Modesto Community Mental Health Center: 1. The Whole Controls the Detail; 2. Organicness; 3. Loose Enough for Mental Health – Too Tight for Mental Health

01/01/1971

Design Matters, Design Standards

Three typewritten sets of notes, seven pages in total; they refer to the fundamental design principles for the project.

Authors:

Christopher Alexander, Murray Silverstein, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

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Content of

Project

Stanislaus County Mental Health Center 1970 to 1973

Modesto, CA, U.S.A.

Civic, Realized , Construction completed in 1973

Client:

Stanislaus County Mental Health Services - Dr. Hewitt F. Ryan, County Director of Psychiatric Services

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, Murray Silverstein

Contractor:

Beuving Construction, Oakdale, California

Project cost:

$1,500,000

Design and construction process:

1) Creation of a pattern language for the new mental health center, which defined the general spatial layout and conditions required by the psychiatric services. 2) Layout on the site: C.E.S. worked intensively on the ground with the team of users; in a period of about one week, the layout of the building on the site, according to the pattern language, was completed. 3) Final drawings: The plan laid out on the site with stakes, was then recorded on paper, and the final building drawings prepared directly from this data, with few changes. 4) Users were brought in again, while final decisions about structure and materials were made.

Project stages:

Pattern language for the project by clients and C.E.S. Layout on the site by clients and C.E.S. Development Design and Construction Drawings done after layout

A community mental health center for outpatients and outpatient care with seven buildings, including clinics, outpatient facilities, therapeutic departments for adults, teenagers and children, staff facilities, administrative offices, gardens, courts and walkways, with total area 24,000 square feet. The key ...

References

Scientific Research

Theory of Patterns and Pattern Languages

Areas of focus:

Structure of Space

Guiding idea:

Patterns and Pattern Languages

In 'The Timeless Way of Building' Christopher Alexander postulates that the quality in buildings cannot by made, but only generated, indirectly, by the ordinary actions of the people. He asserts that people can shape buildings for themselves, and have done ...