Go BackTheory of 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 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
References
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A Pattern Language
1977
“A Pattern Language” is the second volume of “The Center for Environmental Structure Series” on architecture published by Oxford University Press. You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to ...
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The Timeless Way of Building
1979
“The Timeless Way of Building” is the opening work in “The Center for Environmental Structure Series” on architecture published by Oxford University Press. Here Alexander introduces the ideas behind the succeeding books. The book lays the foundation of the series. It ...
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Christopher Alexander - The Search for a New Paradigm in Architecture
1983
Dr. Stephen Grawbow, Director of the Architecture Program at the University of Kansas, had been closely associated with Alexander and, in full collaboration with him, has produced a biographical and philosophical study, which examines the development of Alexander’s ideas, from ...
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Lecture course during the Fall Quarter, the second year of Alexander's teaching as an Associate professor in the Department of Architecture
1967
A series of twenty four lectures starting with organic wholeness, its relatioship to environmental structure, the identification of the building blocks of this structure and their recognition as a system with generative features; and then proceeding to the main body ...
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Pattern Language - Row Houses
1978
The studio project was to design a group of row houses as a means of investigating the generic form of housing in medium to high density urban settings. Special importance was given to the relationship between public and private demands ...
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American Institute of Architects Research Gold Medal
07/05/1972
The American Institute of Architects awarded to Christopher J. Alexander, professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, the 1972 Research Gold Medal. The first recepient of the award, in recognition of his contributions to “an increased understanding of ...
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Research Seminar by The Center for Environmental Structure, an independent non- profit organization, incorporated in late March 1967, and set up to create an environmental pattern language
01/07/1967 to
30/09/1967
Research Seminar on the question of the structure and formulation of a pattern and a pattern language, and the process and activities required for their development. The basic concepts introduced were those of “an environmental pattern” and of “an environmetal ...
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Lecture on "The Organization of the Design Pattern"
18/07/1968
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The W-Algorithm - Early thoughts on pattern languages
01/01/1969
177-page document, using mathematical concepts for structuring the process of designing with patterns. Notes on first page: “Spaces are words! Patterns are the grammar, which helps further the words acquire their “good” arrangements; also gives the meaning of the words. ...
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Pattern Language - Vol.1 City/Farm Interface down to Small Building: Book early version
01/01/1970
228-page document on the sequence of patterns by size; patterns are listed in groups as per the size of the area the pattern refers to. The list contains twenty eight groups, starting with the 100-30 km group “Small Urban Region” ...
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Pattern Language: Book early version
23/07/1971
Draft manuscript of “A Pattern Language.” Hard bound copy, from the Pattern Language Series.
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Environmental Pattern Language Research Grant: Notice of Grant Awarded
22/02/1971
Form PHS-1533. Official File Copy of the approved budget of direct and indirect costs in accordance with the Applicable Cost-Sharing Agreement, for the Environmental Pattern Language project.
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Environmental Pattern Language Research Grant: Authorization for Transfer of Grant Funds by Center for Studies of Metropolitan Problems
21/10/1971
Form MH-66. Cost-Sharing Proposal approved by Mr. Richard P. Wakefield.
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Environmental Pattern Language Research Grant: Notice of Grant Awarded
12/01/1972
Form MH-66. Official file copy of the approved re-budgeting of unexpended funds for the Environmental Pattern Language project with dates of total project period and grant period updated-extended by hand 1-Jan-1972 up to 31-Dec-1973.
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Fall 1967 Environmental Design 190: Transcript of lecture 2
04/10/1967
Begins with an overview of Environmental Structure as the basis for understanding organic wholeness; the ideas of recurrency and functionality are well articulated.
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Fall 1967 Environmental Design 190: Transcript of lecture 3
06/10/1967
Discussion of how structures come to being and how they require maintenance. Further discusses spatial relational structures and varying descriptions of how they are derived: Purely functional, results of rules and regulations and the third by images literally pictured ...
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Fall 1967 Environmental Design 190: Transcript of lecture 5
11/10/1967
Discusses the evolution of a pattern language over time. Examples are given and comparisons made to the evolution of organisms. Stocks of patterns and pattern languages are discussed as the central process for controlling out environment, improving the environment by ...
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