A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series) |...

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series) | Christopher Alexander | A great book for understanding your world

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A Pattern Language...

	A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series) Christopher Alexander Oxford University Press, USA, 1977 - 1216 pages average customer review:based on 78 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Designed My Home Using This Book

My interest in this book was strictly for the design of homes and the surrounding gardens. I am a professional designer and I now consider "A Pattern Language" to be one of the most important design books that I own. In my opinion, no other writing on architecture and building design makes the creative process easier to understand. It cuts through the seemingly overwhelming task of good design and boils it down to a series of step-by-step decisions-each one influencing and naturally flowing into the next.

I put this book to the ultimate test when I used it to design and build my own home (the construction of which is documented in the DVD video "Building With Awareness: The Construction of a Hybrid Home", which is available from Amazon.com). I attribute much of the success of my home's design, which has now been toured by over 1,000 people, to this book. It has given me a way to evaluate why something is not working properly in a building's design and how to make it right. Good design still takes time. The principles of this book do require discipline. However, if you thoughtfully work with the patterns presented, I believe that even the layman can design a beautiful and functional home.

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A great book for understanding your world

I always knew that I felt comfortable and relaxed in some places (houses, rooms, neighborhoods), but it was often hard to put my finger on why. After reading this book, I know. It's a bit hard to explain, but after Alexander explains the importance of, say, an entrance transition, you'll know why even though you feel completely relaxed around Bill, you're never relaxed at his house, which opens straight onto the street. Few books have changed my perceptions of my everyday world as much as this one.

The vogue for Sarah Susanka's "Not so big house" books utterly escapes me when Alexander's book is more helpful, informative and thought-provoking in every respect.

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It makes you feel good...

Never before have I read a book which is nominally a textbook that made me feel "right". A Pattern Language succeeds without trying to define all the reasons that make places comfortable. Totally in tune with how people work, play and interact. Chris Alexander would have to be one of the most profoundly insightful people I have read. The man is a legend in his own time.

Read Alexander's Notes on Synthesis and Form First

This book will overwhelm the uninitiated reader with its sheer volume of information and organization. Getting the most from this book requires understanding its underpinnings -- else it is a giant list of stuff.

Those underpinnings are in Alexander's book "Notes on Synthesis and Form" Unfortunately from an Amazon perspective the Author's middle initial is in that citation, so it does not show up here. Christopher W. Alexander's Notes on Synthesis and form makes all of the follow-on books understandable and more useful to you.

The additional time and money for this work are well worth it.

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planning and design resource

This resource book is a somewhat obscure but very useful tome on the use of space by people across cultural and generational bounds. For the practicing planning and design professional it offers useful insights that are sometimes obvious, but not always reduced to ths succinct perspective that the investigators bring to their study. It is a worthwhile addition to the library of reference books.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

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