hospitals and office corridors are depressing and cold. Natural wood, sunlight, bright colors are warm. In some way, the warmth of the colors in a room makes a great deal of difference between comfort and discomfort.

    Solution

    Choose surface colors which, together with the color of the natural light, reflected light, and artificial lights, create a warm light in the rooms.

  30. 251. Different Chairs

    Problem

    People are different sizes; they sit in different ways. And yet there is a tendency in modern times to make all chairs alike.

    Solution

    Never furnish any place with chairs that are identically the same. Choose a variety of different chairs, some big, some small, some softer than others, some rockers, some very old, some new, with arms, without arms, some wicker, some wood, some cloth.

    1. ​Drawing pictures of cities​
    2. ​An index of the shifting patterns​
  31. 252. Pools of Light

    Problem

    Uniform illumination—the sweetheart of the lighting engineers—serves no useful purpose whatsoever. In fact, it destroys the social nature of space, and makes people feel disoriented and unbounded.

    Solution

    Place the lights low, and apart, to form individual pools of light which encompass chairs and tables like bubbles to reinforce the social character of the spaces which they form. Remember that you can’t have pools of light without the darker places in between.

    1. ​Lights and lamps​
    2. ​False train station​
  32. 253. Things From Your Life

    Problem

    “Decor” and the conception of “interior design” have spread so widely, that very often people forget their instinct for the things they really want to keep around them.

    Solution

    Do not be tricked into believing that modern decor must be slick or psychedelic, or “natural” or "modern art", or “plants” or anything else that current taste-makers claim. It is most beautiful when it comes straight from your life—the things you care for, the things that tell your story.