#a-pattern-language

1 min read

    #a-pattern-language is a collection of notes and annotations about A Pattern Language (by C. Alexander, S. Ishikawa, M. Silverstein et al.), a manual published in 1977 setting up a design language for urban planning and development.

    I would highly recommend this book! It’s an all-around great read about how to better understand the physical spaces we all live and work in. Even if you have no interest in urban planning and development, the book is still a fantastic read for software engineers (or any other engineer, really): it was the inspiration for the style and layout of the seminal object-oriented programming guide Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, and can help you be a better architect, engineer, and communicator.

    You can find A Pattern Language:

    1. Online at PatternLanguage.com
    2. As a partial PDF copy through Cornell University.
    3. A (beautiful!) online index of the overall structure, created by Jenn Scheer.

    This is closely tied to another project, The Neighborhood, that I’ve been mulling over for a few years, now. A Pattern Language is large part of the research portion of The Neighborhood — you can find the kickoff and connection in Pattern Languages & The Neighborhood.

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    Recent Posts

    • APL: Pattern 4; Agricultural Valleys

      — Urban development has the high ground over agricultural and ecological preservation — and it should! *A Pattern Language* annotations on Pattern 4: Agricultural Valleys (2 min read)

    • APL: Pattern 5; Lace of Country Streets

      — How dense is too dense? How sparse is too sparse? Annotations for A Pattern Language's proposals for the density of metro-adjacent country streets for agriculture, recreation, and preservation. (3 min read)

    • APL: Pattern 1; Independent Regions

      — Home isn't where the heart is — it's a single node on a very, very large graph. Annotations for the "Independent Regions" pattern of *A Pattern Language*. (10 min read)

    • APL: Pattern 2; The Distribution of Towns

      — How close is too close? How far is too far? *A Pattern Language* annotations related to the statistical, economic, and ecologic concerns in balancing how dense human habitats ought to be. (5 min read)

    • APL: Pattern 3; City Country Fingers

      — City, with natural stripes — or nature, with city stripes? Annotations for A Pattern Language, and tracking public opinion of where Americans want to live over the past 50 years. (4 min read)

    Show 3 more posts

    • APL: Pattern 0; Introduction

      — Can graphs be libertarian? Authoritarian? Annotations for the introductory portion of the 1977 book A Pattern Language. (9 min read)

    • Ants in the Neighborhood

      — Is Jane Street run by soccer-loving ants? Inconclusive. We *can* conclude that they're fans of Markov Chains, though — an invaluable tool for understanding complex data structures. (1 min read)

    • A Pattern Language, and a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

      — The beginning of a topological review of the 1977 urban design and architecture reference book A Pattern Language, and a journey to understand Earth's greatest graph: the Earth, itself. (12 min read)

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