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Christopher Alexander coined the term "PatternLanguage"
to emphasize his belief that people had an innate ability for design that
paralleled their ability to speak.
Chris's book A TimelessWayOfBuilding
is the most instructive in describing his notion of a pattern language and its
application to designing and building buildings and towns.
He defines a 'pattern' as a three part construct. First comes the 'context';
under what conditions does this pattern hold. Next are a 'system of forces'. In
many ways it is natural to think of this as the 'problem' or 'goal'. The third
part is the 'solution'; a configuration that balances the system of forces or
solves the problems presented.
For an extensive example of the application of patterns, see Chris's other
book A Pattern Language. Here he presents over 250 individual patterns
that go into the making of successful towns and buildings (in the context of a
western, even North American, environment).
To find out exactly what a pattern is, click on the tutorials below.
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