I bought this book after reading the glowing reviews on amazon. It was also an inspiration for Will Wright to make SimCity and the SIMS..... so I had high expectations.

I was shocked to find how opinionated and philosophical the book is. I expected the book to look at the history of cities, towns, etc. and describe patterns that already exist (much like the GoF's software design patterns book talks about patterns that people actually use). Instead the book presents a series of ideals about how the world should be structured.

If these ideals came from concerns I could identify with, I would take it more seriously. But instead they attack "problems" which I do not perceive to exist. For example, on p. 43 "The homogeneous and undifferentiated character of modern cities kills all variety of life styles and arrest the growth of individual character." This statement is contrary to my experience. I have met many great characters from cities, and seen profound cultural differentiation emerge from cities (e.g. jazz, abstract painting, hippie culture, punk, you name it). But the authors proceed as if cities killing character is axiomatic. I agree that there is a rural character that is not present in cities. But citydwellers have another type of character which is equally valid.

I have only made it through the first 100 pages. In these pages are so many naive ideas about mixing cityspace and vacant space. I live in Los Angeles so I know about sprawl & I also know a lot about cars -- while they are aiming for less sprawl then LA, they also neglect traffic congestion. They claim that making small roads in places make people reluctant to drive there.... the experience worldwide (worst in Malaysia, I hear) is that people use whatever roads are present, and if the roads are small, they then just end up sitting in traffic. The author's are naive in their structuring of space, nowhere do they cite any hard evidence of how these structures function.

I might make it the rest of the way through.... at least it's an easy read, with so many repetitions in how the models work you can kinda skim through it. I like the spirit of the book, it is reminiscent of P.M.'s bolo'bolo.... but where bolo'bolo comes from a purely emotional position, these authors take themselves seriously and believe what they are saying is objectively true. I give the book 3 stars because it is nice to see someone work through the ideas of bolo'bolo (which was actually written ~6yrs after alexander's book). I would give 5 stars to a book that did so by looking more at actual data of how spaces are utilized, and presented designs that didn't have obvious flaws in them.

Time has not eroded the significance of this book's contribution to the world of architecture. Though it reaches back to timeless solutions to architectural problems, it is also a way forward. As we devour our social capital in a half century of indiscriminate urban sprawl, this book offers alternatives that will help us revitalize our urban centers.

This book is the quintessential book on the subject of creating authentic living spaces.
This book provides a near mystical approach to architecture in a very simplistic form that anyone can understand.

This book talks specifically about what works and doesn't work when building cities and towns and how to take the human element into consideration when doing so. However, I found its conclusions and most of its patterns applicable to software engineering. There are good books on software design patterns such as "Head First Design Patterns", and there are some good books on user interface design such as "Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design", but this book really helped me merge the idea of software design patterns with the user perspective in a way that other books I have read have not.

If you are a software designer, read the book all the way through, make notes as you go, and see if it doesn't help you write better organized code that is more responsive and coherent to a user who walks up to your user interface completely uninitiated in your method of design. I know it helped me.

This was an extremely helpful book in using to decide what house or town home to buy, why spaces might work, what needs to be added to them, etc. I am very glad I bought this book.

This is an amazing book for anyone interested in building, remodeling or buying a home. It points out basic tenents of architecture that go across cultural lines. It is easy to read and retain.

I knew nothing about this book before the purchase other than it was something I might want to read in preparation for building a house.
Originally published in 1977 by the Center For Environmental Structure, Berkeley, Calif, A Pattern Language is #2 in a series of 3 and reviewed as a working document for a new theory of architecture, building and planning.

It definitely is that and so much more. In fact, the total tonnage of information contained in this book would stop a team of oxen in it's tracks.

As a practical purchase, this book definitely fills the bill. At half the cost at publication, you can't go wrong.

A must read for anyone designing their own house. I talks about the functional relationships in a house rather than the construction itself. Every community or home architect should read this book.

my cousin built her thick walled adobe home in northern colorado using the ideas in this book. they work. the home is a delight to be in; cozy and warm and strong and earthy at the same time. the book is a very idealistic view of the world as it now stands; it's inspired by the basic drives in all of us for community and privacy and deals admirably with the trade-off. it's not just about spaces we live in and how to make them nurturing and compelling. it's also about how to create communities that entice rather than alienate. we all know strip malls are appalling at a very fundamental level. this book explains why and offers valid alternatives. unfortunately, builders and developers don't get it or make more money their way so to see healthy, working examples of a pattern language you have a much easier time finding examples in old europe (mediterrnaean villages in particular).

Alexander tried to show that architecture connects people to their surroundings in an infinite number of ways, most of which are subconscious. For this reason, it was important to discover what works; what feels pleasant; what is psychologically nourishing; what attracts rather than repels. These solutions, found in much of vernacular architecture, were abstracted and synthesized into the "Pattern Language" about 20 years ago.

Unfortunately, although he did not say it then, it was obvious that contemporary architecture was pursuing design goals that are almost the opposite of what was discovered in the pattern language. For this reason, anyone could immediately see that Alexander's findings invalidated most of what practicing architects were doing at that time. The Pattern Language was identified as a serious threat to the architectural community. It was consequently suppressed. Attacking it in public would only give it more publicity, so it was carefully and off-handedly dismissed as irrelevant in architecture schools, professional conferences and publications.

Now, 20 years later, computer scientists have discovered that the connections underlying the Pattern Language are indeed universal, as Alexander had originally claimed. His work has achieved the highest esteem in computer science. Alexander himself has spent the last twenty years in providing scientific support for his findings, in a way that silences all criticism. He will publish this in the forthcoming four-volume work entitled "The Nature of Order". His new results draw support from complexity theory, fractals, neural networks, and many other disciplines on the cutting edge of science.

After the publication of this new work, our civilization has to seriously question why it has ignored the Pattern Language for so long, and to face the blame for the damage that it has done to our cities, neighborhoods, buildings, and psyche by doing so.

This book is a masterpiece. If you want to design your own home (as in my case), this book is indispensible. I am amazed how Christopher and company came up with such an amazing amount of design information. As one example, Christopher explains the "Zen View". In general, this is a small view that you are able to look through onto a different scene. Thinking this through, I absolutely agree! They explain this design quality, why it works, and how you can use it. This is just one gem of 100s.

I borrowed this from the library first, since it's an expensive book but, after reading it, my wife and I both wanted to buy it. It is incredibly deep - the "patterns" weave together to make up a truly human whole. Alexander talks about the design process as organic. Reading through the patterns and implementing them as much or as little as one is compelled to do makes for buildings and towns that are truly a reflection of the people who have designed them.

This is a great "volume" of material and worth every penny. It will never be sold at one of our yard sales!

This book is one of the most spiritual books I've read in that in every passage it speaks to how to support the human spirit through design that considers body, mind, and spirit. What excites me about this work is the way in which each language element looks simultaneously at the human needs to be served and the essential tensions that need to be resolved by design. The focus of each language element is to bring about results that are the most enlivening to the human spirit.

This book encompasses both the external and internal dimensions of what it means to be human. Language elements such as:
- Carnival.Just as an individual person dreams fantastic happenings to release the inner forces which cannot be encompassed by ordinary events, so too a city needs its dreams.
- Scattered Work. The artificial separation of houses and work creates intolerable rifts in people's inner lives.
- Old People Everywhere. Old people need old people, but they also need the young, and young people need contact with the old.
- Sacred Sites. People cannot maintain their spiritual roots and their connections to the past if the physical world they live in does not also sustain these roots.

These are just a few of the 253 elements which describe patterns for designing and beautifying communities, regions, and structures that by their very design uplift the human spirit.

I remember which I first read this book, I would turn the page and see a photograph that was an example of lifeless design. The book is full of examples which illustrate the patterns - both good and bad designs - ones that are enlivening and those that are soul killing. As I would turn the page - even without reading the description - I would often have a visceral reaction to the soul-killing level of those photos that were examples of lifeless design.

I recommend this book on many levels:
- As a book of architecture for anyone wanting to bring a touch of their creative artistry to their community, neighborhood, city, and personal dwelling.
- As a book of exquisite information architecture, for anyone wanting to express information in a way that is eminently accessible.
- As a book of profound spiritual information that discusses the everyday elements of our common humanity and how we can bring that forward into the physical world.

If you are planning a future home or working with an architect, you really should read this book. It has given me a "language" to describe all the features I would like or have appreciated in the past. It sheds light on good design details and why some ideas are much more desirable than others. If you know what you like but do not know how to describe it or why it works for you, this book will help. If you don't know what you like yet, this will give you great ideas about good design.

This book has a lot of great theories if you are interested in urban design. Alexander covers the board with issues concerning people and public spaces. Must read for the urban designer!

Even if you're sold for deconstructivism, minimalism, etc., have the time to dig this out. The structure has the rigour of a technical book, and the content is synthetic enough to make you feel you actually learn something here. You can absorb a great amount of information in little time because the patterns are strongly tied together so you can relate them to one another easily. Highly recommended.

I am designing/building my own home and this book helped me adjust my plans until I had something that suits me perfectly instead of something "saleable." Funny thing, everyone who sees the plan and my initial start is enchanted.... Forget building houses and start building homes. I also read A Timeless Way of Building, which is a nice introduction to this one.

This is an eye-opener. How form, structure and space can affect our mood, our sense of place, and our place in the communal structure are all rare insights deftly treated in this book.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This one would be it. Hands down, no question about it. Very enjoyable to browse through. Very "organic" in develpment. I think I got the gist of the book in 2 minutes, but I'll be going deeper into it for as long as I continue to think. Brilliant ideas, clear crisp writing, and the perfect little sketches/photos to illustrate each pattern. Truly worthwhile. This purchase will be my second copy.

I will not add to the enthusiastic recommendations of others except to say I thoroughly endorse them. But readers who have not encountered the book should be aware of serious deficiencies in its structure that make it difficult to use.
In some respects, this book is like a thesaurus of ideas for arranging built space. As such, each pattern description also contains cross-references to subpatterns and related patterns.
Well and good. But it desperately needs an index. For example, there is a "stairs as seats" pattern and a "stairs as a stage" pattern. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to look up these index entries (dots inserted to ensure correct indenting):

seats
...stairs as
stages
...stairs as
stairs
...as seats
...as stages

This is a massive book similar in length to the one-volume edition of "The Lord of the Rings" which has been reprinted steadily without any updates since 1977. (The copy I saw was the 27th printing.) Surely in all that time, Oxford could have afforded for it to be revised and indexed. Since the patterns form a web of related ideas, somebody could come up with a beautiful foldout wall chart that shows all the interconnections between patterns, with colours indicating closely related pattern groups. And the nodes on this chart could give the page number in the book.

i first learned about alexander through my study of software engineering. i'm an artist working on generative/evolutionary digital art, both visual and sonic, and i'm also in the process of studying to build a house. alexander's books have been an inspiration to me in all of these fields. i won't expound on the positives, as others have already done so, and my five stars give you an idea of how i feel about these books. there are quite a few negatives though:

a) the price of these books is outrageous, why are they not available in a cheap paperback edition. if mr. alexander really wants to change the world he would do well to look at the open source software movement, specifically the ideal of open documentation. mr. alexander has a website on which he talks about freedom and idealism, etc... however, the book is not free, instead, it is very expensive, but more importantly, is not free to copy and redistribute. one gets the feeling that there is an element of the california guru in all of this. that he is peddling utopia to the hyper-comfortable. ok that sounds really harsh, but it makes me very angry that such a resource is not distributed freely, especially in the developing world. mr. alexander if you read this, please consider establishing an open on-line repository of your patterns, perhaps in wiki format, so that other patterns can be added, and so that your existing patterns can be amended through time and translated to other languages. i realize that most people in the developing world do not have access to the internet btw, but at least it would allow the people or organizations who do to print and distribute copies freely.

b) there is quite a stark difference between the more rigorous and engineering oriented 'notes on the synthesis of form' and the later work. i think in the later work he correctly ditched the engineering jargon because he deemed it unnecessarily cumbersome, and also realized that it is not necessary to build a house. peasants with no engineering or mathematical background have been building beautiful buildings for ages, however in NOTSOF he spends considerable time espousing the idea of a generative grammar as a way of managing the immense complexity of most engineering/design tasks. for instance when he gets into the problem of manufacturing a tea kettle which solves both manufacturing and design constraints. i'd really like to see more patterns dealing directly with issues of energy management and ecological well being, which by definition would have to be more technical, but not by a great margin if explained in simple language. this way a house could be organically "grown", but with energy efficiency there as a morphological force from the outset.

c) in general the books could be shorter and less repetitive. there is a bit too much advocacy, and they often read like a some kind of new age self help manual, on the surface that is. these books can survive the new age surface feel precisely because they are so deep, but i think that less self-advocacy would significantly lighten them and would probably also manage to shave off most of the new age baggage.

and finally, my advice to the software engineer, is to first read 'a timeless way of building', which will give you a strong idea about how patterns work. i also highly recommend 'notes on the synthesis of form' to anybody designing anything. i don't think that 'a pattern language' is that necessary to read, unless you want to build houses, or are just a big fan of alexander's (of which i am both).

i based this review on 'the timeless way of building', 'a pattern language', 'notes on the synthesis of form', and 'the production of houses'.

i can't wait to read 'the nature of order'

thanks mr. alexander!!

While ostensibly a book about city planning, architecture and building construction, A Pattern Language is a treasure chest offering so much more:

Academics will respect this 1171-page treatise for its thoroughly researched (eight years' work by six co-authors during the 1970s) and eminently logical (mathematically motivated) analysis, arriving at an optimal hierarchical configuration of our living space (253 self-consistent "patterns"), based on the simple premise that social function should determine physical form.

Idealists will praise the book for its wonderfully comprehensive utopian prescription specifying how our society--cities, neighborhoods, houses, rooms, alcoves and even trim and chairs--should be designed and built.

Curious types will marvel at the richness of this book as a launching pad for exploring new realms--for example: Land usage (how countryside in England differs from public parks and private farms in the U.S.), transitional space (how outdoor-indoor and public-private boundaries are as important as the buildings and rooms themselves), small window panes (how large pane windows paradoxically do not bring us closer to nature), etc.

Romantics will be moved by the contrasting luminescence in Tapestry of Light and Dark, the warmth of The Fire, and the retelling in Marriage Bed of how Odysseus was reunited with his wife, Penelope, after 20 years of separation.

Pragmatists will take the best ideas from the collection--The Flow Through Rooms, Light on Two Sides of Every Room, Alcoves--and use them with abandon in the most opportunistic way in designing, building and remodeling homes.

Members of the status quo will see this book as the underground manifesto of a threatening movement, an attempt by Berkeley anti-architect radicals to apply social engineering to thrust their liberal values (e.g., communal bathing, composting of human waste, banning of skyscrapers and chain stores) on our present society that is "just fine the way it is, thank you!"

And realists will criticize this book for falling short, failing to tell us in any truly practical sense how to fix the problems inherent in our convenient, automobile-centric, impersonal, profit-oriented social structure of today.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, basically summarizing the emerging consensus that Government-built monolithic concrete housing was a failure. Better we should all live in rustic cottages set amidst fields of wildflowers, eat our meals at tables with mismatched chairs, and spend our idle time basking in sunlit public squares. Apparently made sense in 1975.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, basically summarizing the emerging consensus, in 1975, that Government-built monolithic concrete housing was a failure. Better we should all live in rustic cottages set amidst fields of wildflowers, eat our meals at tables with mismatched chairs, and spend our idle time basking in sunlit public squares. Seems funny now, but this was the Seventies, and the Counterculture was in full bloom.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, basically summarizing the emerging consensus, in 1975, that Government-built monolithic concrete housing was a failure. Better we should all live in rustic cottages set amidst fields of wildflowers, eat our meals at tables with mismatched chairs, and spend our idle time basking in sunlit public squares. Seems funny now, but this was the Seventies, and the Counterculture was in full bloom.

Other reviews focus on the rigid structure of the book, and how it has found an audience among programmers, which I attribute to the author's background in mathematics. But that has nothing to do with the merits of his arguments, which seem silly today.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, basically summarizing the emerging consensus, in 1975, that Government-built monolithic concrete housing was a failure; better we should all live in rustic cottages set amidst fields of wildflowers, eat our meals at tables with mismatched chairs, and spend our idle time basking in sunlit public squares. Seems funny now, but such Romantic excess must have been thought necessary at the time, when Postwar Modernism was promoting such structures as inexpensive housing for the masses.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, basically summarizing the emerging consensus, in 1975, that Government-built monolithic concrete housing was a failure; better we should all live in rustic cottages set amidst fields of wildflowers, eat our meals at tables with mismatched chairs, and spend our idle time basking in sunlit public squares. Such Romantic excess was a reaction to Postwar Modernism, which promoted such structures as efficient, inexpensive housing for the masses.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, basically summarizing the emerging consensus, in 1975, that Government-built monolithic concrete housing was a failure; better we should all live in rustic cottages set amidst fields of wildflowers, eat our meals at tables with mismatched chairs, and spend our idle time basking in sunlit public squares. Apparently such Romantic excess was at that time thought necessary to counter Sixties' Modernism, which promoted such structures as modern, efficient, inexpensive housing for the masses.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, basically summarizing the emerging consensus, in 1975, that Government-built monolithic concrete housing was a failure; better we should all live in rustic cottages set amidst fields of wildflowers, eat our meals at tables with mismatched chairs, and spend our idle time basking in sunlit public squares. Apparently such Romantic excess was at that time thought necessary to counter the idealistic fervor--modern, efficient, inexpensive houses for the masses--which originally surrounded such structures.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, basically summarizing the emerging consensus, in 1975, that Government-built monolithic concrete housing was a failure; better we should all live in rustic cottages set amidst fields of wildflowers, eat our meals at tables with mismatched chairs, and spend our idle time basking in sunlit public squares. Seems odd today, but apparently such Romantic excess was at that time thought necessary to counter the idealistic fervor--modern, efficient, inexpensive houses for the masses--which originally surrounded such structures.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, basically summarizing the emerging consensus, in 1975, that Government-built monolithic concrete housing was a failure. So much better to be sitting in your rustic cottage gazing out upon a field of wildflowers.

Such thinking represents the norm nowadays, and it's hard to imagine a time when it was even necessary to make the point, but, yes, there was once a time when such structures were seen as a way to economically replace ramshackle substandard housing and endow their inhabitants with all the modern conveniences.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, basically summarizing the emerging consensus, in 1975, that Government-built concrete mass housing was a failure. Such thinking represents the norm nowadays, and it's hard to imagine a time when it was even necessary to make the point.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, basically summarizing the emerging realization of 1975: Government-built conctrete mass housing is bad; the charming rustic home is good. Such thinking represents the norm nowadays, and it's hard to imagine a time when it was even necessary to make the point.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, in the mid-Seventies, which nicely summarizes the Countercultural thinking of the time: Government-built conctret mass housing is bad; the charming rustic home is good.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, with parallels to the 19th Century Arts and Crafts movement. Now (1975) however, it condemns government-built mass housing and extolls the charms of the rustic home.

Nothing wrong with that, except it ignores the obvious fact that things are the way they are because to do otherwise costs more money.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, with parallels to the 19th Century Arts and Crafts movement. Now (1975) however, it condemns government-built mass housing and extolls the charms of the rustic home. Nothing wrong with that, except it ignores the underlying economics.

More a romantic flight of fancy than something to be taken seriously. If you don't object to reading things like cladding should be layered but stucco is OK because it's "layered internally", you might enjoy it.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, recycling many of the themes of the 19th Century Arts and Crafts movement. If you don't object to reading things like cladding should be layered but stucco is OK because it's "layered internally", you might enjoy it.

Not quite the research it pretends to be, more a polemic against Modernism in its final days, with many parallels to the themes of the 19th Century Arts and Crafts movement. Then it was a Romantic view of industrialization's effect on workers and the demise of craftsmanship, now (1975) it's a Countercultural view of government housing's effect on residents and the charms of the rustic home.

Contemplate "Wings of Light." Yeah, "Wings of Light." Most houses are built like a box because most builders are ignorant fools as are the bureaucrats who prescribe building codes. In contrast, mathmetician and architect Mr. Alexander gives us a plan for inter-twining indoor and outdoor space in a near seamless harmony, including "Positive Outdoor Space" and "Wings of Light." No Fads here, the principles in this book are timeless principles that interact in truly inspiring ways.

We mere mortals are insprired by the principle of "Wings of Light" and hundreds of other inspiring, well-orderd Patterns that Mr. Alexander et al describe in short, concise, illustrative chapters that forever influence our understanding of living space.

You may not be able to change the world but you can change your own little world. "A Pattern Language" is your roadmap. In all of Architecture, there is no other book of rivaling importance. This is the Bible of Architecture, written and dedicated to the masses.

Myself, I am a voracious reader of non-fiction, as well as a life-long student of science. I can say, without hesitation, that this is the most important book I have ever read.

Consider for a moment your home, you living environment. Unless you are profoundly fortunate, you abode is rather dull and uninspiring. Your next home won't be if you put into action the lovely patterns in this monumental book.

I originally learned of this book in The New Cottage Home, a beautiful account of small homes that epitomize coziness, comfort, beauty, and in some cases, sustainability. At the end of The New Cottage Home, the author discussed some of the qualities that make a cottage a cottage, and in doing so presented some very interesting ideas. For example, people are subconsciously comforted by the thickened edges that often surround windows and doors. The authors of A Pattern Language believe that this is because we recognize this feature in one another...in the thickness of our lips, the boldness of the skin surrounding our eyes...and thus expect it in places like a home. With good reason, too. Lips and eyelids are no accident! Openings without thickened edges are prone to breakage and defectiveness.

Most of the "patterns" described in A Pattern Language are similar in that people expect them and are comforted by them. In fact, Alexander refers to them as archetypes, which is a word that always interested me. To think that there are universally appealing features in the built environment that people never even consider throughout the building process is staggering. Have you ever seen or entered a place that felt cold and unwelcoming? Read this book and you'll be able to understand why.

It's the universal appeal of these archetypal patterns, as well as the timeless principles on which this book is based, that make this a classic in the architectural field. While A Pattern Language has withstood the test of time, I still have to file a complaint for just that reason. Here and there you'll read statements that make you think "Huh? Things aren't like that anymore..." Nevertheless, Christopher Alexander was a man ahead of his time, and I can't say his ideas are any less interesting, sensible, or true since the year that he published this book. One of the most striking principles he touched on that still applies today is as follows:

"If we always build on that part of the land which is the most healthy, we can be virtually certain that a great deal of the land will always be less than healthy. If we want the land to be healthy all over--all of it--then we must do the opposite. We must treat every new act of building as an opportunity to mend some rent in the existing cloth; each act of building gives us a chance to make one of the ugliest and least healthy parts of the environment more healthy--as for those parts which are already healthy and beautiful--they of course need no attention. And in fact, we must discipline ourselves most strictly to leave them alone, so that our energy actually goes to the places which need it. This is the principle of site repair." (p.510)

Though a little outdated, and a little expensive, this is a book you can hold on to and refer to again and again.

I have just this past month completed the total renovation or remodel of a 1952 California tract home. Three years ago as the process was beginning a friend gifted us with "A Pattern Language". The impact of this book on our project and the enduring benefit we'll receive over the years is beyond calculation. The depth to which the authors understand the issues is clear from the simple and graceful way in which they have sorted out the critical factors. Space, light, air, traffic, common and private spaces are explained in a simple manner that makes the concepts applicable and appreciable in all types of buildings. In addition, they capture the more primitive factors such as our fondness of being able to see the ground when seated at a window or being uncomfortable lying in bed below a high ceiling. The way they make sense out of those components aided us in every choice from entryway to backyard secret garden. The typical reaction of those who enter our humble little dwelling for the first time is a sharp intake of breath and a quick exclamation "Oh, I LOVE your home!" Using A Pattern Language as our guide we got $400,000 value from a $100,000 remodel.

I'll vouch for all the other glowing reviews. Buy it.

Before you start building your home, you should read this book.
This helped me lot.

This book gives information which we all know. We know because of how we feel within the spaces it helps you define.

A must have for Students and Professionals in Architecture

I've read all three books in this series, and I thought this was by far the best and most accessible. The first, "A Timeless Way of Building", introduced the author's philosophy and was, I thought, a bit bogged down with New Age jargon. I prefer to think in terms of comfort and relationships, though ultimately I agree with just about everything the author-as-designer states and obviously went on to read his other work. I thought the third book, photographs of a project completed by the author, should have been the most informative, but ultimately didn't do justice to the author's ideas. But maybe it was just the poor quality of the pictures. IMHO this is the masterpiece of the trilogy. Christopher Alexander's Empire Strikes Back. Its concern is the practical application of the author's ideas, and one could only wish to live or work in a space designed with this philosophy. His thinking is pragmatic AND beautiful, bringing balance and harmony to space.

Having made the case for his system of architectural and social design in his earlier work, the author here goes on to formalize a system of 253 patterns, ranging in scale from towns down to benches. Patterns 1 through 94 define a town or community; numbers 95 through 204 define (groups of) buildings; and numbers 205-253 define a "buildable building". The individual patterns are themselves evocative and inviting, and cover a myriad of human social and environmental relationships: number 1 is Independent Region, pattern 2 is Distribution of Towns, 10 is Magic of the City, 57 is Children in the City, number 62 is High Places, number 63 Dancing in the Street, 94 is Sleeping in Public, 203 Child Caves, 223 Deep Reveals, 235 Soft Inside Walls, 253 Things from Your Life.

One example of developing the pattern language for a specific project using a subset of the author's Pattern Language is that of the front porch, composed of 10 elements: private terrace on street, sunny place, six-foot balcony, outdoor room, paths & goals, ceiling height variety, columns at the corners, front-door bench, raised flowers and different chairs. Alexander gives many such examples and eloquently details the process of exploring patterns and moving between them in a search for the proper set. And that is one thing that makes this book special and fun. He does not say a 'successful' set of elements but a 'proper' set of elements. At first that might seem like a lot of hot hubris, but on reading you find that there is a reason that a balcony should be 6-feet square .... THAT is the minimum space required for people to have a comfortable discussion around a small table. It is a charming and useful way to look at one's surroundings, and each of the 253 patterns is given the treatment as the author goes on to detail each element's specifications, definition and purpose. These expanded definitions are often quite charming; for instance, under pattern 57, Children in the City, he specifies a very safe bike path that meanders past workplaces and shops with windows so that kids can see the diversity and alive-ness of the place in which they live. Lovely idea.

While others have noted that Alexander's ideas inspired changes in software engineering, I would also like to note that the author's ideas were, in turn, most likely informed by others, such as neuroscientist Karl Lashley and, in particular, linguist Noam Chomsky. Chomsky developed the idea of a generative grammar, composed of constituent symbols, a set of rules and a set of terminal elements, which together describe all possible sentences in a language. This was considered revolutionary at the time and is quite similar to Alexander's characterization of his patterns, described as a context combined with a system of forces or rules generating an infinite number of solutions in the form of sets of specific design elements. That configuration, in turn, becomes the context for another pattern. The theory's dynamism and scalability render it very powerful indeed.

I think another interesting approach to this philosophy would be to reverse engineer our own environment. To say, Obviously there is a Pattern Language at work in the larger world in which we live, and it is decidedly in opposition to what Mr. Alexander and others, including myself, believe is preferred. What are the rules of that language? What is the context within which those elements operate? The author codifies a desirable Pattern Language. I'd like to see his principles used to turn an eye toward decodifying our own milieu. This is the kind of book that leads one to think and imagine, and isn't that a wonderful thing?

What I didn't like about this book were that neither ideas nor photographs were credited, which is frustrating for someone who wants to follow up on these ideas, and not fair to those whose work contributed to the author's. The author apologized for this in his first book, but then repeated the discourtesy here; the second time is less forgivable. Also, there is no index, which is especially painful for a librarian :-) I would have liked to have seen a more diverse selection of examples, and some attempt to address the implementation of a pattern language after more conventional designs are already in place. That said, I agree with the many others who have stated that this book changed the way they looked at their surroundings, and I'm profoundly grateful to the author for his work, which stands up well after a quarter century.

Even when mediocrity (or worse) is the order of the day, there are those voices in the wilderness who speak to a better understanding and envision a better world. In codifying an aesthetic relationship among elements of a viable, living environment and describing a system of scalable self-sustaining systems, the author joins visionaries like R. Buckminster Fuller, who bring a philosophy to architecture that is as much about living as it is about building. I would encourage anyone who is interested in architecture, design, a philosophy of organic wholeness, or creating a more humane environment, to read this informative and provocative book.