A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series)
Type
Book
Authors
ISBN 10
0195019199
ISBN 13
9780195019193
Category
Unknown
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Publication Year
1977
Publisher
Pages
1171
Abstract
From the librarian:
Volume 2 in the Center for Environmental Structure series, <em>A Pattern Language</em> was published in 1977 and has been one of the best-selling books in architecture ever since (even to this day). It is a book unlike any other and has gone on to be influential in fields other than architecture, most notably in computer programming where it directly inspired the conception of software "design patterns".
<em>A Pattern Language</em> is a kind of human-based system for developing cities, towns, parks, buildings, and rooms in a "natural" way. It contains 253 "patterns", ordered from largest in scale to smallest (e.g. "1. Independent Regions" -> "109. Long Thin House" -> "179. Alcoves") that describe a problem of ordering space, the context for the problem, and then a generalized solution to that problem.
The intention of the book is not to be read from cover to cover but rather be used as a tool by an architect, engineer, or lay person who has a specific problem to solve. Each pattern is linked to other patterns both above in the hierarchy of scale that direct the reader on how a specific pattern, such as "79. Your Own Home", is linked to the pattern language as a whole: 79 is linked to "76. House for a Small Family", to "38. Row Houses", and to "39. Housing Hill".
A fascinating and enlightening book that gives the practicing engineer a sense of hope amid the frustrations of the daily business of construction, especially during those times when one throws their arms up in exasperation saying, "There must be a better way!"
From the cover:
You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction.
At the core of this book is the point 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 a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment.
"Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (e.g. How high should a window will be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution, as the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, 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 they are today.
Volume 2 in the Center for Environmental Structure series, <em>A Pattern Language</em> was published in 1977 and has been one of the best-selling books in architecture ever since (even to this day). It is a book unlike any other and has gone on to be influential in fields other than architecture, most notably in computer programming where it directly inspired the conception of software "design patterns".
<em>A Pattern Language</em> is a kind of human-based system for developing cities, towns, parks, buildings, and rooms in a "natural" way. It contains 253 "patterns", ordered from largest in scale to smallest (e.g. "1. Independent Regions" -> "109. Long Thin House" -> "179. Alcoves") that describe a problem of ordering space, the context for the problem, and then a generalized solution to that problem.
The intention of the book is not to be read from cover to cover but rather be used as a tool by an architect, engineer, or lay person who has a specific problem to solve. Each pattern is linked to other patterns both above in the hierarchy of scale that direct the reader on how a specific pattern, such as "79. Your Own Home", is linked to the pattern language as a whole: 79 is linked to "76. House for a Small Family", to "38. Row Houses", and to "39. Housing Hill".
A fascinating and enlightening book that gives the practicing engineer a sense of hope amid the frustrations of the daily business of construction, especially during those times when one throws their arms up in exasperation saying, "There must be a better way!"
From the cover:
You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction.
At the core of this book is the point 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 a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment.
"Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (e.g. How high should a window will be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution, as the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, 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 they are today.
Number of Copies
1
