A Wonderful Book that Breaks My Heart
"A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction" by Christopher Alexander
If you have a copy of A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, you know what I mean by my title, above. But you might have forgotten what gave you this impression.
For 10 years after they published their companion book, The Timeless Way of Building, Alexander and his team worked on how to design environments that encourage the best in human nature. The 253 Patterns they came up with are guiding principles to adapt to situations anywhere.
Their focus on support for everyday human needs is so refreshing! But what touches me most are the instructions that seem to reveal what people need to create a peaceful life together or alone, at home or in public.
Build a place outdoors [that] takes on the feeling of a room, even though it is open to the sky.
Every child in the family needs a private place [but] young children feel isolated if their sleeping area is too private.
The kitchen needs the sun more than other rooms, not less.
Give each workspace an area of at least 60 square feet.
But these simple truths seem to me heart-breaking in a world where the cost of something usually wins out over human needs, no matter how simple.
Sometimes when I turn the pages of A Pattern Language, I feel I’m holding an artifact from a long time ago, perhaps from never, when ordinary people could come first.
Over the years this hefty little book (8” x 5½” x 2”) has become an architecture studies classic, though not without its critics. It is said the book needs to be updated, for example, and is limited by “a romanticized world-view”.
I totally understand this. To give you an idea of why Alexander’s Patterns are perfect for real people, yet perfectly unrealistic, consider the following.
Pattern 89: Corner Grocery. Give every neighborhood at least one corner grocery, somewhere near its heart.
And yet.
I know now that each Pattern is a state of mind and can be created anywhere in some form, depending on the means available. When a space seems empty or isn’t working, you can ask, “What would feel right here, for real people?”
This is a wonderful book that feels to me like the way life should be for everyone. If you stop short of thinking it could be like this for everyone, then your heart won’t break.