A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein

(New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 1171

• Read introduction: 2021-04-04
• Notes Started: 2021-06-23

Introduction

No pattern is an isolated entity...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. (xiii)

We believe...that the languages which people have today are so brutal, and so fragmented, that most people no longer have any language to speak of at all. (xvi, cf. 2020-11-18-After Virtue#Ch 1 - A Disquieting Suggestion|After Virtue)

• Every society which is alive and whole will have its own unique and distinct pattern language
• Every individual in such a society will have a unique language
• Great example of using ten patterns from this language to create a front porch on (xxxvi), generalized into 8 steps to follow on (xxxviii+)

Bibliography
- The Timeless Way of Building (same authors, Part I of a single work of which the present work is Part II)

Created: 2021-04-04
Updated: 2021-08-27