Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction

Christopher W. Alexander,

Sara Ishikawa,

Murray Silverstein,

Max Jacobson (Goodreads Author),

Ingrid Fiksdahl-King,

Shlomo Angel

4.40 · Rating details · 4,311 ratings · 334 reviews

At the core of A Pattern Language is the philosophy that in designing their environments people always rely on certain ‘languages,’ which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a formal system which gives them coherence.

This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable making a design for almost ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 1216 pages

Published August 25th 1977 by Oxford University Press (first published 1977)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about A Pattern Language, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Triumph of the City by Edward L. Glaeser

Top Urban Planning Books of All Time

116 books — 151 voters

A Visual Dictionary of Architecture by Francis D.K. Ching

The Architecture of the City by Aldo Rossi

The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard

Must-Read Architecture Books (fiction and nonfiction)

222 books — 161 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.40 ·

Rating details

· 4,311 ratings · 334 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction

Mar 31, 2011 Matt rated it did not like it

Shelves: philosophy, previously-abandoned, fantasy

I really don't know what I was expecting when I reserved this from the library, but it wasn't this. In my defense, it sounded interesting. I thought it might be a discussion of sociology and history meant to inspire or empower people to build what they wanted. In fact, what I got is....

Let me back up. Just recently, Irrational Games released the latest in their series of dystopian first person shooters - 'Bioshock Infinite'. In this series visionary philosophers seek to found utopian communities I really don't know what I was expecting when I reserved this from the library, but it wasn't this. In my defense, it sounded interesting. I thought it might be a discussion of sociology and history meant to inspire or empower people to build what they wanted. In fact, what I got is....

Let me back up. Just recently, Irrational Games released the latest in their series of dystopian first person shooters - 'Bioshock Infinite'. In this series visionary philosophers seek to found utopian communities based on the idea that humanity needs to be organized around a different guiding principle, and in this isolation temporarily achieve great things only to be ultimately undermined by the fundamental flaws inherent in their philosophy. In the first game, you get to live out the fantasy of killing a bunch of Ayn Randian objectivist libertarians that have mutated into monsters. In this latest game, you are pitted against fanatical American patriots who worship the founding fathers.

One of the things that greatly interests me is that the utopian communities of Bioshock look absolutely nothing like the sort of utopian communities that are actually created or desired by the sort of people whose philosophies Bioshock draws inspiration from. American religious mystics don't create high tech cities. They create something more like a Shaker village. The people inspired by American Exceptionalism didn't create isolationist flying communes, but Detroit and Chicago. The followers of Ann Rand didn't and wouldn't be interested in planned communities. They'd correctly diagnosis any sort of planned community as a de facto government and isolation as a tool of empowerment by that government. You can say many things about the Objectivists, but they aren't really into building Utopias or at least not for communities as a whole. Actual religious utopians building intentional planned communities don't tend to imagine high tech cities as a way to get spiritual. If you actually look at the history of intentional communities in the United States and the world, you find a lot of luddite religious groups, a few con artists, a great many free spirited anarchist squatters, and an endless succession of socialist communes, compounds, show cities, and planned communities. In fact, the only modern religious philosophy that has shown any consistent interest in building communities set apart from the rest of society is socialism. It's got a rich 200 year history, but if you are waiting for the Bioshock game that has a communist planned community at its heart, well, I suspect you'll be waiting a long while. Actually attacking a vibrant religion, especially one many of your friends belong too, has way too many social repercussions.

If you want a real model for the sort of communities found in Bioshock, then you couldn't really do better than this book. Instead of a discussion of the theories of social organization and how they relate to architecture, what you get in this book is a blueprint based on a theory of desirable organization. There is within the pages of this book a detailed outline of exactly how the lives of people are to be controlled in every practical aspect. Alexander has a plan for everything - where you own land, where you work, what you do, where you shop, and where you sleep. Everything is planned out in meticulous detail.

What I find particularly interesting is that what he's planning is ultimately little more than a tessellated medieval town. This is guy who has clearly gone to Europe, fallen in love with the post-medieval countryside and decided that this is the way mankind must be made to live. Grounded in pseudoscience, Alexander outlines reasoning for recreating every incidental aspect of the medieval countryside. In the real world, the complex winding tapestry of medieval fields and farms was the result of patrimony and continual subinfeudation. In Alexander's fantasy world, the thin intertwined fingers of land familiar to anyone with more than a half-dozen hours of college level course study in Medieval history are the product of science - in the same way that the huge communal government owned farms of the Soviet Union and Mao's great agricultural leap forward were the product of science.

The pattern of streets in a medieval town, the layout of semi-self-sufficient neighborhoods within larger cities, virtually every aspect of medieval culture save the central organizing cathedral at the hub is apparent in the layout. The steel I-beam doesn't exist in this world, nor does it appear the elevator, nor does electricity save in the most cursory way. This is building for the 19th century. Now, there are important topics here that could be discussed, but from his perspective in the 1970's - a time filled with socialist community planning (my cousin lived on a commune) - the writer isn't really asking the right questions or thinking about them. Instead of looking at the world's architectural diversity and really seeing it as adaptive and useful engineering, he's got his theory and by golly he's going to stick with it.

I do Alexander no injustice to claim that he is a would be tyrant of the highest degree. Alexander is well aware that his intentional planned community won't come about organically by people seeing the sense of his ideas and incorporating them into their lives from the bottom up, first building house according to his principles, then latter building complexes, and latter neighborhoods and finally cities. He well aware that his vision requires above all two things – central planning and authoritarian force. The only way to get people to do what Alexander believes is good for them is to make them do it. Every second page of the book contains an enjoinder to create laws that enforce the pattern discussed in that section, and a discussion of the necessity of doing so. Of course, every page with such an injunction also contains a 'proof' that the pattern to be enforced is really the natural one humanity prefers, which means there has to be a Satan in the garden somewhere but I didn't read the book closely enough to find evidence beyond a few attacks on 'bankers' and 'investors'. I suspect however that I'd be learning nothing additional about the book to find the answer on that subject. I've encountered too much of this sort of crap before.

Anyway, what I wanted was science. What I got was religion. There are many ironies in this text, but probably the greatest one for me is that of all the areas of American life that this book impacts (other than a few municipal codes in California), the area you can see Alexander’s theories play out to their fullest is in the design of Shopping Malls. ...more

flag 53 likes · Like · see review

Aug 08, 2007 Carol Jones rated it it was amazing

This is the book that sparked my interest in architecture and home design, many years ago. Skip the town and urban planning if you are more interested in how to design a comfortable home. Christopher Alexander is passionate and persuasive about what he believes we need in our homes: natural light from two sides of a room, window seats one can actually read in, quiet separate dressing areas for every person in a house (because bedrooms should be rooms to relax and be intimate in, not a messy clot ...more

flag 23 likes · Like · see review

Oct 26, 2010 Deirdre Keating rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Deirdre by: Gretchen Rubin's website

Shelves: favorites, nonfiction, wishlist, philosophy

I have to give it 5 stars because there is no other way to describe it but as amazing. Forgive me the long review, but it was a library checkout and I want to refer back to it.

I was initially annoyed that there wasn't an idex where I could look up "office space" and quickly read their recommendations for the best layout. Yet now I love the way each pattern refers to all the other patterns it is connected to, and you find yourself flipping from garden benches to farmhouse kitchens. It probably al I have to give it 5 stars because there is no other way to describe it but as amazing. Forgive me the long review, but it was a library checkout and I want to refer back to it.

I was initially annoyed that there wasn't an idex where I could look up "office space" and quickly read their recommendations for the best layout. Yet now I love the way each pattern refers to all the other patterns it is connected to, and you find yourself flipping from garden benches to farmhouse kitchens. It probably also helps that each chapter/pattern is only a few pages so I could delude myself (and my family) that I was only going to read for a few more minutes.

I can see why some wouldn't enjoy this---I can't imagine trying to read it for a class, or as laid out from start to finish rather than jumping around. One (positive) reviewer wrote: "It's wildly ambitious and preachy and reassuringly confident." All true, and also quite dated at times, but still lovely and inspiring.

It made me want to contact the designer of our house, because, while we unfortunately don't have the several feet-thick walls recommended, so much of our house has patterns as if the designer had the book in hand, eg: the flow through rooms, cascade of roofs, dormer window, ceiling height variety, low window sills (something I previously found baffling), as well as things we added: window seats, half-hidden garden, child-caves (under-the-stairs room).

I especially loved the last pattern: Things From Your Life. "Do not be tricked into believe that modern decor must be "slick"...or "natural" or whatever else that current taste-makers claim. It is most beautiful when it comes straight from your life--the things you care for, the things that tell your story." I so appreciated this after being told, by a much more "design-wise" friend that I was "brave" to have so many family photos out. I know design "rules" call for them to be in less public rooms, but I love photography and these people, and love having them throughout our home.

I love the open shelves pattern & hope to implement it in our kitchen. The city-planning patterns depressed me, as they are the opposite of how most public spaces are laid out, but I still found them instructive. Loved the "child in the city" pattern and more.

The copy I borrowed from our library had a personal inscription that included this quote:
There is nothing stronger or nobler
than when a man and a woman
are of one heart in a home--
a grief to their enemies
And to their friends great joy,
But their own hearts know it best.--Homer

EDIT: The above review is from November 2010.
Reread again in 2014. Loved it even more, and started a blog series, 31 Days of A Pattern Language ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Apr 12, 2012 Alper Çuğun rated it it was amazing

An essential book for anybody interested in the field. I read it cover to cover, very slowly with breaks and now I feel I have some grasp of what it takes to build a house.

It is of course dated and highly geared towards North American houses but it's still a seminal work. The parts on urbanism are in fact how we in CNW Europe do manage things, so that is heartening.

Extensions to the book for instance how to build houses in very space constrained environments like the Netherlands could be intere ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Jun 08, 2012 Mike rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

This is probably my favorite non-fiction book. Christopher Alexander and his students have collected everything there is to know about design and put it in one book. Yet cultures go on making the same mistakes over and over. And few architects I talk to have ever read the book.

The book is easy to read and understand. It consists of hundreds of patterns, described in a page or two. They range from the width of door molding to how cities should be laid out. For example, there is a pattern, "Old Pe ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Oct 03, 2015 Ruth rated it liked it

The authors of this book, architects and designers, believed that they had identified design issues that were timeless. They did the research and writing for the book between about 1968 and 1977. I think many of their solutions, and even some of the problems they identified, were dated by the time the book was published. I read the essays in the book out of order, which was interesting--sort of like choosing your own adventure. That, and the unwieldy nature of their arguments, made it difficult The authors of this book, architects and designers, believed that they had identified design issues that were timeless. They did the research and writing for the book between about 1968 and 1977. I think many of their solutions, and even some of the problems they identified, were dated by the time the book was published. I read the essays in the book out of order, which was interesting--sort of like choosing your own adventure. That, and the unwieldy nature of their arguments, made it difficult to figure out how to summarize what the book means to me. It's a beautiful and idealistic book that envisions a society where people build to give everyone what they need.

These authors were among many people who believed that the only way to ensure that communities reflect the people who live in them is home ownership. They did not address questions of affordability of housing. Furthermore, as they began their project in 1968, they believed that the problem of racism in housing was over. After all, they'd seen the passage of the Fair Housing Act. They even dismissed racism as an issue in one essay, while discussing the formation of neighborhoods by affinity. These massive oversights or innocence or whatever it was, make reading this book almost unbearable. Another thing which made the book feel dated, to me, were all the ways that the authors tried to deal with the generation gap and the family. I cannot imagine how people who had traveled to many cultures and cities could think of their emphasis on the normalcy and centrality of the nuclear family and in particular the needs of couples were universal.

The other piece of reading this book that saddened me were all the insights about low rise buildings, the importance of public space, and the need for people to have space to play. Every positive thing in this book has either been ignored in urban planning--to the extent we actually allow urban planners to plan spaces--or made available to affluent people only. I think the saddest thing was seeing recently that people are building mini-houses in parking lots. This decades after this book came out and was read by everyone--this book that asserts that only a minimal amount of space in a city should go to parking, and how important it is for every house to have a garden.

Anyway--fun to read, if bittersweet. ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Jun 29, 2015 Taco rated it really liked it

Very inspiring. Empowered me to think practically about architecture at all scales. No appraisal or brainstorm on anything architecture, houses or buildings goes by without these patterns popping up in my mind.

I now understand why the author himself hated that his 'pattern' approach was appropriated by folks turning it into something abstract (programming patterns) whereas he meant them as an easy, democratic tool for everyday people to make their own neighbourhoods and houses. This book is a po ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Aug 07, 2012 dawn rated it it was ok

1171 pages covering 253 'patterns'. And this is the second half of the book (1st half is "The Timeless Way of Building".

1171 pages!!! love their little sketches and diagrams, but for the average urbanist, this book isn't worth your time. Lots of the ideas are timeless, if misunderstood or neglected during certain periods, but many others are dated, unpopular, or so idealistic as to be ludicrous. Some principles counter-acted others, some are counter-intuitive but quite sensible, others are class 1171 pages covering 253 'patterns'. And this is the second half of the book (1st half is "The Timeless Way of Building".

1171 pages!!! love their little sketches and diagrams, but for the average urbanist, this book isn't worth your time. Lots of the ideas are timeless, if misunderstood or neglected during certain periods, but many others are dated, unpopular, or so idealistic as to be ludicrous. Some principles counter-acted others, some are counter-intuitive but quite sensible, others are classic gems.

This book in it's exhaustive coverage of all scales of living, might be a guide for God, as if he were moving on to towns and buildings on the 8th day. The scale of the proposed design is completely utopian, but the tone is unabashedly sincere and specific.

What i like is that instead of just identifying problems with the built environment as so many do, they are all about solutions, however unrealistic.

A few quotes.

"It is not possible to avoid the need for high speed roads in modern society; but it is essential to place them and build them in such a way that they do not destroy communities or countryside."

"There is abundant evidence to show that high buildings make people crazy."
(From Chapter 21: "Four-Story Limit", complete with cited studies and a comparison of SF's Transamerica Pyramid to a Big Brother Ministry from Orwell's 1984)

"As part of the network of bike paths, develop one system of paths that is extra safe - entirely separate from automobiles, with lights and bridges at the crossings, with homes and ships along it, so that there are always many eyes on the path. Let this path go through every neighborhood, so that children can get onto it without crossing a main road. And run the path all through the city, down pedestrian streets, through workshops, assembly plants, warehouses, interchanges, print houses, bakeries, all the interesting 'invisible' live of a town - so that the children can roam freely on their bikes and trikes."

See what i mean? ah, to have lived in the 70s, when such a path was still dreamable...

...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Apr 14, 2013 Jordan Stephens rated it it was amazing

This book was my anam cara. I’ve long since felt perplexed by the way American cities are designed and the way we are forced to live as a result of their structure and underlying philosophy. I am likewise confused by the holding in high esteem of homes that lack the ability to satisfy daily needs. Though this book is designed for the city planner, architect, or builder (none of which am I), I found in it validation that these needs are not so unusual and hope that there are those in the American ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Jun 20, 2009 Faith Reidenbach rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-nonfiction

Anyone with the luxury of designing their own home should jump at the chance to get this book. It's a bit dated, but at 1100+ pages it surely describes most of the details you'll need to think about.

I took it home from the library because it's a fascinating book about architectural design in general, everything from the optimal size of a public square (70 feet wide) to the best place for a garden seat. I learned that my house has a good "intimacy gradient" (spaces meant to be public are readily ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

May 26, 2013 Howard Mansfield rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Howard by: howard@howardmansfield.com

Patterns are key to understanding what is ailing our landscape. There is an order, a language, for the way a good street is created. For example, there are recognizable parts that make up a good village townscape. Each part — a fence, a lilac, a walkway, a wall, a front door, a roof — each part works with the other parts to create a place that could only be that place in the whole world.
This is the brilliant insight of Christopher Alexander’s amazing book, A Pattern Language. You may have seen ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Oct 12, 2017 Taylor Pearson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: philosophy

I went to an architecture conference about two years ago, not because I knew anything about architecture, but just because I wanted to see one speaker. However, all the speakers ended up being fascinating and it made me reconsider how significant architecture and design is to my everyday life. A door handle that is inconvenient to turn can set the mood for everyone walking into an office (or vice versa).

When I asked what book I should start with to better understand architecture, A Pattern Langu ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Jan 29, 2014 Andrew added it

Shelves: urbanism, arts-nonfiction

I'll start by saying that Christopher Alexander has attempted to develop a more humane system of urban and domestic planning, and has provided a number of thought-provoking ways to implement his vision.

I'll also say that, intellectually, it holds next to no water. By trying to ground the dreamy poetics of Bachelard as "science," you lose the metaphorical value that Bachelard has to offer, while gaining no actual science. It's not like there's any justification for the numbers he tosses in or an ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jul 28, 2011 Malcolm rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban-studies

If A New Theory of Urban Design is the summation of the theoretical developments in Christopher Alexander's work, this is the practical how-to guidebook vision of building integrated and human centred spaces, of building spaces that blend internal and external physical environments. I was introduced to this by an architect friend and neighbour when I was doing some writing about topography and (our) community: it is an inspirational and exciting book, although at 1200 pages of architectural and ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 24, 2012 Hal O'Brien rated it it was amazing

Shelves: architecture, favorites, conviviality

I was reading John Brunner's "The Shockwave Rider" in college, and it makes some architectural references. Trying to dig up what they were, I stumbled on this, mostly because Alexander was early in the card catalog, and at 1200 pages I felt sure it'd have what I was looking for.

I was wrong, of course, but only in the limited-to-the-task-at-hand way.

Alexander's main idea is that architecture is like a language. With a finite set of elements he calls patterns (not unlike words), you can put them t ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Mar 14, 2012 Joni Baboci rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ecology, economics, future, urbanism, diy, philosophy, architecture, entropy, roamed, design

"The fundamental philosophy behind the use of pattern languages is that buildings should be uniquely adapted to individual needs and sites; and that the plans of buildings should be rather loose and fluid, in order to accommodate these subtleties."

Introduction
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction is not simply a guide on how to build. It feels more like a hand guide on how to live and reconnect with what makes us human - not by shunning technology but rather by embracing it in a mor ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 18, 2018 Godo Stoyke rated it it was amazing

A timeless classic, that should be in every household, especially of those in design, construction, and community and city planning. Alexander and his team have uncovered the mathematical and human patterns underneath many important design decisions.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 29, 2018 Alexandra Cross rated it it was amazing

This book changed my outlook on my environment and made me more cautious of that 'why do I feel cozier, more comfortable here but not there' awareness.

I was able to download a free copy of this book to my phone. It's a long book, over one thousand pages, but it's split into 3-10 page topics so it's easy to pick up and read. I did this as an alternative to scrolling through social media. Good fix.

I heard of A Pattern Language from a Tim Ferris episode with Gretchen Rubin.

Anyway, this book is re ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 23, 2013 Erika RS added it

Shelves: owned, built-environment, physical

Finished A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein. For anyone interested in urban design, place making, or the design of interior spaces, this book is a must read, or at least a must skim.

A Pattern Language is a catalog of 253 patterns that cover everything from the layout of cities down to the layout of rooms. Some of the patterns have been criticized, particularly those dealing with the layout of cities and towns, but overall, the patterns provide a ri ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 22, 2012 Anne Bogel rated it it was amazing

This architecture classic from 1977 approaches architecture in a way that's altogether new to me: it provides 253 archetypal elements of design that together form a "language" to speak of an infinite variety of designs, from the large scale (regional metro plans) to the small scale (individual homes).

I loved how this book was very easy to pick up and put down--the 1000 or so pages don't have to be read all at one go for it to make sense.

What I hate about this book: I adore the building plans Al ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 28, 2009 K rated it it was amazing

Recommended to K by: Cait

Shelves: 1read_chunks_of

Holy f***! This just arrived at my house! I yelled "ITS A PATTERN LANGUAGE!" out loud alone in my room in delight! Thank you, mysterious surprise gift giver - I have been lusting after this ridiculously expensive ridiculously brilliant book ever since Cait and Jay set up their apartment all cool based on ideas from it. Oh yes, yes, yes! I own it! I can read it whenever I want! I literally now own the most badass wisdom about living in spaces ever compiled. Yes. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 11, 2016 Rabab rated it really liked it

Again, I have Skipped a LOT of stuff ... I could say that I've covered 65% of the book.

I highly recommend it for students and professionals as well.

The reason why I rated it 4 stars is because there are some ideas that I did not agree with.

But rather than that the book is very useful, very informative and interesting. It opened my mind to many possibilities and ideas. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 02, 2016 Alexis Petrounias rated it it was amazing

Shelves: polity, computation, consilio

This text was invaluable to my understanding of three things: first, how to approach the programming language concepts of Lisp macros, generic types, and code generation; second, why the "design patterns" concept in software construction is misguided; and third, the aesthetics of Middle Eastern rugs. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 04, 2008 Mykle added it

Shelves: didn-t-finish

I'm finally working my way through this seminal work of architectural theory. The planning suggestions ("patterns") are organized large to small; Pattern #1 is "Bring about an ideal world government ..." I'm hoping that the later patterns will be more relevant to my second story dormer. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 29, 2008 Aaron rated it it was amazing

a revolutionary book on making: cities, spaces, buildings, places. human-scaled and highly personal. essential for anyone interested in the relationship between humans and the built-environment.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

May 17, 2015 Andrea rated it it was amazing

Shelves: public_space, architecture, cities-and-suburbs, utopia, gardens

This is an extraordinary book, not least because I'd seen it referenced as an architectural handbook and a good source for thinking about public space. It is all that.

But really, it is quite a mad reimagining of our world as it could and should be, but at the same time serves as a blueprint of how to build it. After that final scene in V for Vendetta when the world is reduced to rubble and everyone is like oh shit, what next? You want to think through what happens after the revolution if you'd p ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 20, 2020 Nathan Albright rated it did not like it

Shelves: challenge-2020

There are some books that are bad because they are incompetent, because the author has no idea what they are doing and embarrasses themselves in trying to write a book. This is not that sort of book. This book is bad because it is evil, because it seeks to encourage the abuse of the power of planning and design to coerce people into adopting a lifestyle that is amenable to control by leftists. This book is the product of the late age of urban planning, where the authors themselves do not appe There are some books that are bad because they are incompetent, because the author has no idea what they are doing and embarrasses themselves in trying to write a book. This is not that sort of book. This book is bad because it is evil, because it seeks to encourage the abuse of the power of planning and design to coerce people into adopting a lifestyle that is amenable to control by leftists. This book is the product of the late age of urban planning, where the authors themselves do not appear conscious or at least willing to admit the disastrous consequences of the sort of design that they seek. There are a lot of contradictions, some of which we shall shortly explore, and overall the authors think that they can provide American construction with ways that we can be more like Asian or African or European cities, all of which are focused on a much larger degree of collective living than Americans support. If this book was one that I deeply disliked, it is an important read in seeing the way that space can influence behavior and the way that people can seek to coerce behavioral and political change through the control of space.

Among the many important contradictions in this book is the way that the authors promise privacy but end up providing something far less private than they initially promise. how is this so? Well, the authors endorse higher density living and show a hostility to personal property, including a marked hostility to car culture. The authors even support street living, making the rise in homelessness in cities that have adopted the authors' strategies intentional and not merely accidental. Beyond that the authors even endorse communal sleeping and bathing and even semi-public dressing areas for children, which means that their promises of children's space or separate couples space is not quite what they mean on the surface. Likewise, while the authors promise more freedom for people, their goal of more layers of intrusive government mean that they are more interested in having people subject to corrupt ward bosses rather than to be free to live in a godly and independent fashion. As is so common among leftist political rhetoric, the authors promise freedom and deliver slavery and dependence to public transportation and an overly paternalistic government that provides elite living to some and austere living to the point of homelessness and tiny houses and cottages to the masses.

This is a large book at more than 1150 pages, and it makes for very detailed reading, so much so that it might be easy to overlook the more ferocious comments of the authors because so much of the material involves various theories about the spatial orientation of rooms and buildings, by having bedrooms have eastern exposure and two sources of light, by encouraging row houses connected to pathways and a strong limit on parking places as well as the encouragement of mixed use development so as to keep residential and commercial areas from being so strongly separated. The book is organized into numerical principles, many of which have darker undertones that the authors deal with in a blithe fashion, about 250 principles in all, many of which with photographs where the author praises frequently the urban principles of Berkeley. And anyone with any amount of sense about them should know that when someone spends their time praising the urban design of the San Francisco area, with rent control and limited housing and massive social crises, you should run away. Run very far away. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 16, 2020 Cyrus Molavi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own

In eleventh grade, I got the chance to spend a few days as work experience with a man who had built his own straw bale house. My experience didn't end up involving almost any labour; it was mostly my classmate and I sitting at his kitchen table with him, talking about what we'd learned. At one point, he pulled this book off his shelf and highlighted a few things he learned from it. He said he had used the book as a resource while he designed and built his own home. The two ideas that stuck with In eleventh grade, I got the chance to spend a few days as work experience with a man who had built his own straw bale house. My experience didn't end up involving almost any labour; it was mostly my classmate and I sitting at his kitchen table with him, talking about what we'd learned. At one point, he pulled this book off his shelf and highlighted a few things he learned from it. He said he had used the book as a resource while he designed and built his own home. The two ideas that stuck with me were "159: Light on Two Sides of Every Room" and "167: Six-Foot Balcony." Even though I later forgot the name of the book, I dropped those little nuggets for years to come when looking at homes.

More than a decade later (I'm not sure when exactly,) I made the connection about the title of the book. This year, it was my Big One (1000+ pages.) I would say it delivered on its Classic status.

I'm mostly in awe of this book out of its sheer ambition. The scope is incredible. It covers the built form from regional planning to interior design, and everything in between. The format of breaking every principle up into its own pattern and being somewhat declarative about how one should design is refreshing for me. The big ideas are articulated with the combination of mildly-supportive evidence and full confidence that was common of that era. Some of the patterns are inspired by the scientific method, others are intuitive. The romance of this book is that you really could use it to build a region, from columns to green fingers.

The book has fallen out of date since the '70s--although not as severely as expected. The first third, the regional and city planning parts, felt somewhat stiff. I suspect either that my greater knowledge at these levels made the arguments' weaknesses more obvious, or that the authors were venturing more outside their own knowledge zones, here. The bits about the roles of members of the family were a little comical in their datedness. I will say, though, that some ideas here were very much ahead of their time and have not even yet been adopted in North America to the extent that the authors might have expected for the 50 years that have passed. One that stands out to me is multi-generational living.

I will probably not design or build my own home in the way that my work experience mentor did. But I still appreciate the patterns raised, and love to indulge in the conversations that could result.
...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 15, 2019 Seb Wocial rated it really liked it

“...we do believe, of course, that this language which is printed here is something more than a manual, or a teacher, or a version of a possible pattern language. Many of the patterns here are archetypal - so deep, so deeply rooted in the nature of things, that it seems likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years, as we are today... in this sense, we have also tried to penetrate, as deep as we are able, into the nature of things in the environ ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 31, 2019 Shane Woolley rated it really liked it

Shelves: architecture-design

DIY hippie-design book rooted in utopian democratic theory. Somewhat rigid/traditionalist but from a humanistic perspective. Visionary method for unifying people-centered design theory from the urban planning level to the basics of construction.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Incredible Homes & Renovations	1	1	Jun 18, 2020 04:52AM
The Global Grid R...: Book Review of "A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction" by Christoper Alexander	1	7	Dec 11, 2017 05:43AM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Goodreads is hiring!

If you like books and love to build cool products, we may be looking for you.
Learn more »

Genres

Architecture

450 users

Design

245 users

Nonfiction

227 users

Cities > Urban Planning

73 users

Philosophy

49 users

Cities > Urbanism

36 users

Art

30 users

Reference

29 users

Geography > Cities

28 users

Games > Game Design

23 users

See top shelves…

About Christopher W. Alexander

Christopher W. Alexander

242 followers

Books by Christopher W. Alexander

More…

News & Interviews

32 Historical Romance Series to Binge-Read after 'Bridgerton'

Marriages of convenience, high-society scandal sheets, and fully clothed flirtation...yes, we must be talking about historical...

Trivia About A Pattern Languag...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from A Pattern Languag...

“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.” — 1 likes

“...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.” — 1 likes

More quotes…

See a Problem?

Preview — A Pattern Language by Christopher W. Alexander

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Goodreads is hiring!

Genres

About Christopher W. Alexander

Books by Christopher W. Alexander

News & Interviews

Trivia About A Pattern Languag...

Quotes from A Pattern Languag...

See a Problem?

Preview — A Pattern Language by Christopher W. Alexander

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Goodreads is hiring!

Genres

About Christopher W. Alexander

Books by Christopher W. Alexander

News & Interviews

Trivia About A Pattern Languag...

Quotes from A Pattern Languag...

new topic
Discuss This Book