119 - Arcades **
Arcades - covered walkways at the edge of buildings, which are partly inside, partly outside - play a vital role in the way that people interact with buildings.
Posts by A Pattern Language Bot
throughout a building, so as to enclose the space, strongly and well, with the least amount of material?
206 - Efficient Structure *
Some buildings have column and beam structures; others have load-bearing walls with slab floors; others are vaulted structures, or domes, or tents. But which of these, or what mixture of them, is actually the most efficient? What is the best way to distribute materials
112 - Entrance Transition **
Buildings, and especially houses, with a graceful transition between the street and the inside, are more tranquil than those which open directly off the street.
30 - Activity Nodes **
Community facilities scattered individually through the city do nothing for the life of the city.
200 - Open Shelves *
Cupboards that are too deep waste valuable space, and it always seems that what you want is behind something else.
174 - Trellised Walk **
Trellised walks have their own special beauty. They are so unique, so different from other ways of shaping a path, that they are almost archetypal.
138 - Sleeping to the East *
This is one of the patterns people most often disagree with. However, we believe they are mistaken.
38 - Row Houses *
At densities of 15 to 30 houses per acre, row houses are essential. But typical row houses are dark inside, and stamped from an identical mould.
86 - Children
The task of looking - after little children is a much deeper and more fundamental social issue than the phrases "babysitting" and "child care" suggest.
23 - Parallel Roads
The net-like pattern of streets is obsolete. Congestion is choking cities. Cars can average 60 miles per hour on freeways, but trips across town have an average speed of only 10 to 15 miles per hour.
115 - Courtyards which Live **
The courtyards built in modern buildings are very often dead. They are intended to be private open spaces for people to use - but they end up unused, full of gravel and abstract sculptures.
218 - Wall Membrane *
In organic construction the walls must take their share of the loads. They must work continuously with the structure on all four of their sides; and act to resist shear and bending, and take loads in compression.
129 - Common Areas at the Heart **
No social group - whether a family, a work group, or a school group - can survive without constant informal contact among its members.
96 - Number of Stories *
Within the four-story height limit, just exactly how high should your buildings be?
238 - Filtered Light *
Light filtered through leaves, or tracery, is wonderful. But why?
151 - Small Meeting Rooms *
The larger meetings are, the less people get out of them. But institutions often put their money and attention into large meeting rooms and lecture halls.
39 - Housing Hill
Every town has places in it which are so central and desirable that at least 30-50 households per acre will be living there. But the apartment houses which reach this density are almost all impersonal.
108 - Connected Buildings *
Isolated buildings are symptoms of a disconnected sick society.
196 - Corner Doors *
The success of a room depends to a great extent on the position of the doors. If the doors create a pattern of movement which destroys the places in the room, the room will never allow people to be comfortable.
39 - Housing Hill
Every town has places in it which are so central and desirable that at least 30-50 households per acre will be living there. But the apartment houses which reach this density are almost all impersonal.
7 - The Countryside *
I conceive that land belongs for use to a vast family of which many are dead, few are living, and countless members are still unborn. - a Nigerian tribesman
88 - Street Cafe **
The street cafe provides a unique setting, special to cities: a place where people can sit lazily, legitimately, be on view, and watch the world go by.
150 - A Place to Wait *
The process of waiting has inherent conflicts in it.
79 - Your Own Home **
People cannot be genuinely comfortable and healthy in a house which is not theirs. All forms of rental - whether from private landlords or public housing agencies - work against the natural processes which allow people to form stable, self-healing communities.
160 - Building Edge **
A building is most often thought of as something which turns inward - toward its rooms. People do not often think of a building as something which must also be oriented toward the outside.
48 - Housing in Between **
Wherever there is a sharp separation between residential and nonresidential parts of town, the nonresidential areas will quickly turn to slums.
28 - Eccentric Nucleus *
The random character of local densities confuses the identity of our communities, and also creates a chaos in the pattern of land use.
169 - Terraced Slope *
On sloping land, erosion caused by run off can kill the soil. It also creates uneven distribution of rainwater over the land, which naturally does less for plant life than it could if it were evenly distributed.
42 - Industrial Ribbon *
Exaggerated zoning laws separate industry from the rest of urban life completely, and contribute to the plastic unreality of sheltered residential neighborhoods.