🏡 List of 253 Patterns — Clayton Dorge

I read every word of Christopher Alexander’s opus, A Pattern Language so you don’t have to. It’s intimidating to read the whole book (1,100+ pages) while learning the 253 patterns he describes. So, I started a Twitter handle to help me learn by posting about one pattern each day. Here, I collected all 253 Patterns in one list to easily reference. Receive a simple PDF version via email below! Patterns 1- 94 = Towns What must be built gradually piece by piece with small individual acts in order to fit within larger global patterns.1. Independent Regions - Metropolitan regions will not come to balance until each one is small and autonomous enough to to be an independent sphere of culture. 2. The Distribution of Towns - If the pop. of a region is weighted too far toward small villages, modern civilization can never emerge; If the pop. is weighted too far toward big cities, the earth will go to ruin b/c the pop. isn’t where it needs to be, to take care of it.3. City Country Fingers - Continuous sprawling urbanization destroys life, and makes cities unbearable. But the sheer size of cities is also valuable and potent.4. Agricultural Valleys - Keep town and city development along the hilltops and hillsides. In the valleys, be a steward of the land and embrace basic ecological responsibilities.5. Lace of Country Streets - Where city and country meet, place country roads at least a mile apart, so they enclose squares of countryside and farmland. Keep the housing in rows or clusters along the roads, with the working land behind them.6. Country Towns - A collection of smaller country towns support the larger towns and cities of the region. Each smaller town should build a base of local industry to be self-sustainable. They can’t just be dorms for people who work in other places.7. The Countryside - The large open areas between towns are needed to maintain balance of the region. Farms, when treated as private property, rob the people of their natural biological heritage - the countryside they came from.8. Mosaic of Subcultures - A great variety of human groups and subcultures co-existing is crucial for a city to live. Create a mosaic of small and different subcultures, each with its own space, and the power to create its own distinct life style.9.

Scattered Work - Work and Living zones should be distributed among each other; avoid concentrated zones of either. People can meet for lunch, children can be aware, and workers can run home easily. Separation reinforces that work is a toil, and only family life is “living.”10. Magic of the City - The magic in the specialization of human effort happens where it’s most concentrated. Only the lucky or rich enough get to live with easy access to it. Put the magic within reach of everyone in a metro area.11. Local Transport Areas - Short local trips should be slow and inconvenient for cars, encouraging alternate forms of transport (foot, bike, mopeds, etc.). Cars are great for long trips but draw people 10x further away from each other and their environment, harming social life.12. Community of 7,000 - Individuals lose their effective voice in communities larger than 10k people. Organize government to give local control in groups of 5k-10k. Use natural or historical boundaries as often as possible to mark these communities.13. Subculture Boundary - Different cultures should live directly next to each other (#8), but they have their own character. Physical boundaries must separate the cultures (natural or man-made) to live at their full potential. Include shared meeting spaces that touch both.14. Identifiable Neighborhood - People need to belong to a distinct area in the city they can identify. Encourage local groups to organize themselves and form these neighborhoods. Major roads through a neighborhood wild destroy it.15. Neighborhood Boundary - Form a boundary by cutting the normal number of streets in half or closing down streets to through traffic. If the boundary is too weak the neighborhood will lose its own character.16. Web of Public Transportation - Each public transportation mode must be well connected, which happens if the agencies in charge have incentives to integrate with each other. Primary focus should be on interchanges, where they all connect. Next, focus on the specific lines.17. Ring Roads - Place high speed roads in a way that they do not damage communities or countryside. Each area should have at least one side not bounded by a high speed road. Neighborhoods must be protected from the noise of high speed roads.18. Network of Learning - Creative individuals grow up in societies which emphasize learning over teaching.

Education happens from decentralized urban design. Living and learning spaces are scattered about. People of all backgrounds offer a class in what they know and love.19. Web of Shopping - Shops of a specific service should be placed in the biggest gap of existing shops where: 1. There are potential customers 2. Away from similar shops 3. Near other shops that customers already will be seeking.20. Mini-Buses - Public transportation should be able to take someone from any point to any other point in a metro area. Mini-buses (up to 6 people) can assist with the final stretch of this service.21. Four-story Limit - High buildings make people crazy and offer no real advantages. They are not cheaper, do not create open space, destroy the townscape, destroy social life, promote crime,are expensive to maintain, and damage the light, air, and view in a city.22. Nine Per Cent Parking - When more than 9% of the land is devoted to parking, the environment is destroyed. The more parking cities provide, the more difficult it is to maintain many of these patterns; especially those dealing with the local transport areas.23. Parallel Roads - A system of parallel and alternating one-way roads will carry traffic to the Ring Roads for fast and long-distance traveling. This improves congestion in city centers and decreases the number of cars where children play and people walk.24. Sacred Sites - The special places that come to symbolize an area (natural or historic landmarks) are essential and should be protected. These sites help maintain individuals' spiritual roots and connect them to their past.25. Access to Water - People have a desire to be near bodies of water, but the very act of large groups moving toward them can destroy the water. Treat the natural bodies of water with great respect. Dense communities should be directly next to the water at infrequent spots.26. Life Cycle - The full cycle of life should be represented in each community. Include a balance of people at every stage of life from infants to the elderly.27. Men and Women - Each environment must have a balance of male and female to reflect both the masculine and feminine sides of life. Keep this balance in any project at every scale.28.

Eccentric Nucleus - To create a coherent pattern of densities, place the high density centers of towns/communities at the boundaries between subcultures.29. Density Rings - Once the nucleus of a community is clearly placed - define rings of decreasing local housing density around this nucleus. People want to be close to services for convenience yet far away for quiet. This is the balance to try and find.30. Activity Nodes - Community facilities should be concentrated together. Identify where the action seems to concentrate. Layout paths to bring as many of them through these spots as possible. Pedestrian movement in the community should pass through these nodes too.31. Promenade - Each subculture needs a center for its public life, where you go to see people and to be seen. The beauty of the promenade = people with a shared way of life gathering together; confirming their community.32. Shopping Street - Shopping centers depend on access: they need to be near traffic arteries yet also need quiet, comfort, and convenience to be utilized and attractive.33. Night Life - Places that stay open at night need to be clustered together in order to create any night life scene. Well-lit, safe, and lively places draw all the people out at night to the same few spots.34. Interchange - Interchanges allow a public transportation system to sustain itself. They need to be extremely convenient to use. Steady users keep it going, but interchanges allow infrequent users access and ease when they need. 35. Household Mix - People should be able to find and see face to face people in every stage of life; it allows us to feel our way through life. Encourage a mix of household types in every neighborhood so that one-person homes, couples & families with children are side by side.36. Degree of Publicness - People are different. Some want to live where the action is, others want more isolation. Each living area should provide space for 3 kinds of housing options - public, private, and in-between.37. House Cluster - Arrange houses in rough, but identifiable clusters around shared land and paths. Place them so that anyone can walk through without feeling like a trespasser Common land shared by a cluster of 8-12 houses physically knits the group together.38. Row Houses - Typical row houses are dark inside and lack variety from one to the next.

By making them long and thin along paths, it leaves room for variations to let light in. Place houses along pedestrian paths and give each house a long frontage and a shallow depth.39. Housing Hill - The most central and desirable areas in town will have demand that increases the house density by 3-4x. For these areas apts. are impersonal, build a hill of houses with stepped terraces, sloping southward, a central stair, and leading to a common garden.40. Old People Everywhere - Old people need old people. They also need the young, and young people need contact with the old. The very young keep the old engaged and the old teach the young41. Work Community - If you spend a similar amount of your day at work and home, your workplace should be a community of its own. Including a collection of smaller clusters, courtyards, and common areas with shops and food.42. Industrial Ribbon - Place industry at the boundaries between communities, where people nearby can benefit from the offshoots of what’s being manufactured. Zoning laws separate industry from urban life completely to create an unrealistic facade of sheltered residential areas.43. University as a Marketplace - Concentrated universities, with closed admissions and strict guidelines for who may teach a course, kill opportunities for learning. Marketplaces of ideas, all over town, allow people to shop for the ideas and learning which make sense to them.44. Local Town Hall - Each community should have its own physical town hall to govern its local politics. Place the hall near the busiest intersection. Include areas for public discussion, public services, and space to rent out for one-off projects.45. Necklace of Community Projects - The local town hall will be a part of the community if it’s surrounded by all kinds of small projects, generated for the people it serves. Lease nearby spaces for political work, research and advocate groups for minimum rent.46. Market of Many Shops - Establish marketplaces, each made of smaller shops that are autonomous and specialized. Simple structure of roof, columns to define aisles, and basic services. Modern supermarkets have bland food and provide no joy when you go in.47. Health Center - Network Health Centers with small and independent teams to treat everyday disease (mental and physical).