• 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 it for centuries, by using pattern languages. And, beyond that, it is not just the shape of towns and buildings which comes from pattern languages -- it is their quality as well. In our time the languages have broken down, since they are no longer shared, and the process which keep them deep have broken down. So, we need to work our way towards a shared and living language once again. First we must learn how to discover patterns which are deep, and capable of governing life. We may then gradually improve these patterns which we share, by testing them against experience; we can determine, very simply, whether these patterns make our surrondings live, or not, by recognizing how they make us feel. The structure of a language is created by the network of connections among individual patterns; the the language lives, or not, as a totality, to the degree these patterns form a whole.
      Thoughts and Arguments Explored and Developed

      The quality cannot be made, but only generated
      The creative power of language
      Pattern languages which can be shared
      The structure of a pattern as a three-part rule
      The invariant configuration of relatioships is the core of a pattern
      The language is a network of connections, but patterns are ordered
      Patterns define “Towns”
      Patterns give shape to “Buildings”
      Patterns enrich “Construction”
      Patterns made from thought, without feeling, lack empirical reality
      Variation and uniqueness in the way patterns manifest themselves