howard@metheus.UUCP (Howard A. Landman) (05/22/84)
I subscribe to CoEvolution Quarterly, which is a magazine put out by the people who did The Whole Earth Catalog. Recently they started hyping a moderately pricey ($45) book called "A Pattern Language", published by the Oxford University Press. In a long, rather glowing review they called it the best book on any subject they had ever reviewed. Having read several other books that were mentioned in TWEC or CoEv, I found that quite a substantial statement. After several months of hesitation, I finally broke down and ordered it. Physically, the book is very well made. It looks something like a thick hardcover bible. The paper is thin but strong. The typography is varied in a way which makes it easier to read, use, and understand the book. There are numerous (small) supporting photos and diagrams, much like a dictionary or encyclopedia. The book's subtitle is "Towns, Buildings, Construction". Its subject matter covers essentially all of City Planning, Architecture, Transportation, Education, Construction, and Sociology. It is not a survey of these areas but rather a "What to, why to, how to" primer. It is organized as a network (acyclic directed graph for you math types) of interrelated concepts. Each concept (there are 253 of them) takes several pages to explain. A rough outline of a random concept might look like: 1. Higher level concepts that this concept can be a part of, or help complete. 2. Short statement of the problem. 3. Long explanation and analysis of the problem, leading to... 4. Short statement of the solution (in the form of a directive). 5. Lower level concepts that can help form and complete this concept. The net effect is that it is impossible to get narrow-minded, tunnel-vision solutions to problems using this book. As soon as you try to use it to help you figure out something specific (like where to route a new highway, or how to build that new porch on your house) it immediately forces you to consider the larger and smaller consequences of the decision. Will the highway destroy an existing neighborhood by cutting it in two, or separating it from its main shopping area? Will it reduce or increase traffic congestion? What is the impact on parking? How can noise from the highway be reduced? In the case of the porch, you will be directed to concepts dealing with entryways in general, seating arrangements (you are going to allow people to SIT on the porch, yes? Where? On what kind of seating?), and many others. It is possible to read the book through from cover to cover, which I am trying to do now (I'm up to the 32nd concept). Since the arrangement is large-scale concepts first, the feeling is that of starting with a grand, bird's-eye overview of a region, and slowly working your way down to smaller views with correspondingly more detail. As you might have guessed by now, I heartily recommend this book for anyone who lives in any of the following and cares about it/them: a house, a neighborhood, a city, a region. When I first got it, I read a page to a friend. Several times during the page, he objected "But that's just common sense!". Then he stopped and thought. Several items of common sense per page times about a thousand pages ... Hmmm. An uncommon achievement. Howard A. Landman ogcvax!metheus!howard
gtaylor@cornell.UUCP (Greg Taylor) (05/24/84)
Well, I haven't heard anyone but me rave about Christopher Alexander for ages! You interested in his other work? Here's a reading list: The Pasttern Language is only one of a projected multi-volume set. The first, rather philosophical book of the series is called The Timeless Way of Building. Also fromthe same publisher. Lots of pictures, light theorizing. It is in essence a popularized form of book that really put Christopher Alexander on the map: Notes Toward a Synthesis of Form. It is one of the three or four really insightful books written on the process of design that I've ever run across. There is a bit of mathematics, some really annoying scrawly illustrations, and loads of little asides about integrative problem solving that will be going off in your head like fireworks with an intermittent fuse for days. There is also a third volume for the Pattern Language series, called The Oregon Experiment. It is a more or less detailed example of the way in which Alexander's design team attempted to put the basic grammar of the Pattern Language to work on the campus of the University of Oregon. There was a fourth volume on Ornamentation and pattern which I do not think has come out yet. The last volume of his that I've seen is a short little tome about designing a cafe, from a design conference of the design of public places given somewhere in Europe in 80-81. Like the Oregon experiment, it's a neat book to look at in terms of the way his method functions in the real world. That one may be a bit harder to locate. I found a copy in the Arts and Architecture library here at Cornell. All the raving about the Pattern Language is entirely justified, in that it is one of those delightful works (like E.F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful and Jacques Ellul's Perspectives on Our Age) that manages to transcend its subject matter and give you a feel for the informing intelligence and personality behind the work. We tend to expect that of fiction, but I find that books like this have a similar effect, and "show you" the world in a way you may not have thought worthy or even perticularly interesting. Greg Taylor