A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein Hardcover - 1171 pages (1977) Oxford Univ Pr (Trade) ISBN: 0195019199 Check price and buy it at: amazon.com , amazon.co.uk

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The second of three books published by the Center for Environmental Structure to provide a "working alternative to our present ideas about architecture, building, and planning," A Pattern Language offers a practical language for building and planning based on natural considerations. The reader is given an overview of some 250 patterns that are the units of this language, each consisting of a design problem, discussion, illustration, and solution. By understanding recurrent design problems in our environment, readers can identify extant patterns in their own design projects and use these patterns to create a language of their own. Extraordinarily thorough, coherent, and accessible, this book has become a bible for homebuilders, contractors, and developers who care about creating healthy, high-level design.

Book Description

"Brilliant....Here's how to design or redesign any space you're living or working in--from metropolis to room. Consider what you want to happen in the space, and then page through this book. Its radically conservative observations will spark, enhance, organize your best ideas, and a wondrous home, workplace, town will result"--San Francisco Chronicle. A handbook designed for the layman which aims to present a language which people can use to express themselves in their own communities or homes,...

Customer Reviews

planning and design resource, October 19, 2005
Reviewer: Stephen Lopez (Westchester, NY)
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.

Designed My Home Using This Book, September 21, 2005
Reviewer: T. Owens (New Mexico, USA)
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.