A Pattern Language Bot
@aplbot.bsky.social
📤 120
📥 1
📝 515
Posting one pattern name and problem from Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language every day.
50 - T Junctions * Traffic accidents are far more frequent where two roads cross than at T junctions.
about 8 hours ago
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10 - Magic of the City There are few people who do not enjoy the magic of a great city. But urban sprawl takes it away from everyone except the few who are lucky enough, or rich enough, to live close to the largest centers.
1 day ago
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70 - Grave Sites * No people who turn their backs on death can be alive. The presence of the dead among the living will be a daily fact in any society which encourages its people to live.
2 days ago
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208 - Gradual Stiffening ** The fundamental philosophy behind the use of pattern languages is that buildings should be uniquely adapted to individual needs and sites; and that the plans of buildings should be rather loose and fluid, in order to accommodate these subtleties.
3 days ago
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192 - Windows Overlooking Life * Rooms without a view are prisons for the people who have to stay in them.
4 days ago
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20 - Mini-Buses * Public transportation must be able to take people from any point to any other point within the metropolitan area.
5 days ago
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81 - Small Services Without Red Tape * Departments and public services don't work if they are too large. When theyare large, their human qualities vanish; they become bureaucratic; red tape takes over.
6 days ago
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2 - The Distribution of Towns If the population of a region is weighted too far toward small villages, modern civilization can never emerge; but if the population is weighted too far toward big cities, the earth will go to ruin because the population isn't where it needs to be, to take care of it.
7 days ago
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95 - Building Complex ** A building cannot be a human building unless it is a complex of still smaller buildings or smaller parts which manifest its own internal social facts.
8 days ago
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91 - Travelers Inn * A man who stays the night in a strange place is still a member of the human community, and still needs company. There is no reason why he should creep into a hole, and watch TV alone, the way he does in a roadside motel.
9 days ago
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50 - T Junctions * Traffic accidents are far more frequent where two roads cross than at T junctions.
10 days ago
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171 - Tree Places ** When trees are planted or pruned without regard for the special places they can create, they are as good as dead for the people who need them.
11 days ago
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200 - Open Shelves * Cupboards that are too deep waste valuable space, and it always seems that what you want is behind something else.
12 days ago
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68 - Connected Play * If children don't play enough with other children during the first five years of life, there is a great chance that they will have some kind of mental illness later in their lives.
13 days ago
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100 - Pedestrian Street ** The simple social intercourse created when people rub shoulders in public is one of the most essential kinds of social "glue" in society.
14 days ago
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120 - Paths and Goals * The layout of paths will seem right and comfortable only when it is compatible with the process of walking. And the process of walking is far more subtle than one might imagine.
15 days ago
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224 - Low Doorway High doorways are simple and convenient. But a lower door is often more profound.
16 days ago
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12 - Community of 7000 * Individuals have no effective voice in any community of more than 5000-10,000 persons.
17 days ago
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50 - T Junctions * Traffic accidents are far more frequent where two roads cross than at T junctions.
18 days ago
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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
19 days ago
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80 - Self-Governing Workshops and Offices ** No one enjoys his work if he is a cog in a machine.
20 days ago
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191 - The Shape of Indoor Space ** The perfectly crystalline squares and rectangles of ultramodern architecture make no special sense in human or in structural terms. They only express the rigid desires and fantasies which people have when they get too preoccupied with systems and the means of
21 days ago
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118 - Roof Garden * A vast part of the earth's surface, in a town, consists of roofs. Couple this with the fact that the total area of a town which can be exposed to the sun is finite, and you will realize that is is natural, and indeed essential, to make roofs which take advantage of the sun and
22 days ago
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175 - Greenhouse Many efforts are being made to harness solar energy by converting it into hot water or electric power. And yet the easiest way to harness solar energy is the most obvious and the oldest: namely, to trap the heat inside a greenhouse and use it for growing flowers and vegetables.
23 days ago
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106 - Positive Outdoor Space ** Outdoor spaces which are merely "left over" between buildings will, in general, not be used.
24 days ago
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101 - Building Thoroughfare When a public building complex cannot be completely served by outdoor pedestrian streets, a new form of indoor street, quite different from the conventional corridor, is needed.
25 days ago
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56 - Bike Paths and Racks * Bikes are cheap, healthy, and good for the environment; but the environment is not designed for them. Bikes on roads are threatened by cars; bikes on paths threaten pedestrians.
26 days ago
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205 - Structure Follows Social Spaces ** No building ever feels right to the people in it unless the physical spaces (defined by columns, walls, and ceilings) are congruent with the social spaces (defined by activities and human groups).
27 days ago
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45 - Necklace of Community Projects The local town hall will not be an honest part of the community which lives around it, unIess it is itself surrounded by all kinds of small community activities and projects, generated by the people for themselves.
28 days ago
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189 - Dressing Room * Dressing and undressing, storing clothes, having clothes lying around, have no reason to be part of any larger complex of activities. Indeed they disturb other activities: they are so self-contained that they themselves need concentrated space which has no other function.
29 days ago
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166 - Gallery Surround * If people cannot walk out from the building onto balconies and terraces which look toward the outdoor space around the building, then neither they themselves nor the people outside have any medium which helps them feel the building and the larger public world are
about 1 month ago
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37 - House Cluster ** People will not feel comfortable in their houses unless a group of houses forms a cluster, with the public land between them jointly owned by all the householders.
about 1 month ago
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220 - Roof Vaults * What is the best shape for a roof?
about 1 month ago
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202 - Built-in Seats * Built-in seats are great. Everybody loves them. They make a building feel comfortable and luxurious. But most often they do not actually work. They are placed wrong, or too narrow, or the back does not slope, or the view is wrong, or the seat is too hard. This pattern tells
about 1 month ago
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54 - Road Crossing Where paths cross roads, the cars have power to frighten and subdue the people walking, even when the people walking have the legal right-of-way.
about 1 month ago
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14 - Indentifiable Neighborhood ** People need an identifiable spatial unit to belong to.
about 1 month ago
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253 - Things from your Life * "Decor" and the conception of "interior design" have spread so widely, that very often people forget their instinct for the things they really want to keep around them.
about 1 month ago
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73 - Adventure Playground A castle, made of cartons, rocks, and old branches, by a group of children for themselves, is worth a thousand perfectly detailed, exactly finished castles, made for them in a factory.
about 1 month ago
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213 - Final Column Distribution ** How should the spacing of the secondary columns which stiffen the walls, vary with ceiling height, number of stories and the size of rooms?
about 1 month ago
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91 - Travelers Inn * A man who stays the night in a strange place is still a member of the human community, and still needs company. There is no reason why he should creep into a hole, and watch TV alone, the way he does in a roadside motel.
about 1 month ago
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226 - Column Place * Thin columns, spindly columns, columns which take their shape from structural arguments alone, will never make a comfortable environment.
about 1 month ago
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134 - Zen View * The archetypal zen view occurs in a famous Japanese house, which gives this pattern its name.
about 1 month ago
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250 - Warm Colors ** The greens and greys of hospitals and office corridors are depressing and cold. Natural wood, sunlight, bright colors are warm. In some way, the warmth of the colors in a room makes a great deal of difference between comfort and discomfort.
about 1 month ago
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236 - Windows which Open Wide * Many buildings nowadays have no opening windows at all; and many of the opening windows that people do build, don't do the job that opening windows ought to do.
about 1 month ago
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235 - Soft Inside Walls * A wall which is too hard or too cold or too solid is unpleasant to touch; it makes decoration impossible, and creates hollow echoes.
about 1 month ago
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26 - Life Cycle * All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.
about 2 months ago
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239 - Small Panes ** When plate glass windows became possible, people thought that they would put us more directly in touch with nature. In fact, they do the opposite.
about 2 months ago
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107 - Wings of Light ** Modern buildings are often shaped with no concern for natural light - they depend almost entirely on artificial light. But buildings which displace natural light as the major source of illumination are not fit places to spend the day.
about 2 months ago
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98 - Circulation Realms * In many modern building complexes the problem of disorientation is acute. People have no idea where they are, and they experience considerable mental stress as a result.
about 2 months ago
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205 - Structure Follows Social Spaces ** No building ever feels right to the people in it unless the physical spaces (defined by columns, walls, and ceilings) are congruent with the social spaces (defined by activities and human groups).
about 2 months ago
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