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POLIFUCS
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<p>LANGUAGE</p><p>253 patterns on towns, buildings and construction</p><p>To look for patterns dealing with particular topics, use the following topic finder: please</p><p>click on the topic in the following list....</p><p>regions...</p><p>town and country boundaries...</p><p>urban structures...</p><p>communities...</p><p>networks...</p><p>neighborhood structures...</p><p>local centers...</p><p>houses...</p><p>living rooms</p><p>TOWNS</p><p>The language begins with patterns that define towns and communities. These</p><p>patterns can never be designed or built in one fell swoop - but patient piecemeal growth,</p><p>designed in such a way that every individual act is always helping to create or generate</p><p>these larger global patterns, will, slowly and surely, over the years, make a community that</p><p>has these global patterns in it.</p><p>First, one all important comment about the region as a whole:</p><p>1. INDEPENDENT REGIONS</p><p>Within each region work toward those regional policies which will protect the land and</p><p>mark the limits of the cities:</p><p>2. THE DISTRIBUTION OF TOWNS</p><p>3. CITY COUNTRY FINGERS</p><p>4. AGRICULTURAL VALLEYS</p><p>5. LACE OF COUNTRY STREETS</p><p>6. COUNTRY TOWNS</p><p>7. THE COUNTRYSIDE</p><p>Through city policies, encourage the piecemeal formation of those major structures</p><p>which define the city:</p><p>8. MOSAIC OF SUBCULTURES</p><p>9. SCATTERED WORK</p><p>10. MAGIC OF THE CITY</p><p>11. LOCAL TRANSPORT AREAS</p><p>Build up these larger city patterns from the grass roots, through action essentially</p><p>controlled by two levels of self-governing communities, which exist as physically identifiable</p><p>places</p><p>12. COMMUNITY OF 7000</p><p>1</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\aplsummary.htm#regions</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\aplsummary.htm#living rooms</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\aplsummary.htm#houses</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\aplsummary.htm#local centers</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\aplsummary.htm#neighborhood structures</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\aplsummary.htm#networks</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\aplsummary.htm#communities</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\aplsummary.htm#urban structures</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\aplsummary.htm#towns</p><p>13. SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY</p><p>14. IDENTIFIABLE NEIGHBORHOOD</p><p>15. NEIGHBORHOOD BOUNDARY</p><p>Connect communities to one another by encouraging the growth of the following</p><p>networks:</p><p>16. WEB OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION</p><p>17. RING ROADS</p><p>18. NETWORK OF LEARNING</p><p>19. WEB OF SHOPPING</p><p>20. MINI-BUSES</p><p>Establish community and neighborhood policy to control the character of the local</p><p>environment according to the following fundamental principles:</p><p>21. FOUR-STORY LIMIT</p><p>22. NINE PER CENT PARKING</p><p>23. PARALLEL ROADS</p><p>24. SACRED SITES</p><p>25. ACCESS TO WATER</p><p>26. LIFE CYCLE</p><p>27. MEN AND WOMEN</p><p>Both in the neighborhoods and the communities, and in between them, in the</p><p>boundaries, encourage the formation of local centers:</p><p>28. ECCENTRIC NUCLEUS</p><p>29. DENSITY RINGS</p><p>30. ACTIVITY NODES</p><p>31. PROMENADE</p><p>32. SHOPPING STREET</p><p>33. NIGHT LIFE</p><p>34. INTERCHANGE</p><p>Around these centers, provide for the growth of housing in the form of clusters, based</p><p>on face-to-face human groups:</p><p>35. HOUSEHOLD MIX</p><p>36. DEGREES OF PUBLICNESS</p><p>37. HOUSE CLUSTER</p><p>38. ROW HOUSES</p><p>39. HOUSING HILL</p><p>40. OLD PEOPLE EVERYWHERE</p><p>Between the house clusters, around the centers, and especially in the boundaries</p><p>between neighborhoods, encourage the formation of work communities:</p><p>41. WORK COMMUNITY</p><p>42. INDUSTRIAL RIBBON</p><p>2</p><p>43. UNIVERSITY AS A MARKETPLACE</p><p>44. LOCAL TOWN HALL</p><p>45. NECKLACE OF COMMUNITY PROJECTS</p><p>46. MARKET OF MANY SHOPS</p><p>47. HEALTH CENTER</p><p>48. HOUSING IN BETWEEN</p><p>Between the house clusters and work communities, allow the local road and path</p><p>network to grow informally, piecemeal:</p><p>49. LOOPED LOCAL ROADS</p><p>50. T JUNCTIONS</p><p>51. GREEN STREETS</p><p>52. NETWORK OF PATHS AND CARS</p><p>53. MAIN GATEWAYS</p><p>54. ROAD CROSSING</p><p>55. RAISED WALK</p><p>56. BIKE PATHS AND RACKS</p><p>57. CHILDREN IN THE CITY</p><p>In the communities and neighborhoods, provide public open land where people can</p><p>relax, rub shoulders and renew themselves:</p><p>58. CARNIVAL</p><p>59. QUIET BACKS</p><p>60. ACCESSIBLE GREEN</p><p>61. SMALL PUBLIC SQUARES</p><p>62. HIGH PLACES</p><p>63. DANCING IN THE STREET</p><p>64. POOLS AND STREAMS</p><p>65. BIRTH PLACES</p><p>66. HOLY GROUND</p><p>In each house cluster and work community, provide the smaller bits of common land,</p><p>to provide for local versions of the same needs:</p><p>67. COMMON LAND</p><p>68. CONNECTED PLAY</p><p>69. PUBLIC OUTDOOR ROOM</p><p>70. GRAVE SITES</p><p>71. STILL WATER</p><p>72. LOCAL SPORTS</p><p>73. ADVENTURE PLAYGROUND</p><p>74. ANIMALS</p><p>Within the framework of the common land, the clusters, and the work communities</p><p>encourage transformation of the smallest independent social institutions: the families,</p><p>workgroups, and gathering places. The family, in all its forms:</p><p>75. THE FAMILY</p><p>3</p><p>76. HOUSE FOR A SMALL FAMILY</p><p>77. HOUSE FOR A COUPLE</p><p>78. HOUSE FOR ONE PERSON</p><p>79. YOUR OWN HOME</p><p>The workgroups, including all kinds of workshops and offices and even children's</p><p>learning groups:</p><p>80. SELF-GOVERNING WORKSHOPS AND OFFICES</p><p>81. SMALL SERVICES WITHOUT RED TAPE</p><p>The first group of patterns helps to lay out the overall:</p><p>82. OFFICE CONNECTIONS</p><p>83. MASTER AND APPRENTICES</p><p>84. TEENAGE SOCIETY</p><p>85. SHOPFRONT SCHOOLS</p><p>86. CHILDREN'S HOME</p><p>87. INDIVIDUALLY OWNED SHOPS</p><p>88. STREET CAF</p><p>89. CORNER GROCERY</p><p>90. BEER HALL</p><p>91. TRAVELER'S INN</p><p>92. BUS STOP</p><p>93. FOOD STANDS</p><p>94. SLEEPING IN PUBLIC</p><p>BUILDINGS</p><p>This completes the global patterns which define a town or a part of the community.</p><p>We now,start tat part of the language which gives shape to groups of buildings, and</p><p>individual buildings, on the land, in three dimensions. These are the patterns which can be</p><p>"designed)' or "built”- the patterns which define the individual buildings and the space</p><p>between buildings; where we are dealing f or the first time with Patterns that are under the</p><p>control of individuals or small groups of individuals, who are able to build the patterns all at</p><p>once:</p><p>Arrangement of a group of buildings: the height and number of these buildings, the</p><p>entrances to the site, main parking areas and lines of movement through the complex:</p><p>95. BUILDING COMPLEX</p><p>96. NUMBER OF STORIES</p><p>97. SHIELDED PARKING</p><p>98. CIRCULATION REALMS</p><p>The local shops and gathering places:</p><p>99. MAIN BUILDING</p><p>100. PEDESTRIAN STREET</p><p>101. BUILDING THOROUGHFARE</p><p>102. FAMILY OF ENTRANCES</p><p>4</p><p>103. SMALL PARKING LOTS</p><p>Fix the position of individual buildings on the site, within the complex, one by one,</p><p>according to the nature of the site, the trees, the sun: this is one of the most important</p><p>moments in the language:</p><p>104. SITE REPAIR</p><p>105. SOUTH FACING OUTDOORS</p><p>106. POSITIVE OUTDOOR SPACE</p><p>107. WINGS OF LIGHT</p><p>108. CONNECTED BUILDINGS</p><p>109. LONG THIN HOUSE</p><p>Within the buildings' wings, lay out the entrances, the gardens, courtyards, roofs, and</p><p>terraces: shape both the volume of fhe buildings and the volume of the space between the</p><p>buildings at the same time-remembering that indoor space and outdoor space, Yin and</p><p>Yang, must</p><p>I. A person will only be able to find his own self, and therefore to develop a strong</p><p>character, if he is in a situation where he receives support for his idiosyncrasies from the</p><p>people and values which surround him.</p><p>2. In order to find his own self, he also needs to live in a milieu where the possibility of</p><p>many different value systems is explicitly recognized and honored. More specifically, he</p><p>needs a great variety of choices, so that he is not misled about the nature of his own</p><p>person, can see that there are many kinds of people, and can find those whose values and</p><p>beliefs correspond most closely to his own.</p><p>. . . one mechanism which might underly people's need for an ambient culture like their</p><p>own: Maslow has pointed out that the process of self actualisation can only start after other</p><p>needs, like the need for food and love, and security, have already been satisfied.</p><p>[Motivation and Personality, pp. 84-89.] Now the greater the mixture of kinds of persons in a</p><p>local urban area, and the more unpredictable the strangers near your house, the more</p><p>27</p><p>afraid and insecure you will become. In Los Angeles and New York this has reached the</p><p>stage where people are constantly locking doors and windows, and where a mother does</p><p>not feel safe sending her fifteen year old daughter to the corner mailbox. People are afraid</p><p>when they are surrounded by the unfamiliar; the unfamiliar is dangerous. But so long as this</p><p>fear is an unsolved problem, it will override the rest of their lives. Self-actualisation will only</p><p>be able to happen when this fear is overcome; and that in turn, can only happen, when</p><p>people are in familiar territory, among people of their own kind, whose habits and ways they</p><p>know, and whom they trust.</p><p>. . . However, if we encourage the appearance of distinct subcultures, in order to</p><p>satisfy the demands of the first assumption, then we certainly do not want to encourage</p><p>these subcultures to be tribal or closed. That would fly in the face of the very quality which</p><p>makes the metropolis so attractive. It must be possible, therefore, for people to move easily</p><p>from one subculture to another, and for them to choose whichever one is most to their taste;</p><p>and they must be able to do all of this at any moment in their lives. Indeed, if it ever</p><p>becomes necessary, the law must guarantee each person freedom of access to every</p><p>subculture....</p><p>IV.</p><p>It seems clear, then, that the metropolis should contain a large number of mutually</p><p>accessible subcultures. But why should those subcultures be separated in space. Someone</p><p>with an a spatial bias could easily argue that these subcultures could, and should, coexist in</p><p>the same space, since the essential links which create cultures are links between people.</p><p>I believe this view, if put forward, would be entirely wrong. I shall now present</p><p>arguments to show that the articulation of subcultures is an ecological matter; that distinct</p><p>subcultures will only survive, as distinct subcultures, if they are physically separated in</p><p>space.</p><p>First, there is no doubt that people from different subcultures actually require different</p><p>things of their environment. Hendricks has made this point clearly. People of different age</p><p>groups, different interests, different emphasis on the family, different national background,</p><p>need different kinds of houses, they need different sorts of outdoor environment round</p><p>about their houses, and above all, they need different kinds of community services. These</p><p>services can only become highly specialised, in the direction of a particular subculture, if</p><p>they are sure of customers. They can only be sure of customers if customers of the same</p><p>subculture live in strong concentrations. People who want to ride horses all need open</p><p>riding; Germans who want to be able to buy German food may congregate together, as they</p><p>do around German town, New York; old people may need parks to sit in, less traffic to</p><p>contend with, nearby nursing services; bachelors may need quick snack food places;</p><p>Armenians who want to go to the orthodox mass every morning will cluster around an</p><p>Armenian church; street people collect around their stores and meeting places; people with</p><p>many small children will be able to collect around local nurseries and open play space.</p><p>This makes it clear that different subcultures need their own activities, their own</p><p>environments. But subcultures not only need to be concentrated in space to allow for the</p><p>concentration of the necessary activities. They also need to be concentrated so that one</p><p>subculture does not dilute the next: indeed, from this point of view they not only need to be</p><p>internally concentrated - but also physically separated from one another....</p><p>28</p><p>We cut the quote short here. The rest of the original paper presents empirical evidence</p><p>for the need to separate subcultures spatially, and in this-book - we consider that as part of</p><p>another pattern. The argument is given, with empirical details, in SUBCULTURE</p><p>ROUNDARY (13).</p><p>We imagine that the smallest subcultures will be no bigger than 150 feet across; the</p><p>largest perhaps as much as a quarter of a mile - COMMUNITY OF 7000 (12),</p><p>IDENTIFIABLE NEIGHBORHOOD (4), HOUSE CLUSTER (37). To ensure that the life</p><p>styles of each subculture can develop freely, uninhibited by those which are adjacent, it is</p><p>essential to create substantial boundaries of nonresidential land between adjacent</p><p>subcultures - SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY (13). . . .</p><p>9 .SCATTERED WORK</p><p>. . . this pattern helps the gradual evolution of MOSAlC OF</p><p>SUBCULTURES (8), by placing families and work together, and so</p><p>intensifying the emergence of highly differentiated subcultures,</p><p>each with its individual character.</p><p>The artificial separation of houses and work creates</p><p>intolerable rifts in people's inner lives.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Use zoning laws,</p><p>neighborhood planning, tax</p><p>incentives, and any other</p><p>means available to scatter workplaces</p><p>throughout the city. Prohibit large</p><p>concentrations of work, without family life around</p><p>them. Prohibit large concentrations of family life,</p><p>without workplaces around them.</p><p>In modern times almost all cities create zones for</p><p>"work" and other zones for "living" and in most cases</p><p>enforce the separation by law. Two reasons are given for</p><p>the separation. First, the work places need to be near each</p><p>other, for commercial reasons. Second, workplaces destroy</p><p>the quiet and safety of residential neighborhoods.</p><p>29</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl37\apl37.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl4\apl4.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>Concentration and segregation of work . .</p><p>. leads to dead neighborhoods.</p><p>But this separation creates enormous rifts in people's emotional lives. Children grow</p><p>up in areas where there are no men, except on weekends; women are trapped in an</p><p>atmosphere where they are expected to be pretty, unintelligent housekeepers; men are</p><p>forced to accept a schism in which they spend the greater part of their waking lives "at work,</p><p>and away from their families" and then the other part of their lives "with their families, away</p><p>from work."</p><p>Throughout, this separation reinforces the idea that work is a toil, while only family life</p><p>is "living" - a schizophrenic view which creates tremendous problems for all the members of</p><p>a family.</p><p>In order to overcome this schism and re-establish the connection between love and</p><p>work, central to a sane society, there needs to be a redistribution of all workplaces</p><p>throughout the areas where people live, in such a way that children are near both men and</p><p>women during the day, women are able to see themselves both as loving mothers and</p><p>wives and still capable of creative work, and men too are able to experience the hourly</p><p>connection of their lives as workmen and their lives as loving husbands and fathers.</p><p>What are the requirements for a distribution of work that can overcome these</p><p>problems?</p><p>1. Every home is within 20-30 minutes of many hundreds of workplaces.</p><p>2. Many workplaces are within walking distance of children and families.</p><p>3. Workers can go home casually for lunch, run errands, work half-time, and</p><p>spend half the day at home.</p><p>4. Some workplaces are in homes; there are many opportunities for people to</p><p>work from their homes or to take work home.</p><p>5. Neighborhoods are protected from the traffic and noise generated by "noxious"</p><p>workplaces.</p><p>The only pattern of work which does justice to these requirements is a pattern of</p><p>scattered work: a pattern in which work is strongly decentralized. To protect the</p><p>neighborhoods from the noise and traffic that workplaces often generate, some noisy work</p><p>places can be in the boundaries of neighborhoods, communities and subcultures - see</p><p>SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY (3); others, not noisy or noxious, can be built right into homes</p><p>and neighborhoods. In both cases, the crucial fact is this: every home is within a few</p><p>minutes of dozens of workplaces. Then each household would have the chance to create</p><p>for itself an intimate ecology of home and work: all its members have the option of arranging</p><p>a workplace for themselves close to each other and their friends. People can meet for lunch,</p><p>children can drop in, workers can run home. And under the prompting of such connections</p><p>the workplaces themselves will inevitably become nicer places, more like homes, where life</p><p>is carried on, not banishe d for eight hours.</p><p>This pattern is natural in traditional societies, where workplaces are relatively small</p><p>and households comparatively self-sufficient. But is it compatible with the facts of high</p><p>technology and the concentration of workers in factories? How strong is the need for</p><p>workplaces to be near each other?</p><p>The main argument behind the centralization of plants, and their gradual increase in</p><p>size, is an economic one. It has been demonstrated over and again that there are</p><p>economies of scale in production, advantages which accrue from producing a huge number</p><p>of goods or services in one place.</p><p>30</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>However, large centralized organizations are not intrinsic to mass production. There</p><p>are many excellent examples which demonstrate the fact that where work is substantially</p><p>scattered, people can still produce goods and services of enormous complexity. One of the</p><p>best historical examples is the Jura Federation of watchmakers, formed in the mountain</p><p>villages of Switzerland in the early 1870's. These workers produced watches in their home</p><p>workshops, each preserving his independence while coordinating his efforts with other</p><p>craftsmen from the surrounding villages. (For an account of this federation, see, for</p><p>example, George Woodcock, Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and</p><p>Movements,Cleveland: Meridian Books, 1962, pp. 168-69.)</p><p>In our own time, Raymond Vernon has shown that small, scattered workplaces in the</p><p>New York metropolitan economy, respond much faster to changing demands and supplies,</p><p>and that the degree of creativity in agglomerations of small businesses is vastly greater than</p><p>that of the more cumbersome and centralized industrial giants. (See Raymond Vernon,</p><p>Metropolis,1985, Chapter 7: External Economics.)</p><p>To understand these facts, we must first realize that the city itself is a vast centralized</p><p>workspace and that all the benefits of this centralization are potentially available to every</p><p>work group that is a part of the city's vast work community. In effect, the urban region as a</p><p>whole acts to produce economies of scale by bringing thousands of work groups within</p><p>range of each other. If this kind of "centralization" is properly developed, it can support an</p><p>endless number of combinations between small, scattered workgroups; and it can lend</p><p>great flexibility to the modes of production. "Once we understand that modern industry does</p><p>not necessarily bring with it financial and physical concentration, the growth of smaller</p><p>centers and a more widespread distribution of genuine benefits of technology will, I think,</p><p>take place" (Lewis Mumford, Sticks and Stones,New York, 1924, p. 216).</p><p>Remember that even such projects as complicated and seemingly centralized as the</p><p>building of a bridge or a moon rocket, can be organized this way. Contracting and</p><p>subcontracting procedures make it possible to produce complicated industrial goods and</p><p>services by combining the efforts of hundreds of small firms. The Apollo project drew</p><p>together more than 30,000 independent firms to produce the complicated spaceships to the</p><p>moon.</p><p>Furthermore, there is evidence that</p><p>the agencies which set up such multiple</p><p>contracts look for small, semi-</p><p>autonomous firms. They know</p><p>instinctively that the smaller, more self-</p><p>governing the group, the better the</p><p>product and the service (Small Sellers</p><p>and Large Buyers in American</p><p>Industry,Business Research Center,</p><p>College of Business Administration,</p><p>Syracuse University, New York, 1961).</p><p>Let us emphasize: we are not suggesting that the decentralization of work should take</p><p>precedence over a sophisticated technology. We believe that the two are compatible: it is</p><p>possible to fuse the human requirements for interesting and creative work with the exquisite</p><p>technology of modern times. It is possible to make television sets, xerox machines and IBM</p><p>typewriters, automobiles, stereo sets and washing machines under human working</p><p>31</p><p>conditions. We mention in particular the xerox and IBM typewriters because they have</p><p>played a vital role for us, the authors of this book. We could not have made this book</p><p>together, in the communal way we have done, without these machines: and we consider</p><p>them a vital part of the new decentralized society we seek.</p><p>A small factory in Zemun, Yugoslavia; the work group is building a corn picking</p><p>machine, an item they themselves decided to produce and sell in the marketplace.</p><p>The scattered work itself can take a great variety of forms. It can occur in belts of</p><p>industry, where it is essential for an industry to occupy an acre or more between subcultures</p><p>- SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY (3), INDUSTRTAL RIBBON (42); it can occur in work</p><p>communities, which are scattered among the neighborhoods - NEIGHBORHOOD</p><p>BOUNDARY (5), WORK COMMUNITY (4); and it can occur in individual workshops, right</p><p>among the houses - HOME WORKSHOP (157) . The size of each workplace is limited only</p><p>by the nature of human groups and the process of selfgovernance It is discussed in detail in</p><p>SELF-GOVERNING WORKSHOPS AND OFFICES (80)....</p><p>10 .MAGIC OF THE CITY</p><p>. . . next to the MOSAlC OF SUBCULTURES (8),</p><p>perhaps the most important structural feature of a city is the</p><p>pattern of those centers where the city life is most intense.</p><p>These centers can help to form the mosaic of subcultures by</p><p>their variety; and they can also help to form CITY COUNTRY</p><p>FINGERS (3), if each of the centers is at a natural meeting</p><p>point of several fingers. This pattern was first written by Luis</p><p>Racionero, under the name "Downtowns of 300,000."</p><p>There are few people who do not enjoy the magic of a</p><p>great city. But urban sprawl takes it away from everyone</p><p>except the few who are lucky enough, or rich enough, to live</p><p>close to the largest centers.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Put the magic of the city within reach of everyone in a</p><p>metropolitan area. Do this by means of collective regional policies</p><p>which restrict the growth of downtown areas so strongly that no</p><p>one downtown can grow to serve more than 300,000 people. With</p><p>this population base, the down, towns will be between two and</p><p>nine miles apart.</p><p>This is bound to happen in any urban region with a single high density core. Land near</p><p>the core is expensive; few people can live near enough to it to give them genuine access to</p><p>the city's life; most people live far out from the core. To all intents and purposes, they are in</p><p>32</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl80\apl80.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl157\apl157.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl4\apl4.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl5\apl5.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl5\apl5.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl42\apl42.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>the suburbs and have no more than occasional access to the city's life. This problem can</p><p>only be solved by decentralizing the core to form a multitude of smaller cores, each devoted</p><p>to some special way of life, so that, even though decentralized, each one is still intense and</p><p>still a center for the region as a whole.</p><p>The mechanism which creates a single isolated core is simple. Urban services tend to</p><p>agglomerate. Restaurants, theaters, shops, carnivals, cafes, hotels, night clubs,</p><p>entertainment, special services, tend to cluster. They do so because each one wants to</p><p>locate in that position where the most people are. As soon as one nucleus has formed in a</p><p>city, each of the interesting services - especially those which are most interesting and</p><p>therefore require the largest catch hasin locate themselves in this one nucleus. The one</p><p>nucleus keeps growing. The downtown becomes enormous. It becomes rich, various,</p><p>fascinating. But gradually, as the metropolitan area grows, the average distance from an</p><p>individual house to this one center increases; and land values around the center rise so high</p><p>that houses are driven out from there by shops and offices - until soon no one, or almost no</p><p>one, is any longer genuinely in touch with the magic which is created day and night within</p><p>this solitary center.</p><p>The problem is clear. On the one hand people will only expend so much effort to get</p><p>goods and services and attend cultural events, even the very best ones. On the other hand,</p><p>real variety and choice can only occur where there is concentrated, centralized activity; and</p><p>when the concentration and centralization become too great, then people are no longer</p><p>willing to take the t-me to go to it.</p><p>If we are to resolve the problem by decentralizing centers, we must ask what the</p><p>minimum population is that can support a central business district with the magic of the city.</p><p>Otis D. Duncan "The Optimum Size of Cities" (C:ities and Society,P. K. Hatt and A. J. Reiss,</p><p>eds., New York: The Free Press, 1967, pp. 759-72), shows that cities with more than 50,000</p><p>people have a big enough market to sustain 61 different kinds of retail shops and that cities</p><p>with over 100,000 people can support sophisticated jewelry, fur, and fashion stores. He</p><p>shows that cities of 100,000 can support a university, a museum, a library, a zoo, a</p><p>symphony orchestra, a daily newspaper, AM and FM radio, but that it takes a population of</p><p>250,000 to 500,000 to support a specialized professional school like a medical school, an</p><p>opera, or all of the TV networks.</p><p>In a study of regional shopping centers in metropolitan Chicago, Brian K. Berry found</p><p>that centers with 70 kinds of retail shops serve a population base of about 350,000 people</p><p>(Geography of Market Centers and Retail Distribution,New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1967, p.</p><p>47) . T. R. Lakshmanan and Walter G. Hansen, in "A Retail Potential Model" (American</p><p>Institute of Planners Journal,May 1965, pp. 134-43), showed that full-scale centers with a</p><p>variety of retail and professional services, as well as recreational and cultural activities, are</p><p>feasible for groups of 100,000 to 200,000 population.</p><p>It seems quite possible, then, to get very complex and rich urban functions at the heart</p><p>of a catch basin which serves no more than 300,000 people. Since, for the reasons given</p><p>earlier, it is desirable to have as many centers as possible, we propose that the city region</p><p>should have one center for each 300,000 people, with the centers spaced out widely among</p><p>the population, so that every person in the region is reasonably close to at least one of</p><p>these major centers.</p><p>To make this more concrete, it is interesting to get some idea of the range of distances</p><p>between these centers in a typical urban region. At a density of 5000 persons per square</p><p>33</p><p>mile (the density of the less populated parts of Los Angeles) the area occupied by 300,000</p><p>will have a diameter of about nine miles; at a higher density of 80,000 persons per square</p><p>mile (the density of central Paris) the area occupied by 300,000 people has a diameter of</p><p>about two miles. Other patterns in this language suggest a city much more dense than Los</p><p>Angeles, yet somewhat less dense than central Paris - FOUR-STORY LIMIT (21), DENSITY</p><p>RINGS (29). We therefore take these crude estimates as upper and lower bounds. If each</p><p>center serves 300,000 people, they will be at least two miles apart and probably no more</p><p>than nine miles apart.</p><p>One final point must be discussed. The magic of a great city comes from the</p><p>enormous specialization of human effort there. Only a city such as New York can support a</p><p>restaurant where you can eat chocolate-covered ants, or buy three-hundred-year-old books</p><p>of poems, or find a Caribbean steel band playing with American folk singers. By</p><p>comparison, a city of 300,000 with a second-rate opera, a couple of large</p><p>department</p><p>stores, and half a dozen good restaurants is a hick town. It would be absurd if the new</p><p>downtowns, each serving 300,000 peopIe, in an effort to capture the magic of the city,</p><p>ended up as a multitude of second-class hick towns.</p><p>This problem can only be solved if each of the cores not only serves a catch basin of</p><p>300,000 people but also offers some kind of special quality which none of the other centers</p><p>have, so that each core, though small, serves several million people and can therefore</p><p>generate all the excitement and uniqueness which become possible in such a vast city.</p><p>Thus, as it is in Tokyo or London, the pattern must be implemented in such a way that</p><p>one core has the best hotels, another the best antique shops, another the music, still</p><p>another has the fish and sailing boats. Then we can be sure that every person is within</p><p>reach of at least one downtown and also that all the downtowns are worth reaching for and</p><p>really have the magic of a great metropolis.</p><p>Treat each downtown as a pedestrian and local transport area - LOCAL TRANSPORT</p><p>AREAS (11), PROMENADE (31), with good transit connections from the outlying areas -</p><p>WEB OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION (16); encourage a rich concentration of night life</p><p>within each downtown - NIGHT LIFE (33), and set aside at least some part of it for the</p><p>wildest kind of street life - CARNIVAL (58), DANCING IN THE STREET (63). . . .</p><p>11 LOCAL TRANSPORT AREAS</p><p>. . . superimposed over the MOSAlC OF SUBCULTURES (8), there is a need for a still</p><p>larger cellular structure: the local transport areas. These areas,</p><p>1-2 miles across, not only help to form subcultures, by creating</p><p>natural boundaries in the city, but they can also help to</p><p>generate the individual city fingers in the CITY COUNTRY</p><p>FINGERS (3), and they can help to circumscribe each</p><p>downtown area too, as a special self-contained area of local</p><p>transportation - MAGIC OF THE CITY (1O).</p><p>34</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl10\apl10.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl63\apl63.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl58\apl58.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl33\apl33.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl16\apl16.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl31\apl31.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl29\apl29.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl29\apl29.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl21\apl21.htm</p><p>Cars give people wonderful freedom and increase their opportunities. But they also</p><p>destroy the environment, to an extent so drastic that they kill all social life.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Break the urban area down into local transport oreas, each one between 1 and 2 miles</p><p>across, surrounded by a ring road. Within the local transport area, build minor local roads</p><p>and paths for internal movements on foot, by bike, on horseback, and in local vehicles; build</p><p>major roads which make it easy for cars and trucks to get to and from the ring roads, but</p><p>place them to make internal local trips slow and inconvenient.</p><p>The value and power of the car have</p><p>proved so great that it seems impossible to</p><p>imagine a future without some form of</p><p>private, high-speed vehicle. Who will willingly</p><p>give up the degree of freedom provided by</p><p>cars? At the same time, it is undeniably true</p><p>that cars turn towns to mincemeat.</p><p>Somehow local areas must be saved from</p><p>the pressure of cars or their future</p><p>equivalents.</p><p>It is possible to solve the problem as soon as we make a distinction between short</p><p>trips and long trips. Cars are not very good for short trips inside a town, and it is on these</p><p>trips that they do their greatest damage. But they are good for fairly long trips, where they</p><p>cause less damage. The problem will be solved if towns are divided up into areas about one</p><p>mile across, with the idea that cars may be used for trips which leave these areas, but that</p><p>other, slower forms of transportation will be used for all trips inside these areas‹foot, bike,</p><p>horse, taxi. All it needs, physically, is a street pattern that discourages people from using</p><p>private cars for trips within these areas, and encourages the use of walking, bikes, horses,</p><p>and taxis instead‹but allows the use of cars for trips which leave the area.</p><p>Let us start with a list of the obvious social problems created by the car:</p><p>Air pollution</p><p>Noise</p><p>Danger</p><p>Ill health</p><p>Congestion</p><p>Parking problem</p><p>Eyesore</p><p>The first two are very serious, but are not inherent in the car; they could both be</p><p>solved, for instance, by an electric car. They are, in that sense, temporary problems. Danger</p><p>will be a persistent feature of the car so long as we go on using high-speed vehicles for</p><p>local trips. The widespread lack of exercise and consequent ill health created by the use of</p><p>motor-driven vehicles will persist unless ofiset by an amount of daily exercise at least equal</p><p>to a 20 minute walk per day. And finally, the problems of congestion and loss of speed,</p><p>35</p><p>difficulty and cost of parking, and eyesore are all direct results of the fact that the car is a</p><p>very large vehicle which consumes a great deal of space.</p><p>The fact that cars are large is, in the end, the most serious aspect of a transportation</p><p>system based on the use of cars, since it is inherent in the very nature of cars. Let us state</p><p>this problem in its most pungent form. A man occupies about 5 square feet of space when</p><p>he is standing still, and perhaps 10 square feet when he is walking. A car occupies about</p><p>350 square feet when it is standing still (if we include access), and at 30 miles an hour,</p><p>when cars are 3 car lengths apart, it occupies about 1000 square feet. As we know, most of</p><p>the time cars have a single occupant. This means that when people use cars, each person</p><p>occupies almost 100 times as much space as he does when he is a pedestrian.</p><p>If each person driving occupies an area 100 times as large as he does when he is on</p><p>his feet, this means that people are 10 times as far apart. In other words, the use of cars</p><p>has the overall effect of spreading people out, and keeping them apart.</p><p>The effect of this particular feature of cars on the social fabric is clear. People are</p><p>drawn away from each other; densities and corresponding frequencies of interaction</p><p>decrease substantially. Contacts become fragmented and specialized, since they are</p><p>localized by the nature of the</p><p>interaction into well-defined indoor places‹the home, the</p><p>workplace, and maybe the homes of a few isolated friends.</p><p>It is quite possible that the collective cohesion people need to form a viable society just</p><p>cannot develop when the vehicles which people use force them to be 10 times farther apart,</p><p>on the average, than they have to be. This states the possible social cost of cars in its</p><p>strongest form. It may be that cars cause the breakdown of society, simply because of their</p><p>geometry. At the same time that cars cause all these difficulties, they also have certain</p><p>unprecedented virtues, which have in fact led to their enormous success. These virtues are:</p><p>Flexibility</p><p>Privacy</p><p>Door-to-door trips,</p><p>without transfer</p><p>Immediacy</p><p>These virtues are particularly important in a metropolitan region which is essentially</p><p>two-dimensional. Public transportation can provide very fast, frequent, door-to-door service,</p><p>along certain arteries. But in the widely spread out, two-dimensional character of a modern</p><p>urban region, public transportation by itself cannot compete successfully with cars. Even in</p><p>cities like London and Paris, with the finest urban public transportation in the world, the</p><p>trains and buses have fewer riders every year because people are switching to cars. They</p><p>are willing to put up with all the delays, congestion, and parking costs, because apparently</p><p>the convenience and privacy of the car are more valuable.</p><p>Under theoretical analysis of this situation, the only kind of transportation system</p><p>which meets all the needs is a system of individual vehicles, which can use certain high-</p><p>speed lines for long cross-city trips and which can use their own power when they leave the</p><p>public lines in local areas. The systems which come closest to this theoretical model are the</p><p>various Private Rapid Transit proposals; one example is the Westinghouse Starrcar - a</p><p>system in which tiny two-man vehicles drive on streets locally and onto high-speed public</p><p>rails for long trips.</p><p>36</p><p>However, the Starrcar-type systems have a number of disadvantages. They make</p><p>relatively little contribution to the problem - of space. The small cars, though smaller than a</p><p>conventional car, still take up vastly more space than a person. Since the private cars will</p><p>not be capable of long cross-country trips, they must be treated as a "second vehicle"‹and</p><p>are rather expensive. They make no contribution to the health problem, since people are still</p><p>sitting motionless while they travel. The system is relatively antisocial, since people are still</p><p>encapsulated in "bubbles" while they travel. It is highly idealistic, since it works if everyone</p><p>has a Starrcar, but makes no allowance for the great variety of movement which people</p><p>actually desire, i.e., bikes, horses, jalopies, old classic cars, family buses.</p><p>We propose a system which has the advantages of the Starrcar system but which is</p><p>more realistic, easier to implement, and, we believe, better adapted to people's needs. The</p><p>essence of the system lies in the following two propositions:</p><p>1. For local trips, people use a variety</p><p>of low-speed, low-cost vehicles</p><p>(bicycles, tricycles, scooters, golf</p><p>carts, bicycle buggies, horses,</p><p>etc.), which take up less room</p><p>than cars and which all leave their</p><p>passengers in closer touch with</p><p>their environment and with one</p><p>another.</p><p>Many ways of getting around on local trips.</p><p>2. People still own, and use, cars and trucks - but mainly for long trips. We assume</p><p>that these cars can be made to be quiet, nonpolluting, and simple to repair, and</p><p>that people simply consider them best suited for long distance travel. It will still be</p><p>possible for people to use a car or a truck for a local trip, either in a case of</p><p>emergency, or for some special convenience. However, the town is constructed</p><p>in such a way that it is actually expensive and inconvenient to use cars for local</p><p>trips - so that people only do it when they are willing to pay for the very great</p><p>social costs of doing so.</p><p>To keep main roads for long distance traffic, but not for internal local traffic, lay them</p><p>out as parallel one way roads, and keep these parallel roads away from the center of the</p><p>area, so that they are very good for getting to the ring roads, but inconvenient for short local</p><p>trips - PARALLEL ROADS (23). Lay out abundant footpaths and bike paths and green</p><p>streets, at right angles to the main roads, and make these paths for local traffic go directly</p><p>through the center - GREEN STREETS (5), NETWORK OF PATHS AND CARS (52), BIKE</p><p>PATHS AND RACKS (56); sink the ring roads around the outside of each area, or shield the</p><p>noise they make some other way - RING ROADS (17); keep parking to a minimum within</p><p>the area, and keep all major parking garages near the ring roads - NINE PER CENT</p><p>PARKING (22), SHIELDED PARKING (97); and build a major interchange within the center</p><p>of the area - INTERCHANGE (34)....</p><p>37</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl34\apl34.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl97\apl97.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl22\apl22.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl22\apl22.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl17\apl17.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl56\apl56.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl56\apl56.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl52\apl52.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl5\apl5.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl23\apl23.htm</p><p>12 COMMUNITY OF 7000</p><p>. . . the MOSAIC OF SUBCULTURES (8) is</p><p>made up of a great number of large and small self-</p><p>governing communities and neighborhoods.</p><p>Community of 7000 helps define the structure of the</p><p>large communities.</p><p>Individuals have no effective voice in any</p><p>community of more than 5000-10,000 persons.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Decentralize city governments in a way that</p><p>gives local control to communities of 5,000 to 10,000</p><p>persons. As nearly as possible, use natural</p><p>geographic and historical boundaries to mark these communites. Give each community the</p><p>power to initiate, decide, and execute the affairs that concern it closely: land use, housing,</p><p>maintenance, streets, parks, police, schooling, welfare, neighborhood services.</p><p>People can only have a genuine effect on local</p><p>government when the units of local government are</p><p>autonomous, self-governing, self-budgeting</p><p>communities, which are small enough to create the</p><p>possibility of an immediate link between the man in</p><p>the street and his local officials and elected</p><p>representatives.</p><p>This is an old idea. It was the model for</p><p>Athenian democracy in the third and fourth centuries</p><p>B.C.; it was Jefferson's plan for American</p><p>democracy; it was the tack Confucius took in his</p><p>book on government, The Great Digest.</p><p>For these people, the practice of exercising power over local matters was itself an</p><p>experience of intrinsic satisfaction. Sophocles wrote that life would be unbearable were it</p><p>not for the freedom to initiate</p><p>action in a small community. And it was considered that this</p><p>experience was not only good in itself, but was the only way of governing that would not</p><p>lead to corruption. Jefferson wanted to spread out the power not because "the people" were</p><p>so bright and clever, but precisely because they were prone to error, and it was therefore</p><p>dangerous to vest power in the hands of a few who would inevitably make big mistakes.</p><p>38</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>"Break the country into wards" was his campaign slogan, so that the mistakes will be</p><p>manageable and people will get practice and improve.</p><p>Today the distance between people and the centers of power that govern them is vast</p><p>- both psychologically and geographically. Milton Kotler, a Jeffersonian, has described the</p><p>experience:</p><p>The process of city administration is invisible to the citizen who sees little evidence of</p><p>its human components but feels the sharp pain of taxation. With increasingly poor public</p><p>service, his desires and needs are more insistently expressed. Yet his expressions of need</p><p>seem to issue into thin air, for govern~nent does not appear attentive to his demands. This</p><p>disjunction between citizen and government is the major political problem of city</p><p>government, because it embodies the dynamics of civil disorder.... (Milton Kotler,</p><p>Neighborhood Foundations, Memorandum #24; "Neighborhood corporations and the</p><p>reorganization of city government," unpub. ms., August 1967.)</p><p>There are two ways in which the physical environment, as it is now ordered, promotes</p><p>and sustains the separation between citizens and their government. First, the size of the</p><p>political community is so large that its members are separated from its leaders simply by</p><p>their number. Second, government is invisible, physically located out of the realm of most</p><p>citizens' daily lives. Unless these two conditions are altered, political alienation is not likely</p><p>to be overcome.</p><p>1. The size of the political community. It is obvious that the larger the community the</p><p>greater the distance between the average citizen and the heads of government.</p><p>Paul Goodman has proposed a rule of thumb, based on cities like Athens in their</p><p>prime, that no citizen be more than two friends away from the highest member of</p><p>the local unit. Assume that everyone knows about 12 people in his local</p><p>community. Using this notion and Goodman's rule we can see that an optimum</p><p>size for a political community would be about 123 or 1728 households or 5500</p><p>persons. This figure corresponds to an old Chicago school estimate of 5000. And</p><p>it is the same order of magnitude as the size of ECCO, the neighborhood</p><p>corporation in Columbus, Ohio, of 6000 to 7000, described by Kotler (Committee</p><p>on Government Operations, U.S. Senate, 89th Congress, Second Session, Part</p><p>9, December 1966).</p><p>The editors of The Ecologist have a similar intuition about the proper size</p><p>for units of local government. (See their Blueprint for Survival, Penguin Books,</p><p>1972, pp. 50-55.) And Terence Lee, in his study, "Urban neighborhood as a</p><p>socio-spatial schema," Ekistics 177, August 1970, gives evidence for the</p><p>importance of the spatial community. Lee gives 75 acres as a natural size for a</p><p>community. At 25 persons per acre, such a community would accommodate</p><p>some 2000 persons; at 60 persons per acre, some 4500.</p><p>2. The visible location of local government. Even when local branches of government</p><p>are decentralized in function, they are often still centralized in space, hidden in</p><p>vast municipal city-county buildings out of the realm of everyday life. These</p><p>places are intimidating and alienating. What is needed is for every person to feel</p><p>at home in the place of his local government with his ideas and complaints. A</p><p>person must feel that it is a forum, that it is his directly, that he can call and talk to</p><p>the person in charge of such and such, and see him personally within a day or</p><p>two.</p><p>39</p><p>persons. As nearly as possible, use natural geographic and historical boundaries to mark</p><p>these communites. Give each community the power to initiate, decide, and execute the</p><p>affairs that concern it closely: land use, housing, maintenance, streets, parks, police,</p><p>schooling, welfare, neighborhood services.</p><p>People can only have a genuine effect on local</p><p>government when the units of local government are</p><p>autonomous, self-governing, self-budgeting</p><p>communities, which are small enough to create the</p><p>possibility of an immediate link between the man in</p><p>the street and his local officials and elected</p><p>representatives.</p><p>This is an old idea. It was the model for</p><p>Athenian democracy in the third and fourth centuries</p><p>B.C.; it was Jefferson's plan for American</p><p>democracy; it was the tack Confucius took in his</p><p>book on government, The Great Digest.</p><p>For these people, the practice of exercising power over local matters was itself an</p><p>experience of intrinsic satisfaction. Sophocles wrote that life would be unbearable were it</p><p>not for the freedom to initiate action in a small community. And it was considered that this</p><p>experience was not only good in itself, but was the only way of governing that would not</p><p>lead to corruption. Jefferson wanted to spread out the power not because "the people" were</p><p>so bright and clever, but precisely because they were prone to error, and it was therefore</p><p>dangerous to vest power in the hands of a few who would inevitably make big mistakes.</p><p>"Break the country into wards" was his campaign slogan, so that the mistakes will be</p><p>manageable and people will get practice and improve.</p><p>Today the distance between people and the centers of power that govern them is vast</p><p>- both psychologically and geographically. Milton Kotler, a Jeffersonian, has described the</p><p>experience:</p><p>The process of city administration is invisible to the citizen who sees little evidence of</p><p>its human components but feels the sharp pain of taxation. With increasingly poor public</p><p>service, his desires and needs are more insistently expressed. Yet his expressions of need</p><p>seem to issue into thin air, for govern~nent does not appear attentive to his demands. This</p><p>disjunction between citizen and government is the major political problem of city</p><p>government, because it embodies the dynamics of civil disorder.... (Milton Kotler,</p><p>Neighborhood Foundations, Memorandum #24; "Neighborhood corporations and the</p><p>reorganization of city government," unpub. ms., August 1967.)</p><p>There are two ways in which the physical environment, as it is now ordered, promotes</p><p>and sustains the separation between citizens and their government. First, the size of the</p><p>political community is so large that its members are separated from its leaders simply by</p><p>their number. Second, government is invisible, physically located out of the realm of most</p><p>citizens' daily lives. Unless these two conditions are altered, political alienation is not likely</p><p>to be overcome.</p><p>1. The size of the political community. It is obvious that the larger the community the</p><p>greater the distance between the average citizen and the heads of government.</p><p>40</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis</p><p>Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl44\apl44.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl44\apl44.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl31\apl31.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl28\apl28.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl44\apl44.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl44\apl44.htm</p><p>Paul Goodman has proposed a rule of thumb, based on cities like Athens in their</p><p>prime, that no citizen be more than two friends away from the highest member of</p><p>the local unit. Assume that everyone knows about 12 people in his local</p><p>community. Using this notion and Goodman's rule we can see that an optimum</p><p>size for a political community would be about 123 or 1728 households or 5500</p><p>persons. This figure corresponds to an old Chicago school estimate of 5000. And</p><p>it is the same order of magnitude as the size of ECCO, the neighborhood</p><p>corporation in Columbus, Ohio, of 6000 to 7000, described by Kotler (Committee</p><p>on Government Operations, U.S. Senate, 89th Congress, Second Session, Part</p><p>9, December 1966).</p><p>The editors of The Ecologist have a similar intuition about the proper size</p><p>for units of local government. (See their Blueprint for Survival, Penguin Books,</p><p>1972, pp. 50-55.) And Terence Lee, in his study, "Urban neighborhood as a</p><p>socio-spatial schema," Ekistics 177, August 1970, gives evidence for the</p><p>importance of the spatial community. Lee gives 75 acres as a natural size for a</p><p>community. At 25 persons per acre, such a community would accommodate</p><p>some 2000 persons; at 60 persons per acre, some 4500.</p><p>2. The visible location of local government. Even when local branches of government</p><p>are decentralized in function, they are often still centralized in space, hidden in</p><p>vast municipal city-county buildings out of the realm of everyday life. These</p><p>places are intimidating and alienating. What is needed is for every person to feel</p><p>at home in the place of his local government with his ideas and complaints. A</p><p>person must feel that it is a forum, that it is his directly, that he can call and talk to</p><p>the person in charge of such and such, and see him personally within a day or</p><p>two.</p><p>For this purpose, local forums</p><p>must be situated in highly visible and</p><p>accessible places. They could, for</p><p>instance, be located in the most active</p><p>marketplace of each community of</p><p>5000 to 7000. We discuss this</p><p>possibility more fully under LOCAL</p><p>TOWN HALL (44), but we emphasize</p><p>it here, since the provision of a</p><p>political "heart," a political center of</p><p>gravity, is an essential part of a political community.</p><p>Community meeting of several thousand.</p><p>Separate the communities from one another by means of substantial areas -</p><p>SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY (3); subdivide each community into 10 or 20 independent</p><p>neighborhoods, each with a representative on the community council IDENTIFlABLE</p><p>NEiGHBORHOOD (14); provide a central place where people have a chance to come</p><p>together - ECCENTRIC NUCLEUS (28), PROMENADE (31); and in this central place</p><p>41</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>provide a local town hall, as a focal point for the community's political activity - LOCAL</p><p>TOWN HALL (44). . . .</p><p>13 SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY</p><p>. . . the MOSAlC OF SUBCULTURES (8) and its</p><p>individual subcultures, whether they are</p><p>COMMUNITIES OF 7000 (12) or IDENTIFlABLE</p><p>NEIGHBORHOODS (14), need to be completed by</p><p>boundaries. In fact, the mere creation of the boundary</p><p>areas, according to this pattern, will begin to give life to</p><p>the subcultures between the boundaries, by giving</p><p>them a chance to be themselves.</p><p>The mosaic of subcultures requires that hundreds</p><p>of different cultures live, in their own way, at full</p><p>intensity, next door to one another. But subcultures</p><p>have their own ecology. They can only live at full</p><p>intensity, unhampered by their neighbors, if they are physically separated by physical</p><p>boundaries.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Separate neighboring subcultures with a swath of land at least 200 feet wide. Let this</p><p>boundary be natural wilderness, farmland, water - or man-made - railroads, major roads,</p><p>parks, schools, some housing. Along the seam between two subcultures, build meeting</p><p>places, shared functions, touching each community.</p><p>In MOSAlC OF SUBCULTURES (8) we have</p><p>argued that a great variety of subcultures in a city is</p><p>not a racist pattern which forms ghettos, but a</p><p>pattern of opportunity which allows a city to contain</p><p>a multitude of different ways of life with the greatest</p><p>possible intensity.</p><p>But this mosaic will only come into being if the</p><p>various subcultures are insulated from one another,</p><p>at least enough so that no one of them can oppress,</p><p>or subdue, the life style of its neighbors, nor, in</p><p>return, feel oppressed or subdued. As we shall see,</p><p>this requires that adjacent subcultures are separated by swaths of open land, workplaces,</p><p>public buildings, water, parks, or other natural boundaries.</p><p>42</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl28\apl28.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl97\apl97.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl84\apl84.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl42\apl42.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl23\apl23.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl17\apl17.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl71\apl71.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl64\apl64.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl64\apl64.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl60\apl60.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl59\apl59.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl25\apl25.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl24\apl24.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl7\apl7.htm</p><p>The argument hinges on the following fact. Wherever there is an area of</p><p>homogeneous housing in a city, its inhabitants will exert strong pressure on the areas</p><p>adjacent to it to make them conform to their values and style. For example, the "straight"</p><p>people who lived near the "hippie" Haight Ashbury district in San Francisco in 1967 were</p><p>afraid that the Haight would send their land values down, so they put pressure on City Hall</p><p>to get the Haight "cleaned up" - that is, to make the Haight more like their own area. This</p><p>seems to happen whenever one subculture is very different in style from another one next to</p><p>it. People will be afraid that the neighboring area is going to "encroach" on their own area,</p><p>upset their land values, undermine their children, send the "nice" people away, and so forth,</p><p>and they will do everything they can to make the next door area like their own.</p><p>Carl Werthman, Jerry Mandel, and Ted Dienstfrey (Planning and</p><p>the Purchase Decision: Why People Buy in Planned Communities,</p><p>University of California, Berkeley, July 1965 ) have noticed the</p><p>same phenomenon even among very similar subcultures. In a</p><p>study of people living in tract developments, they found that the</p><p>tension created by adjacencies between dissimilar social groups</p><p>disappeared when there was enough open land, unused land,</p><p>freeway, or water between them. In short, a physical barrier</p><p>between the adjacent subcultures, if big enough, took the heat off.</p><p>Obviously, a rich mix of subcultures will not be possible if each</p><p>subculture is being inhibited by pressure from its neighbors. The</p><p>subcultures must therefore be separated by 1and, which is not</p><p>residential land, and by as much of it as possible.</p><p>There is another kind of empirical observation which supports this last statement. If we</p><p>look around a metropolitan area, and pinpoint the strongly differentiated subcultures, those</p><p>with character, we shall always find that they are near boundaries and hardly ever close to</p><p>other communities. For example, in San Francisco the two most distinctive areas are</p><p>Telegraph Hill and Chinatown. Telegraph Hill is surrounded on two sides by the docks.</p><p>Chinatown is bounded on two sides by the city's banking area. The same is true in the</p><p>larger Bay Area. Point Richmond and Sausalito, two of the most distinctive communities in</p><p>the greater Bay Area,</p><p>are both almost</p><p>completely isolated.</p><p>Sausalito is surrounded</p><p>by hills and water; Point</p><p>Richmond by water and</p><p>industrial land.</p><p>Communities which are</p><p>cut off to some extent</p><p>are free to develop their</p><p>own character.</p><p>Subculture boundaries.</p><p>43</p><p>Further support for our argument comes from ecology. In nature, the differentiation of</p><p>a species into subspecies is largely due to the process of geographic speciation, the genetic</p><p>changes which take place during a period of spatial isolation (see, for example, Ernst Mayr,</p><p>Animal Species and Evolution, Cambridge, 1963, Chapter 18: "The Ecology of Speciation,"</p><p>pp. 556-85). It has been observed in a multitude of ecological studies that members of the</p><p>same species develop distinguishable traits when separated from other members of the</p><p>species by physical boundaries like a mountain ridge, a valley, a river, a dry strip of land, a</p><p>cliff, or a significant change in climate or vegetation. In just the same way, differentiation</p><p>between subcultures in a city will be able to take place most easily when the flow of those</p><p>elements which account for cultural variety - values, style, information, and so on - is at</p><p>least partially restricted between neighboring subcultures.</p><p>Natural boundaries can be things like THE COUNTRYSIDE (7), SACRED SITES (24),</p><p>ACCESS TO WATER (25), QUIET BACKS (59), ACCESSIBLE GREEN (60), POOLS AND</p><p>STREAMS (64), STILL WATER (71). Artificial boundaries can include RING ROADS (17),</p><p>PARALLEL ROADS (23), WORK COMMUNITIES (41), INDUSTRIAL RIBBONS (42),</p><p>TEENAGE SOClETY (84), SHIELDED PARKING (97). The interior organization of the</p><p>subculture boundary should follow two broad principles. It should concentrate the various</p><p>land uses to form functional clusters around activity - ACTIVITY NODES (30), WORK</p><p>COMMUNITY (41). And the boundary should be accessible to both the neighboring</p><p>communities, so that it is a meeting ground for them - ECCENTRIC NUCLEUS (28) . . . .</p><p>14 IDENTIFIABLE NEIGHBORHOOD</p><p>. . . the MOSAIC OF SUBCULTURES (8) and the</p><p>COMMUNITY OF 7000 (12) are made up of</p><p>neighborhoods. This pattern defines the</p><p>neighborhoods. It defines those small human groups</p><p>which create the energy and character which can bring</p><p>the larger COMMUNITY OF 7000 (12) and the</p><p>MOSAlC OF SUBCULTURES (8) to life.</p><p>People need an identifiable spatial unit to belong</p><p>to.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Help people to define the neighborhoods they</p><p>live in, not more than 300 yards across, with no</p><p>more than 400 or 500 inhabitants. In existing cities,</p><p>encourage local groups to organize themselves to</p><p>form such neighborhoods. Give the neighborhoods</p><p>44</p><p>some degree of autonomy as far as taxes and land controls are concerned. Keep major</p><p>roads outside these neighborhoods.</p><p>Today's pattern of development destroys</p><p>neighborhoods.</p><p>They want to be able to identify the part of the</p><p>city where they live as distinct from all others.</p><p>Available evidence suggests, first, that the</p><p>neighborhoods which people identify with have</p><p>extremely small populations; second, that they are</p><p>small in area; and third, that a major road through a</p><p>neighborhood destroys it.</p><p>1. What is the right population for a neighborhood?</p><p>The neighborhood inhabitants should be able to look after their own interests by</p><p>organizing themselves to bring pressure on city hall or local governments. This</p><p>means the families in a neighborhood must be able to reach agreement on basic</p><p>decisions about public services, community land, and so forth. Anthropological</p><p>evidence suggests that a human group</p><p>cannot coordinate itself to reach such</p><p>decisions if its population is above 1500,</p><p>and many people set the figure as low as</p><p>500. (See, for example, Anthony</p><p>Wallace, Housing and Social Structure,</p><p>Philadelphia Housing Authority, 1952,</p><p>available from University Microfilms, Inc.,</p><p>Ann Arbor, Michigan, pp. 21-24) The</p><p>experience of organizing community</p><p>meetings at the local level suggests that</p><p>500 is the more realistic figure.</p><p>A famous neighborhood: the Fuggerei in</p><p>Augsburg.</p><p>2. As far as the physical diameter is concerned, in Philadelphia, people</p><p>who were</p><p>asked which area they really knew usually limited themselves to a small area,</p><p>seldom exceeding the two to three blocks around their own house. (Mary W.</p><p>Herman, "Comparative Studies of Identification Areas in Philadelphia," City of</p><p>Philadelphia Community Renewal Program, Technical Report No. 9, April 1964.)</p><p>One-quarter of the inhabitants of an area in Milwaukee considered a</p><p>neighborhood to be an area no larger than a block (300 feet). One-half</p><p>considered it to be no more than seven blocks. {Svend Riemer, "Villagers in</p><p>Metropolis," British Journal of Sociology, 2, No. 1, March 1951, pp. 31-43.)</p><p>3. The first two features, by themselves, are not enough. A neighborhood can only</p><p>have a strong identity if it is protected from heavy trafic. Donald Appleyard and</p><p>Mark Linteli have found that the heavier the traffic in an area, the less people</p><p>45</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl37\apl37.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl61\apl61.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl60\apl60.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl23\apl23.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl15\apl15.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl53\apl53.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl53\apl53.htm</p><p>think of it as home territory. Not only do residents view the streets with heavy</p><p>traffic as less personal, but they feel the same about the houses along the street.</p><p>("Environmental Quality of City Streets," by Donald Appleyard and Mark Lintell,</p><p>Center for Planning and Development Research, University of California,</p><p>Berkeley, 1971.)</p><p>neighborhood with light traffic - 2000 vehicles/day - 200 vehicles/peak</p><p>hour - 15-20 mph - Two-way</p><p>Residents speaking on "neighboring and visiting":</p><p>I feel it's home. There are warm people on this street. I don't feel alone.</p><p>Everbody knows each other.</p><p>Definitely a friendly street.</p><p>Residents speaking on "home territory" :</p><p>The street life doesn't intrude into the home . . . only happiness</p><p>comes in from the street.</p><p>I feel my home extends to the whole block.</p><p>neighborhood with moderate traffic - 6000 vehicles/day - 550</p><p>vehicles/peak hour - 25 mph - Two-way</p><p>Residents speaking on "neighboring and visiting" :</p><p>You see the neighbors but they aren't close friends.</p><p>Don't feel there is any community any more, but people say hello.</p><p>Residents speaking on "home territory":</p><p>It's a medium place - doesn't require any thought.</p><p>neighborhood with heavy traffic - 16,000 vehicles/day - 1900</p><p>vehicles/peak hour - 35-40 mph - One-way</p><p>Residents speaking on "neighboring and visiting":</p><p>It's not a friendly street - no one offers help.</p><p>People are afraid to go into the street because of the traffic.</p><p>Residents speaking on "home territory" :</p><p>It is impersonal and public.</p><p>Noise from the street intrudes into my home.</p><p>46</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl89\apl89.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl88\apl88.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>How shall we define a major road? The Appleyard-Lintell study found that with more</p><p>than 200 cars per hour, the quality of the neighborhood begins to deteriorate. On the streets</p><p>with 550 cars per hour people visit their neighbors less and never gather in the street to</p><p>meet and talk. Research by Colin Buchanan indicates that major roads become a barrier to</p><p>free pedestrian movement when "most people (more than 50%) . . . have to adapt their</p><p>movement to give way to vehicles." This is based on "an average delay to all crossing</p><p>pedestrians of 2 seconds . . . as a very rough guide to the borderline between acceptable</p><p>and unacceptable conditions," which happens when the traffic reaches some 150 to 250</p><p>cars per hour. (Colin D. Buchanan, Traffic in Towns, London: Her Majesty's Stationery</p><p>Office, 1963, p. 204.) Thus any street with greater than 200 cars per hour, at any time, will</p><p>probably seem "major," and start to destroy the neighborhood identity.</p><p>A final note on implementation. Several months ago the City of Berkeley began a</p><p>transportation survey with the idea of deciding the location of all future major arteries within</p><p>the city. Citizens were asked to make statements about areas which they wanted to protect</p><p>from heavy traffic. This simple request has caused widespread grass roots political</p><p>organizing to take place: at the time of this writing more than 30 small neighborhoods have</p><p>identified themselves, simply in order to make sure that they succeed in keeping heavy</p><p>traffic out. In short, the issue of traffic is so fundamental to the fact of neighborhoods, that</p><p>neighborhoods emerge, and crystallize, as soon as people are asked to decide where they</p><p>want nearby traffic to be. Perhaps this is a universal way of implementing this pattern in</p><p>existing cities.</p><p>Mark the neighborhood, above all, by gateways wherever main paths enter it - MAIN</p><p>GATEWAYS (53) - and by modest boundaries of non-residential land between the</p><p>neighborhoods - NEIGHBORHOOD BOUNDARY (15). Keep major roads within these</p><p>boundaries - PARALLEL ROADS (23); give the neighborhood a visible center, perhaps a</p><p>common or a green - ACCESSIBLE GREEN (60)‹or a SMALL PUBLIC SQUARE (61); and</p><p>arrange houses and workshops within the neighborhood in clusters of about a dozen at a</p><p>time - HOUSE CLUSTER (37), WORK COMMUNITY (41)....</p><p>15 NEIGHBORHOOD BOUNDARY</p><p>. . . the physical boundary needed to protect</p><p>subcultures from one another, and to allow their ways</p><p>of life to be unique and idiosyncratic, is guaranteed, for</p><p>a COMMUNITY OF 7000 (12), by the pattern</p><p>SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY (13). But a second,</p><p>smaller kind of boundary is needed to create the</p><p>smaller IDENTIFlABLE NEIGHBORHOOD (14).</p><p>The strength of the boundary is essential to a</p><p>neighborhood. If the boundary is too weak the</p><p>neighborhood will not be able to maintain its own</p><p>identifiable character.</p><p>47</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis</p><p>documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl53\apl53.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Encourage the formation of a boundary around each neighborhood, to separate it from</p><p>the next door neighborhoods. Form this boundary by closing down streets and limiting</p><p>access to the neighborhood - cut the normal number of streets at least in half. Place</p><p>gateways at those points where the restricted access paths cross the boundary; and make</p><p>the boundary zone wide enough to contain meeting places for the common functions shared</p><p>by several neighborhoods.</p><p>The cell wall of an organic cell is, in most</p><p>cases, as large as, or larger, than the cell interior. It</p><p>is not a surface which divides inside from outside,</p><p>but a coherent entity in its own right, which</p><p>preserves the functional integrity of the cell and also</p><p>provides for a multitude of transactions between the</p><p>cell interior and the ambient fluids.</p><p>Cell with cell wall: The cell wall is a place in its</p><p>own right.</p><p>We have already argued, in SUBCULTURE</p><p>BOUNDARY (13), that a human group, with a specific</p><p>life style, needs a boundary around it to protect its</p><p>idiosyncrasies from encroachment and dilution by</p><p>surrounding ways of life. This subculture boundary,</p><p>then, functions just like a cell wall‹it protects the</p><p>subculture and creates space for its transactions with</p><p>surrounding functions.</p><p>The argument applies as strongly to an individual neighborhood, which is a subculture</p><p>in microcosm.</p><p>However, where the subculture boundaries require wide swaths of land and</p><p>commercial and industrial activity, the neighborhood boundaries can be much more modest.</p><p>Indeed it is not possible for a neighborhood of 500 or more to bound itself with shops and</p><p>streets and community facilities; there simply aren't enough to go around. Of course, the</p><p>few neighborhood shops there are - the STREET CAFE (88), the CORNER GROCERY (89)</p><p>- will help to form the edge of the neighborhood, but by and large the boundary of</p><p>neighborhoods will have to come from a completely different morphological principle.</p><p>From observations of neighborhoods that succeed in being well defined, both</p><p>physically and in the minds of the townspeople, we have learned that the single most</p><p>important feature of a neighborhood's boundary is restricted access into the neighborhood:</p><p>neighborhoods that are successfully defined have definite and relatively few paths and</p><p>roads leading into them.</p><p>For example, here is a map of the Etna Street neighborhood in Berkeley.</p><p>48</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl73\apl73.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl73\apl73.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl72\apl72.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl70\apl70.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl69\apl69.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl64\apl64.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl32\apl32.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl103\apl103.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl103\apl103.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl97\apl97.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl60\apl60.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl59\apl59.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl23\apl23.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl53\apl53.htm</p><p>Our neighborhood, compared with a typical part of a grid system.</p><p>There are only seven roads into this neighborhood, compared with the fourteen which</p><p>there would be in a typical part of the street grid. The other roads all dead end in T junctions</p><p>immediately at the edge of the neighborhood. Thus, while the Etna Street neighborhood is</p><p>not literally walled off from the community, access into it is subtly restricted. The result is</p><p>that people do not come into the neighborhood by car unless they have business there; and</p><p>when people are in the neighborhood, they recognize that they are in a distinct part of town.</p><p>Of course, the neighborhood was not "created" deliberately. It was an area of Berkeley</p><p>which has become an identifiable neighborhood because of this accident in the street</p><p>system.</p><p>An extreme example of this principle is the Fuggerei in Augsburg, illustrated in</p><p>IDENTIFlABLE NEIGHBORHOOD (14) . The Fuggerei is entirely bounded by the backs of</p><p>buildings and walls, and the paths into it are narrow, marked by gateways.</p><p>Indeed, if access is restricted, this means, by definition, that those few points where</p><p>access is possible, will come to have special importance. In one way or another, subtly, or</p><p>more obviously, they will be gateways, which mark the passage into the neighborhood. We</p><p>discuss this more fully in MAIN GATEWAYS (53) . But the fact is that every successful</p><p>neighborhood is identifiable because it has some kind of gateways which mark its</p><p>boundaries: the boundary comes alive in peoples' minds because they recognize the</p><p>gateways.</p><p>In case the idea of gateways seems too closed, we remark at once that the boundary</p><p>zone - and especially those parts of it around the gateways - must also forin a kind of public</p><p>meeting ground, where neighborhoods come together. If each neighborhood is a self-</p><p>contained entity, then the community of 7000 which the neighborhoods belong to will not</p><p>control any of the land internal to the neighborhoods. But it will control all of the land</p><p>between the neighborhoods - the boundary land - because this boundary land is just where</p><p>functions common to all 7000 people must find space. In this sense the boundaries not only</p><p>serve to protect individual neighborhoods, but simultaneously function to unite them in their</p><p>larger processes.</p><p>The easiest way of all to form a boundary around</p><p>alwavs aet their sha e together:</p><p>110. MAIN ENTRANCE</p><p>111. HALF-HIDDEN GARDEN</p><p>112. ENTRANCE TRANSITION</p><p>113. CAR CONNECTION</p><p>114. HIERARCHY OF OPEN SPACE</p><p>115. COURTYARDS WHICH LIVE</p><p>116. CASCADE OF ROOFS</p><p>117. SHELTERING ROOF</p><p>118. ROOF GARDEN</p><p>When the major parts of buildings and the outdoor areas have been given their rough</p><p>shape, it is the right time to give more detailed attention to the paths and squares between</p><p>the buildings:</p><p>119. ARCADES</p><p>120. PATHS AND GOALS</p><p>121. PATH SHAPE</p><p>122. BUILDING FRONTS</p><p>123. PEDESTRIAN DENSITY</p><p>124. ACTIVITY POCKETS</p><p>125. STAIR SEATS</p><p>126. SOMETHING ROUGHLY IN THE MIDDLE</p><p>Now, with the paths fixed, we come back to the buildings: within the various wings of</p><p>any one building, work out the fundamental gradients of space, and decide how the</p><p>movement will connect the spaces in the gradients:</p><p>127. INTIMACY GRADIENT</p><p>128. INDOOR SUNLIGHT</p><p>129. COMMON AREAS AT THE HEART</p><p>130. ENTRANCE ROOM</p><p>131. THE FLOW THROUGH ROOMS</p><p>5</p><p>132. SHORT PASSAGES</p><p>133. STAIRCASE AS A STAGE</p><p>134. ZEN VIEW</p><p>135. TAPESTRY OF LIGHT AND DARK</p><p>Within the framework of the wings and their internal gradients of space and</p><p>movement, define the most important areas and rooms. First, for a house:</p><p>136. COUPLE'S REALM</p><p>137. CHILDREN'S REALM</p><p>138. SLEEPING TO THE EAST</p><p>139. FARMHOUSE KITCHEN</p><p>Prepare to knit the inside of the building to the outside, by treating the edge between</p><p>the two as a place in its own right, and making human details there:</p><p>140. PRIVATE TERRACE ON THE STREET</p><p>141. A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN</p><p>142. SEQUENCE OF SITTING SPACES</p><p>143. BED CLUSTER</p><p>144. BATHING ROOM</p><p>145. BULK STORAGE</p><p>Then the same for offices, workshops, and public buildings:</p><p>146. FLEXIBLE OFFICE SPACE</p><p>147. COMMUNAL EATING</p><p>148. SMALL WORK GROUPS</p><p>149. RECEPTION WELCOMES YOU</p><p>150. A PLACE TO WAIT</p><p>Decide on the arrangement of the gardens, and the places in the gardens</p><p>151. SMALL MEETING ROOMS</p><p>152. HALF-PRIVATE OFFICE</p><p>Add those small outbuildings which must be slightly in dependent from the main</p><p>structure, and put in the access from the upper stories to the street and gardens:</p><p>I 53. ROOMS TO RENT</p><p>154. TEENAGER'S COTTAGE</p><p>155. OLD AGE COTTAGE</p><p>156. SETTLED WORK</p><p>157. HOME WORKSHOP</p><p>158. OPEN STAIRS</p><p>159. LIGHT ON TWO SIDES OF EVERY ROOM</p><p>160. BUILDING EDGE</p><p>161. SUNNY PLACE</p><p>162. NORTH FACE</p><p>163. OUTDOOR ROOM</p><p>164. STREET WINDOWS</p><p>6</p><p>165. OPENING TO THE STREET</p><p>166. GALLERY SURROUND</p><p>167. SIX-FOOT BALCONY</p><p>168. CONNECTION TO THE EARTH</p><p>169. TERRACED SLOPE</p><p>170. FRUIT TREES</p><p>171. TREE PLACES</p><p>172. GARDEN GROWING WILD</p><p>173. GARDEN WALL</p><p>174. TRELLISED WALK</p><p>175. GREENHOUSE</p><p>176. GARDEN SEAT</p><p>177. VEGETABLE GARDEN</p><p>178. COMPOST</p><p>Go back to the inside of the building and attach the necessary minor rooms and</p><p>alcoves to complete the main rooms:</p><p>179. ALCOVES</p><p>180. WINDOW PLACE</p><p>181. THE FIRE</p><p>182. EATING ATMOSPHERE</p><p>183. WORKSPACE ENCLOSURE</p><p>184. COOKING LAYOUT</p><p>185. SITTING CIRCLE</p><p>186. COMMUNAL SLEEPING</p><p>187. MARRIAGE BED</p><p>188. BED ALCOVE</p><p>189. DRESSING ROOM</p><p>Fine tune the shape and size of rooms and alcoves to make them precise and</p><p>buildable:</p><p>190. CEILING HEIGHT VARIETY</p><p>191. THE SHAPE OF INDOOR SPACE</p><p>192. WINDOWS OVERLOOKING LIFE</p><p>193. HALF-OPEN WALL</p><p>194. INTERIOR WINDOWS</p><p>195. STAIRCASE VOLUME</p><p>196. CORNER DOORS</p><p>Give all the walls some depth, wherever there are to be alcoves, windows, shelves,</p><p>closets, or seats:</p><p>197. THICK WALLS</p><p>198. CLOSETS BETWEEN ROOMS</p><p>199. SUNNY COUNTER</p><p>200. OPEN SHELVES</p><p>201. WAIST-HIGH SHELF</p><p>7</p><p>202. BUILT-IN SEATS</p><p>203. CHILD CAVES</p><p>204. SECRET PLACE</p><p>CONSTRUCTION</p><p>At this stage, you have a complete design f or an individual building. If you have</p><p>followed the patterns given, you have a scheme of spaces, either marked on the ground,</p><p>with stakes, or on a piece of paper, accurate to the nearest foot or so. You know the height</p><p>of rooms, the rough size and position of windows and doors, and you know roughly how the</p><p>roofs I of the building, and the gardens are laid out:</p><p>The next, and last part of the language), tells how to make a buildable building</p><p>directly from this rough scheme of spaces,, and tells you how to build it) in detail:</p><p>Before you lay out structural details, establish a philosophy of structure which will let</p><p>the structure grow directly from your plans and your conception of the buildings:</p><p>205. STRUCTURE FOLLOWS SOCIAL SPACES</p><p>206. EFFICIENT STRUCTURE</p><p>207. GOOD MATERIALS</p><p>208. GRADUAL STIFFENING</p><p>Within this philosophy of structure, on the basis of the plans which you have made,</p><p>work out the complete structural layout; this is the last thing you do on paper, before you</p><p>actually start to build:</p><p>209. ROOF LAYOUT</p><p>210. FLOOR AND CEILING LAYOUT</p><p>211. THICKENING THE OUTER WALLS</p><p>212. COLUMNS AT THE CORNERS</p><p>213. FINAL COLUMN DISTRIBUTION</p><p>Put stakes in the ground to mark the columns on the site, and start erecting the main</p><p>frame of the building according to the layout of these stakes:</p><p>214. ROOT FOUNDATIONS</p><p>215. GROUND FLOOR SLAB</p><p>216. BOX COLUMNS</p><p>217. PERIMETER BEAMS</p><p>218. WALL MEMBRANES</p><p>219. FLOOR-CEILING VAULTS</p><p>220. ROOF VAULTS</p><p>Within the main frame of the building, fix the exact positions for openings-the doors and</p><p>windows-and frame these openings:</p><p>221. NATURAL DOORS AND WINDOWS</p><p>222. LOW SILL</p><p>223. DEEP REVEALS</p><p>224. LOW DOORWAY</p><p>8</p><p>225. FRAMES AS THICKENED EDGES</p><p>As you build the main frame and its openings, put in the following subsidiary patterns</p><p>where they are appropriate:</p><p>226. COLUMN PLACE</p><p>227. COLUMN CONNECTION</p><p>228. STAIR.VAULT</p><p>229. DUCT SPACE-</p><p>230. RADIANT HEAT</p><p>231. DORMER WINDOWS</p><p>232. ROOF CAPS</p><p>Put in the surfaces and indoor details:</p><p>233. FLOOR SURFACE</p><p>234. LAPPED OUTSIDE WALLS</p><p>235. SOFT INSIDE WALLS</p><p>236. WINDOWS WHICH OPEN WIDE</p><p>237. SOLID DOORS WITH GLASS</p><p>238. FILTERED LIGHT</p><p>239. SMALL PANES</p><p>240. HALF-INCH TRIM</p><p>Build outdoor details to finish the outdoors as fully as the indoor spaces:</p><p>241. SEAT SPOTS</p><p>242. FRONT DOOR BENCH</p><p>243. SITTING WALL</p><p>244. CANVAS ROOFS</p><p>245. RAISED FLOWERS</p><p>246. CLIMBING PLANTS</p><p>247. PAVING WITH CRACKS BETWEEN THE STONES</p><p>248. SOFT TILE AND BRICK</p><p>Complete the building with ornament and light and color and your own things:</p><p>249. ORNAMENT</p><p>250. WARM COLORS</p><p>251. DIFFERENT CHAIRS</p><p>252. POOLS OF LIGHT 5</p><p>253. THINGS FROM YOUR LIFE</p><p>9</p><p>1 INDEPENDENT REGIONS</p><p>Metropolitan regions will not come to balance until each one</p><p>is small and autonomous enough to be an independent sphere of</p><p>culture.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Wherever possible, work toward the evolution of independent</p><p>regions in the world; each with a population between 2 and 10</p><p>million; each with its own natural and geographic boundaries; each</p><p>with its own economy; each one autonomous and self-governing;</p><p>each with a seat in a world government, without the intervening</p><p>power of larger states or countries.</p><p>1000 regions each region 2 to 10 million people</p><p>There are four</p><p>separate arguments which have led us to this</p><p>conclusion:</p><p>1. The nature and limits of human</p><p>government.</p><p>2. Equity among regions in a world</p><p>community.</p><p>3. Regional planning considerations.</p><p>4. Support for the intensity and diversity of</p><p>human cultures.</p><p>1. There are natural limits to the size of groups that</p><p>can govern themselves in a human way. The biologist J. B. S. Haldane has remarked</p><p>on this in his paper, "On Being the Right Size":</p><p>. . . just as there is a best size for every animal, so the same is true for every</p><p>human institution. In the Greek type of democracy all the citizens could listen to a</p><p>series of orators and vote directly on questions of legislation. Hence their philosophers</p><p>held that a small city was the largest possible democratic state.... (J. B. S Haldane,</p><p>"On Being the Right Size,'' The World of Mathematics, Vol. II, J. R. Newman, ed. New</p><p>York: Simon and Schuster, 1956, pp. 962-67).</p><p>a neighborhood is by turning</p><p>buildings inward, and by cutting off the paths which cross the boundary, except for one or</p><p>two at special points which become gateways MAIN GATEWAYS (53); the public land of the</p><p>boundary may include a park, collector roads, small parking lots, and work communities</p><p>anything which forms a natural edge PARALLEL ROADS (23), WORK COMMUNITY (41),</p><p>QUlET BACKS (59), ACCESSIBLE GREEN (60), SHIELDED PARKING (97), SMALL</p><p>PARKING LOTS (103). As for the meeting places in the boundary, they can be any of those</p><p>neighborhood functions which invite gathering: a park, a shared garage, an outdoor room, a</p><p>shopping street, a playground - SHOPPING STREET (32), POOLS AND STREAMS (64),</p><p>49</p><p>PUBLIC OUTDOOR ROOM (69), GRAVE SITES (70), LOCAL SPORTS (72), ADVENTURE</p><p>PLAYGROUND (73) . . .</p><p>16 WEB OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION</p><p>. . . the city, as defined by CITY COUNTRY</p><p>FINGERS (3), spreads out in ribbon fashion,</p><p>throughout the countryside, and is broken into LOCAL</p><p>TRANSPORT AREAS (11). To connect the transport</p><p>areas, and to maintain the flow of people and goods</p><p>along the fingers of the cities, it is now necessary to</p><p>create a web of public tranportation.</p><p>The system of public transportation - the entire</p><p>web of airplanes, helicopters, hovercraft, trains, boats,</p><p>ferries, buses, taxis, mini-trains, carts, ski-lifts, moving</p><p>sidewalks - can only work if all the parts are well</p><p>connected. But they usually aren't, because the</p><p>different agencies in charge of various forms of public</p><p>transportation have no incentives to connect to one</p><p>another.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Treat interchanges as primary and transportation lines as secondary. Create</p><p>incentives so that all the different modes of public transportation - airplanes, helicopters,</p><p>ferries, boats, trains, rapid transit, buses, mini-buses, skilifts, escalators, travelators,</p><p>elevator - plan their lines to connect the interchanges, with the hope that gradually many</p><p>different lines, of many different types, will meet at every interchange.</p><p>Give the local communities control over their interchanges so that they can implement</p><p>the pattern by giving contracts only to those transportation companies which are willing to</p><p>serve these interchanges.</p><p>Here, in brief, is the general public transportation problem. A city contains a great</p><p>number of places, distributed rather evenly across a two-dimensional sheet. The trips</p><p>people want to make are typically between two points at random in this sheet. No one linear</p><p>system (like a train system), can give direct connections between the vast possible number</p><p>of point pairs in the city.</p><p>It is therefore only possible for systems of public transportation to work, if there are</p><p>rich connections between a great variety of diff erent systems. But these connections are</p><p>not workable, unless they are genuine fast, short, connections. The waiting time for a</p><p>connection must be short. And the walking distance between the two connecting systems</p><p>must be very short.</p><p>50</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl16\apl16.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl34\apl34.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl20\apl20.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl34\apl34.htm</p><p>This much is obvious; and everyone who has thought about public transportation</p><p>recognizes its importance. However, obvious though it is, it is extremely hard to implement.</p><p>There are two practical difficulties, both of which stem from the fact that different kinds</p><p>of public transportation are usually in the hands of different agencies who are reluctant to</p><p>cooperate. They are reluctant to cooperate, partly because they are actually in competition,</p><p>and partly just because cooperation makes life harder for them.</p><p>This is particularly true along commuting corridors. Trains, buses, mini-buses, rapid</p><p>transit, ferries, and maybe even planes and helicopters compete for the same passenger</p><p>market along these corridors. When each mode is operated by an independent agency</p><p>there is no particular incentive to provide feeder services to the more inflexible modes.</p><p>Many services are even reluctant to provide good feeder connections to rapid transit, trains,</p><p>and ferries, because their commuter lines are their most lucrative lines. Similarly, in many</p><p>cities of the developing world, minibuses and collectivos provide public transportation along</p><p>the main commuting corridors, pulling passengers away from buses. This leaves the</p><p>mainlines served by small vehicles, while almost empty buses reach the peripheral lines,</p><p>usually because the public bus company is required to serve these areas, even at a loss.</p><p>The solution to the web of public transportation, then, hinges on the possibility of</p><p>solving the coordination problem of the different systems. This is the nut of the matter. We</p><p>shall now propose a way of solving it. The traditional way of looking at public transportation</p><p>assumes that lines are primary and that the interchanges needed to connect the lines to one</p><p>another are secondary. We propose the opposite: namely, that interchanges are primary</p><p>and that the transport lines are secondary elements which connect the interchanges.</p><p>Imagine the following organization: each interchange is run by the community that uses it.</p><p>The community appoints an interchange chief for every interchange, and gives him a</p><p>budget, and a directive on service. The interchange chief coordinates the service at his</p><p>interchange; he charters service from any number of transport companies - the companies,</p><p>themselves, are in free competition with one another to create service.</p><p>In this scheme, responsibility for public transportation shifts from lines to interchanges.</p><p>The interchanges are responsible for connecting themselves to each other, and the</p><p>community which uses the interchange decides what kinds of service they want to have</p><p>passing through it. It is then up to the interchange chief to persuade these transport modes</p><p>to pass through it.</p><p>Slowly, a service connecting interchanges will build up. One example which closely</p><p>follows our model, and shows that this model is capable of producing a higher level of</p><p>service than any centralized agency can produce, is the famous Swiss Railway System.</p><p>The Swiss railway system . . . is the densest network in the world. At great cost and</p><p>with great trouble, it has been made to serve the needs of the smallest localities and most</p><p>remote valleys, not as a paying proposition but because such was the will of the people. It is</p><p>the outcome of fierce political struggles. In the 19th century, the "democratic railway</p><p>movement" brought the small Swiss communities into conflict with the big towns, which had</p><p>plans for centralisation. . . . And if we compare the Swiss system with the French which,</p><p>with admirable geometrical regularity, is entirely centered on Paris so that the prosperities or</p><p>the decline, the life or death of whole regions has depended on the quality of the link with</p><p>the capital, we see the difference between a centralised state and a federal alliance. The</p><p>railway map is the easiest to read at a glance, but let us now superimpose on it another</p><p>showing economic activity</p><p>and the movement of population. The distribution of industrial</p><p>51</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl97\apl97.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl42\apl42.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl25\apl25.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl16\apl16.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl16\apl16.htm</p><p>activity all over Switze rland, even in the outlying areas, accounts for the strength and</p><p>stability of the social structure of the country and prevented those horrible 19th century</p><p>concentrations of industry, with their slums and rootless proletariat. (Colin Ward, "The</p><p>Organization of Anarchy," in Patterns of Anarchy, by Leonard I. Krimerman and Lewis</p><p>Perry, New York, 1966.)</p><p>Keep all the various lines that converge on a single interchange, and their parking,</p><p>within 600 feet, so that people can transfer on foot - INTERCHANGE (34). It is essential that</p><p>the major stations be served by a good feeder system, so people are not forced to use</p><p>private cars at all - MINI-BUSES (20)....</p><p>17 RING ROADS</p><p>. . . the ring roads which this pattern specifies,</p><p>help to define and generate the LOCAI, TRANSPORT</p><p>AREAS (11); if they are placed to make connections</p><p>between INTERCHANGES (34), they also help to form</p><p>the WEB OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION (16).</p><p>It is not possible to avoid the need for high speed</p><p>roads in modern society; but it is essential to place</p><p>them and build them in such a way that they do not</p><p>destroy communities or countryside.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Place high speed roads (freeways and other major arteries) so that:</p><p>1. At least one high speed road lies tangent to each local transport area.</p><p>2. Each local transport area has at least one side not bounded by a high speed road'</p><p>but directly open to the countryside.</p><p>3. The road is always sunken, or shielded along its length by berms, or earth, or</p><p>industrial buildings, to protect the nearby neighborhoods from noise.</p><p>Even though the rush of freeways and</p><p>superhighways built in the 1950's and</p><p>1960's is slowing down, because of</p><p>widespread local protest, we cannot avoid</p><p>high speed roads altogether. There is, at</p><p>present, no prospect for a viable alternative</p><p>which can provide for the vast volume of</p><p>52</p><p>movement of cars and trucks and buses which a modern city lives on economically and</p><p>socially.</p><p>At the same time, however, high speed roads do enormous damage when they are</p><p>badly placed. They slice communities in half; they cut off waterfronts; they cut off access to</p><p>the countryside; and, above all, they create enormous noise. For hundreds of yards, even a</p><p>mile or two, the noise of every superhighway roars in the background.</p><p>To resolve these obvious dilemas? that come with the location and construction of</p><p>high speed roads, we must find ways of building and locating these roads, so that they do</p><p>not destroy communities and shatter life with their noise. We can give three requirements</p><p>that, we believe, go to the heart of this policy:</p><p>1. Every community that has coherence as an area of local transportation - LOCAL</p><p>TRANSPORT AREAS (16) - is never split by a high speed road, but rather has at</p><p>least one high speed road adjacent to it. This allows rapid auto travel from one</p><p>such community out to other communities and to the region at large.</p><p>2. It must be possible for residents of each local transport area to reach the open</p><p>countryside without crossing a high speed road - see CITY COUNTRY FINGERS</p><p>(3). This means, very roughly, that high speed roads must always be placed in</p><p>such positions that at least one side of every local transport area has direct access</p><p>to open country.</p><p>3. Most important of all, high speed roads must be shielded acoustically to protect the</p><p>life around them. This means that they must either be sunken, or shielded by earth</p><p>berms, parking structures, or warehouses, which will not be damaged by the</p><p>noise.</p><p>Always place the high speed roads on boundaries between subcultures -</p><p>SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY (13) and never along waterfronts - ACCESS TO WATER (25).</p><p>Place industry and big parking garages next to the roads, and use them, whenever possible,</p><p>as extra noise shields - INDUSTRIAL RIBBONS (42), SHIELDED PARKING (97). . . .</p><p>18 NETWORK OF LEARNING</p><p>. . . another network, not physical like</p><p>transportation, but conceptual, and equal in importance,</p><p>is the network of learning: the thousands of</p><p>interconnected situations that occur all over the city, and</p><p>which in fact comprise the city's "curriculum": the way of</p><p>life it teaches to its young.</p><p>In a society which emphasizes teaching, children</p><p>and students - and adults - become passive and unable</p><p>to think or act for themselves. Creative, active</p><p>individuals can only grow up in a society which</p><p>emphasizes learning instead of teaching.</p><p>53</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl85\apl85.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl86\apl86.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl57\apl57.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl157\apl157.htm</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Instead of the lock-step of compulsory</p><p>schooling in a fixed place, work in piecemeal</p><p>ways to decentralize the process of learning</p><p>and enrich it through contact with many</p><p>places and people all over the city:</p><p>workshops, teachers at home or walking</p><p>through the city, professionals willing to take</p><p>on the young as helpers, older children</p><p>teaching younger children, museums, youth</p><p>groups traveling, scholarly seminars, industrial workshops, old people, and so on. Conceive</p><p>of all these situations as forming the backbone of the learning process; survey all these</p><p>situations, describe them, and publish them as the city's "curriculum"; then let students,</p><p>children, their families and neighborhoods weave together for themselves the situations that</p><p>comprise their "school" paying as they go with standard vouchers, raised by community tax.</p><p>Build new educational facilities in a way which extends and enriches this network.</p><p>There is no need to add to the criticism of our public schools. The critique is extensive</p><p>and can hardly be improved on. The processes of learning and teaching, too, have been</p><p>exhaustively studied.... The question now is what to do. (George Dennison, Lives of</p><p>Children, New York: Vintage Books, 1969, p. 3.)</p><p>To date, the most penetrating analysis and proposal for an alternative framework for</p><p>education comes from Ivan Illich in his book, De-Schooling Society, and his article,</p><p>"Education without Schools: How It Can Be Done," in the New York Review of Books, New</p><p>York, 15 (12 ): 25-31, special supplement, July 1971.</p><p>Illich describes</p><p>a style of learning that is quite the opposite from schools. It is geared</p><p>especially to the rich opportunities for learning that are natural to every metropolitan area:</p><p>The alternative to social control through the schools is the voluntary participation in</p><p>society through networks which provide access to all its resources for learning. In fact these</p><p>networks now exist, but they are rarely used for educational purposes. The crisis of</p><p>schooling, if it is to have any positive consequence, will inevitably lead to their incorporation</p><p>into the educational process....</p><p>Schools are designed on the assumption that there is a secret to everything in life; that</p><p>the quality of life depends on knowing that secret; that secrets can be known only in orderly</p><p>successions; and that only teachers can properly reveal these secrets. An individual with a</p><p>schooled mind conceives of the world as a pyramid of classified packages accessible only</p><p>to those who carry the proper tags. New educational institutions would break apart this</p><p>pyramid. Their purpose must be to facilitate access for the learner: to allow him to look into</p><p>the windows of the control room or the parliament, if he cannot get in the door. Moreover,</p><p>such new institutions should be channels to which the learner would have access without</p><p>credentials or pedigree‹public spaces in which peers and elders outside his immediate</p><p>horizon now become available....</p><p>54</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl9\apl9.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl9\apl9.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl9\apl9.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl83\apl83.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl43\apl43.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl43\apl43.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl84\apl84.htm</p><p>While network administrators would concentrate primarily on the building and</p><p>maintenance of roads providing access to resources, the pedagogue would help the student</p><p>to find the path which for himcould lead fastest to his goal. If a student wants to learn</p><p>spoken Cantonese from a Chinese neighbor, the pedagogue would be available to judge</p><p>their proficiency, and to help them select the textbook and methods most suitable to their</p><p>talents, character, and the time available for study. He can counsel the would-be airplane</p><p>mechanic on finding the best places for apprenticeship. He can recommend books to</p><p>somebody who wants to find challenging peers to discuss African history. Like the network</p><p>administrator, the pedagogical counselor conceives of himself as a professional educator.</p><p>Access to either could be gained by individuals through the use of educational vouchers.</p><p>In addition to the tentative conclusions of the Carnegie Commission reports, the last</p><p>year has brought forth a series of important documents which show that responsible people</p><p>are becoming aware of the fact that schooling for certification cannot continue to be counted</p><p>upon as the central educational device of a modern society. Julius Nyere of Tanzania has</p><p>announced plans to integrate education with the life of the village. In Canada, the Wright</p><p>Commission on post-secondary education has reported that no known system of formal</p><p>education could provide equal opportunities for the citizens of Ontario. The president of</p><p>Peru has accepted the recommendation of his commission on education, which proposes to</p><p>abolish free schools in favor of free educational opportunities provided throughout life. In</p><p>fact he is reported to have insisted that this program proceed slowly at first in order to keep</p><p>teachers in school and out of the way of true educators. (Abridged from pp. 76 and 99 in</p><p>Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich. Vol. 44 in World Perspectives Series, edited by Ruth</p><p>Nanda Anshen, New York: Harper & Row, 197I.)</p><p>In short, the educational system so radically decentralized becomes congruent with</p><p>the urban structure itself. People of all walks of life come forth, and offer a class in the</p><p>things they know and love: professionals and workgroups offer apprenticeships in their</p><p>offices and workshops, old people offer to teach whatever their life work and interest has</p><p>been, specialists offer tutoring in their special subjects. Living and learning are thesame. It</p><p>is not hard to imagine that eventually every third or fourth household will have at least one</p><p>person in it who is offering a class or training of some kind.</p><p>Above all, encourage the formation of seminars and workshops in people's homes -</p><p>HOME WORKSHOP (157); make sure that each city has a "path" where young children can</p><p>safely wander on their own - CHILDREN IN THE CTTY (57); build extra public "homes" for</p><p>children, one to every neighborhood at least - CHILDREN'S HOME (86); create a large</p><p>number of work-oriented small schools in those parts of town dominated by work and</p><p>commercial activity - SHOPFRONT SCHOOLS (85) ; encourage teenagers to work out a</p><p>self-organized learning society of their own - TEENAGE SOClETY (84); treat the university</p><p>as scattered adult learning for all the adults in the region - UNIVERSITY AS A</p><p>MARKETPLACE (43); and use the real work of professionals and tradesmen as the basic</p><p>nodes in the network - MASTER AND APPRENTICES (83)....</p><p>19 WEB OF SHOPPING</p><p>55</p><p>. . . this pattern defines a piecemeal process</p><p>which can help to locate shops and services where</p><p>they are needed, in such a way that they will</p><p>strengthen the MOSAlC OF SUBCULTURES (8),</p><p>SUBCULTURE BOUNDARIES (13), and the</p><p>decentralized economy needed for SCATTERED</p><p>WORK (9) and LOCAL TRANSPORT AREAS (11).</p><p>Shops rarely place themselves in those</p><p>positions which best serve the people's needs, and</p><p>also guarantee their own stability.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>When you locate any individual shop, follow a three-step procedure:</p><p>1. Identify all other shops which offer the service you are interested in; locate them on</p><p>the map.</p><p>2. Identify and map the location of potential consumers. Wherever possible, indicate</p><p>the density or total number of potential consumers in any given area.</p><p>3. Look for the biggest gap in the existing web of shops in those areas where there are</p><p>potential consumers.</p><p>4. Within the gap in the web of similar shops, locate your shop next to the largest</p><p>cluster of other kinds of shops.</p><p>Large parts of towns have insufficient services. New shops which could provide these</p><p>services often locate near the other shops and major centers, instead of locating</p><p>themselves where they are needed. In an ideal town, where the shops are seen as part of</p><p>the society's necessities and not merely as a way of making profit for the shopping chains,</p><p>the shops would be much more widely and more hornogeneously distributed than they are</p><p>today.</p><p>It is also true that many small shops are unstable. Two-thirds of the small shops that</p><p>people open go out of business within a year. Obviously, the community is not well served</p><p>by unstable businesses, and once again, their economic instability is largely linked to</p><p>mistakes of location.</p><p>To guarantee that shops are stable, as well as distributed to meet community needs,</p><p>each new shop must be placed where it will fill a gap among the other shops offering a</p><p>roughly similar service and also be assured that it will get the threshold of customers which</p><p>it needs in order to survive. We shall now try to</p><p>express this principle in precise terms.</p><p>The characteristics of a stable system of shops</p><p>is rather well known. It relies, essentially, on the idea</p><p>that each unit of shopping has a certain catch</p><p>basin‹the population which it needs in order to</p><p>survive‹and that units of any given type and size will</p><p>56</p><p>therefore be stable if they are evenly distributed, each one at the center of a catch basin</p><p>large enough to support it.</p><p>Catch basins.</p><p>The reason that shops and shopping centers do not always, automatically, distribute</p><p>themselves according to their appropriate catch basins is easily explained by the situation</p><p>known as Hotelling's problem. Imagine a beach in summer time‹and, somewhere along the</p><p>beach, an ice-cream seller. Suppose now, that you are also an ice-cream seller. You arrive</p><p>on the beach. Where should you place yourself in relation to the first ice-cream seller?</p><p>There are two possible solutions.</p><p>Two approaches to the ice-cream problem.</p><p>In the first case, you essentially decide to split the</p><p>beach with the other ice-cream seller. You take</p><p>half the beach, and leave him half the beach. In</p><p>this case, you place yourself as far away from him as</p><p>you can, in a position where half the people on</p><p>the beach are nearer to you than to him.</p><p>In the second case, you place yourself right next to him. You decide, in short, to try</p><p>and compete with him - and place yourself in such a way as to command the whole beach,</p><p>not half of it.</p><p>Every time a shop, or shopping center opens, it faces a similar choice. It can either</p><p>locate in a new area where there are no other competing businesses, or it can place itself</p><p>exactly where all the other businesses are already in the hope of attracting their customers</p><p>away from them.</p><p>The trouble is, very simply, that people tend to choose the second of these two</p><p>alternatives, because it seems, on the surface, to be safer. In fact, however, the first of the</p><p>two choices is both better and safer. It is better for the customers, who then have stores to</p><p>serve them closer to their homes and work places than they do now; and it is safer for the</p><p>shopkeepers themselves since - in spite of appearances - their stores are much more likely</p><p>to survive when they stand, without competition, in the middle of a catch basin which needs</p><p>their services.</p><p>Let us now consider the global nature of a web which has this character. In present</p><p>cities, shops of similar types tend to be clustered in shopping centers. They are forced to</p><p>cluster, in part because of zoning ordinances, which forbid them to locate in so-called</p><p>residential areas; and they are encouraged to cluster by their mistaken notion that</p><p>competition with other shops will serve them better than roughly equal sharing of the</p><p>available customers. In the "peoples" web we are proposing, shops are far more evenly</p><p>spread out, with less emphasis on competition and</p><p>greater emphasis on service. Of course, there will still</p><p>be competition, enough to make sure that very bad</p><p>shops go out of business, because each shop will be</p><p>capable of drawing customers from the nearby catch</p><p>basins if it offers better service - but the accent is on</p><p>cooperation instead of competition.</p><p>57</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl16\apl16.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl89\apl89.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl46\apl46.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl32\apl32.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl31\apl31.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl10\apl10.htm</p><p>The existing web and the peoples' web.</p><p>To generate this kind of homogeneous people's web, it is only necessary that each</p><p>new shop follow the following three-step procedure when it chooses a location:</p><p>1. Identify all other shops which offer the service you are interested in; locate them on</p><p>the map.</p><p>2. Identify and map the location of potential consumers. Wherever possible, indicate</p><p>the density or total number of potential</p><p>consumers in any given area.</p><p>3. Look for the biggest gap in the existing web of</p><p>shops in those areas where there are</p><p>potential consumers.</p><p>The gap in services.</p><p>Two colleagues of ours have tested the efficiency</p><p>and potential stability of the webs created by this</p><p>procedure. ("Computer Simulation of Market Location</p><p>in an Urban Area," S. Angel and F. Loetterle, CES files,</p><p>June 1967.) They chose to study markets. They began</p><p>with a fixed area, a known population density and</p><p>purchasing power, and a random distribution of</p><p>markets of different sizes. They then created new markets and killed off old markets</p><p>according to the following rules. (1) Among all of the existing markets, erase any that do not</p><p>capture sufficient business to support their given size; (2) among all of the possible</p><p>locations for a new market, find the one which would most strongly support a new market;</p><p>(3) find that size for the new market that would be most economically feasible; (4) find that</p><p>market among all those now existing that is the least economically feasible, and erase it</p><p>from the web; ( 5 ) repeat steps (2) through (4) until no further improvement in the web can</p><p>be made.</p><p>Under the impact of these rules, the random distribution of markets at the beginning</p><p>leads gradually to a fluctuating, pulsating distribution of markets which remains</p><p>economically stable throughout its changes.</p><p>Now of course, even if shops of the same kind are kept apart by this procedure, shops</p><p>of differernt kinds will tend to cluster. This follows, simply, from the convenience of the</p><p>shopper. If we follow the rules of location given above - always locating a new shop in the</p><p>biggest gap in the web of similar shops - then, within that gap there are still quite a large</p><p>number of different possible places to locate: and naturally, we shall try to locate near the</p><p>largest cluster of other shops within that gap, to increase the number of people coming past</p><p>the shop, in short, to make it more convenient for shoppers.</p><p>The clusters which emerge have been thoroughly studied by Berry. It turns out that the</p><p>levels of clustering are remarkably similar, even though their spacing varies greatly</p><p>according to population density. (See Geography of Market Centers and Retail Distribution,</p><p>B. Berry, Englewood Clifis, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967, pp. 32-33.) The elements</p><p>in this web of clustering correspond closely to patterns defined in this language.</p><p>58</p><p>We estimate, that under the impact of this rule, a web of shopping with the following</p><p>overall characteristics will emerge:</p><p>Population Distance Apart (Miles)</p><p>MAGIC OF THE CITY (10) 300,000</p><p>10*</p><p>PROMENADES (31) 50,000 4*</p><p>SHOPPING STREETS (32) 10,000 1.8*</p><p>MARKETS OF MANY SHOPS (46) 4,000 1.1*</p><p>CORNER GROCERIES (89) 1,000 0.5*</p><p>* These distances are calculated for an overall population density of 5000 per square</p><p>mile. For a population density of D persons/square mile, divide the distances by the square</p><p>root of D/5000....</p><p>20 . MINI-BUSES</p><p>. . . this pattern helps complete the</p><p>LOCAL TRANSPORT AREAS (11) and the</p><p>WEB OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION (16).</p><p>The local transport areas rely heavily on foot</p><p>traffic, and on bikes and carts and horses. The</p><p>web of public transportation relies on trains and planes and buses. Both of these patterns</p><p>need a more flexible kind of public transportation to support them.</p><p>Public transportation must be able to take people from any point to any other point</p><p>within the metropolitan area.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Establish a system of small taxi-like buses, carrying up to six people each, radio-</p><p>controlled, on call by telephone, able to provide point-to-point service according to the</p><p>passengers' needs, and supplemented by a computer system which guarantees minimum</p><p>detours, and minimum waiting times. Make bus stops for the mini-buses every 600 feet in</p><p>each direction, and equip these bus stops with a phone for dialing a bus.</p><p>Buses and trains, which run along lines, are too far from most origins and destinations</p><p>to be useful. Taxis, which can go from point to point, are too expensive.</p><p>To solve the problem, it is necessary to have a kind of vehicle which is half way</p><p>between the two - half like a bus, half like a taxi - a small bus which can pick up people at</p><p>any point and take them to any other point, but which may also pick up other passengers on</p><p>the way, to make the trip less costly than a taxi fare.</p><p>Recent research, and full-scale experiments, have shown that a system of mini-buses,</p><p>on call by telephone, can function in this fashion, taking people from door to door in 15</p><p>minutes, for no more than 50 cents a ride (1974): and that the system is efficient enough to</p><p>59</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl10\apl10.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl5\apl5.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl5\apl5.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl5\apl5.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl92\apl92.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl34\apl34.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl23\apl23.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl23\apl23.htm</p><p>support itself. It works just like a taxi, except that it picks up and drops of other passengers</p><p>while you are riding; it goes to the nearest corner to save time - not to your own front door;</p><p>and it costs a quarter of an average taxi fare.</p><p>The system hinges, to a certain extent, on the development of sophisticated new</p><p>computer programs. As calls come in, the comlputer examines the present movements of all</p><p>the various minibuses, each with its particular load of passengers, and decides which bus</p><p>can best afford to pick up the new passenger, with</p><p>the least detour. Two-way radio contact keeps the</p><p>mini-buses in communication with the dispatcher at</p><p>the computer switchboard. All this, and other details,</p><p>are discussed fully in a review of current dial-a-bus</p><p>research: Summary Report - The Dial-a-Ride</p><p>Transportation System, M.I.T. Urban Systems</p><p>Laboratory, Report #USL-TR-70-10, March 1997.</p><p>Canadian mini-bus</p><p>Dial systems for buses are actually coming into existence now because they are</p><p>economically feasible. While conventional fixed route public transport systems are</p><p>experiencing a dangerous spiral of lower levels of service, fewer passengers, and increased</p><p>public subsidies, over 30 working dial-a-bus systems are presently in successful operation</p><p>throughout the world. For example, a dial-a-bus system in Regina, Saskatchewan, is the</p><p>only part of the Regina Transit System which supports itself (Regina Telelbus Study:</p><p>Operations Report, and Financial Report, W. G. Atkinson et al., June 1972). In Batavia, New</p><p>York, dial-a-bus is the sole means of public transport, serving a population of 16,000 at</p><p>fares of 40 to 60 cents per ride.</p><p>We finish this pattern by reminding the reader of two vital problems of public</p><p>transportation, which underline the importance of the mini-bus approach. First; there are</p><p>very large numbers of people in cities who cannot drive; we believe the mini-bus system is</p><p>the only realistic way of meeting the needs of all these people.</p><p>Their numbers are much larger than one would think. They are, in effect, a silent</p><p>minority comprising the uncomplaining old and physically handicapped, the young and the</p><p>poor. In 1970, over 20 percent of U.S. households did not own a car. Fifty-seven and</p><p>fivetenths percent of all households with incomes under $3000 did not own a car. For</p><p>households headed by persons 65 years of age or older, 44.9 percent did not own a car. Of</p><p>the youths between 10 and 18 years of age, 80 percent are dependent on others, including</p><p>public transit, for their mobility. Among the physically disabled about 5.7 million are potential</p><p>riders of public transportation if the system could take them door-to-door. (Sumner Myers,</p><p>"Turning Transit Subsidies into 'Compensatory Transportation,"' City, Vol. 6, No. 3, Summer</p><p>1972, p. 20.)</p><p>Second, quite apart from these special needs, the fact is that a web of public</p><p>transportation, with large buses, boats, and trains, will not work anyway, without a mini-bus</p><p>system. The large systems need feeders: some way of getting to the stations. If people</p><p>have to get in their cars to go to the train, then, once in the car, they stay in it and do not</p><p>60</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl95\apl95.htm</p><p>use the train at all. The mini-bus system is essential for the purpose of providing feeder</p><p>service in the larger web of public transportation.</p><p>Place the bus stops mainly along major roads, as far as this can be consistent with the</p><p>fact that no one ever has to walk more than 600 feet to the nearest one - PARALLEL</p><p>ROADS (23); put one in every INTERCHANGE (34); and make each one a place where a</p><p>few minutes' wait is pleasant - BUS STOP (92)....</p><p>21 .FOUR-STORY LIMIT</p><p>. . . within an urban area, the density of building</p><p>fluctuates. It will, in general, be rather higher toward</p><p>the center and lower toward the edges - CITY</p><p>COUNTRY FINGERS (3), LACE OF COUNTRY</p><p>STREETS (5 ), MAGIC OF THE CiTY (10) . However,</p><p>throughout the city, even at its densest points, there</p><p>are strong human reasons to subject all buildings to</p><p>height restrictions.</p><p>There is abundant evidence</p><p>to show that high</p><p>buildings make people crazy.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>In any urban area, no matter how dense, keep</p><p>the majority of buildings four stories high or less. It is</p><p>possible that certain buildings should exceed this limit, but they should never be buildings</p><p>for human habitation.</p><p>High buildings have no genuine</p><p>advantages, except in speculative gains</p><p>for banks and land owners. They are not</p><p>cheaper, they do not help create open</p><p>space, they destroy the townscape, they destroy social life, they promote crime, they make</p><p>life difficult for children, they are expensive to maintain, they wreck the open spaces near</p><p>them, and they damage light and air and view. But quite</p><p>apart from all of this, which shows that they aren't very</p><p>sensible, empirical evidence shows that they can actually</p><p>damage people's minds and feelings.</p><p>"The Ministry of Truth - Minitrue, in Newspeak - as</p><p>startlingly different from any other object in sight. It was an</p><p>61</p><p>enormous pyramidal structure of glittering white concrete, soaring ap terrace after terrace</p><p>300 metres in the air." (George Orwell, 1984)</p><p>There are two separate bodies of evidence for this. One shows the effect of high-rise</p><p>housing on the mental and social well being of families. The other shows the effect of large</p><p>buildings, and high buildings, on the human relations in offices and workplaces. We present</p><p>the first of these two bodies of evidence in the text which follows. The second, concerning</p><p>offices and workplaces, we have placed in BUILDING COMPLEX (95), since it has</p><p>implications not just for the height of buildings but also for their total volume.</p><p>We wish to stress, however, that the seemingly one-sided concern with housing in the</p><p>paragraphs which follow, is only apparent. The underlying phenomenon - namely, mental</p><p>disorder and social alienation created by the height of buildings - occurs equally in housing</p><p>and in workplaces.</p><p>The strongest evidence comes from D. M. Fanning ("Families in Flats," British Medical</p><p>Journal, November 18, 1967, pp. 382-86). Fanning shows a direct correlation between</p><p>incidence of mental disorder and the height of people's apartments. The higher people live</p><p>off the ground, the more likely are they to suffer mental illness. And it is not simply a case of</p><p>people prone to mental illness choosing high-rise apartments. Fanning shows that the</p><p>correlation is strongest for the people who spend the most time in their apartments. Among</p><p>the families he studied, the correlation was strongest for women, who spend the most time</p><p>in their apartments; it was less strong for children, who spend less time in the apartments;</p><p>and it was weakest for men, who spend the least amount of time in their apartments. This</p><p>strongly suggests that sheer time spent in the high-rise is itself what causes the effect.</p><p>A simple mechanism may explain this: high-rise living takes people away from the</p><p>ground, and away from the casual, everyday society that occurs on the sidewalks and</p><p>streets and on the gardens and porches. It leaves them alone in their apartments. The</p><p>decision to go out for some public life becomes formal and awkward; and unless there is</p><p>some specific task which brings people out in the world, the tendency is to stay home,</p><p>alone. The forced isolation then causes individual breakdowns.</p><p>Fanning's findings are reinforced by Dr. D. Cappon's clinical experiences reported in</p><p>"Mental Health and the High Rise," Canadian Public Health Association, April 1971:</p><p>There is every reason to believe that high-rise apartment dwelling has adverse effects</p><p>on mental and social health. And there is sufficient clinical, anecdotal and intuitive</p><p>observations to back this up. Herewith, in no particular order ranking, a host of factors:</p><p>In my experience as Mental Health Director in a child guidance clinic in York</p><p>Township, Toronto, for 5 years, I saw numerous children who had been kinetically</p><p>deprived . . . and kinetic deprivation is the worst of the perceptual, exploratory kinds, for a</p><p>young child, leaving legacies of lethargy, or restlessness, antisocial acting out or withdrawal,</p><p>depersonalization or psychopathy.</p><p>Young children in a high-rise are much more socially deprived of neighborhood peers</p><p>and activities than their S.F.D. (Single Family Dwelling) counterparts, hence they are poorly</p><p>socialized and at too close quarters to adults, who are tense and irritable as a consequence.</p><p>Adolescents in a high-rise suffer more from the "nothing-to-do" ennui than those of a</p><p>S.F.D., with enhanced social needs for "drop in centres" and a greater tendency to</p><p>escapism....</p><p>62</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl62\apl62.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl82\apl82.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl39\apl39.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl95\apl95.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl29\apl29.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl96\apl96.htm</p><p>Mothers are more anxious about their very young ones, when they can't see them in</p><p>the street below, from a convenient kitchen window</p><p>There is higher passivity in the high-rise because of the barriers to active outlets on</p><p>the ground; such barriers as elevators, corridors; and generally there is a time lapse and an</p><p>effort in negotiating the vertical journey. TV watching is extended in the high-rise. This</p><p>affects probably most adversely the old who need kinesia and activity, in proportion, as</p><p>much as the very young do. Though immobility saves them from accidents, it also shortens</p><p>their life in a high-rise....</p><p>A Danish study by Jeanne Morville adds more evidence (Borns Brug af Friarsaler,</p><p>Disponering Af Friarsaler, Etageboligomrader Med Saerlig Henblik Pa Borns</p><p>Legsmuligheder, S.B.I., Denmark, 1969)</p><p>Children from the high blocks start playing out of doors on their own at a later age than</p><p>children from the low blocks: Only 2% of the children aged two to three years in the high</p><p>point blocks play on their own out of doors, while 27% of the children in the low blocks do</p><p>this.</p><p>Among the children aged five years in the high point blocks 29% do not as yet play on</p><p>their own out of doors, while in the low blocks all the children aged five do so.... The</p><p>percentage of young children playing out of doors on their own decreases with the height of</p><p>their homes; 90% of all the children from the three lower floors in the high point blocks play</p><p>on their own out of doors, while only 59% of the children from the three upper floors do so....</p><p>Young children in the high blocks have fewer contacts with playmates than those in</p><p>the low blocks: Among children aged one, two and three years, 86% from the low blocks</p><p>have daily contact with playmates; this applies to only 29% from the high blocks.</p><p>More recently, there is the evidence brought forward by Oscar Newman in Defensible</p><p>Space. Newman compared two adjacent housing proj ects in New York - one high-rise, the</p><p>other a collection of relatively small three-story walk-up buildings. The two projects have the</p><p>same overall density, and their inhabitants have roughly the same income. But Newman</p><p>found that the crime rate in the high-rise was roughly twice that in the walk-ups.</p><p>At what height do the effects described by Fanning, Cappon, Morville, and Newman</p><p>begin to take</p><p>hold? It is our experience that in both housing and office buildings, the</p><p>problems begin when buildings are more than four stories high.</p><p>At three or four stories, one can still walk comfortably down to the street, and from a</p><p>window you can still feel part of the street scene: you can see details in the street - the</p><p>people, their faces, foliage, shops. From three stories you can yell out, and catch the</p><p>attention of someone below. Above four stories these connections break down. The visual</p><p>detail is lost; people speak of the scene below as if it were a game, from which they are</p><p>completely detached. The connection to the ground and to the fabric of the town becomes</p><p>tenuous; the building becomes a world of its own: with its own elevators and cafeterias.</p><p>We believe, therefore, that the "four-story limit" is an appropriate way to express the</p><p>proper connection between building height and the health of a people. Of course, it is the</p><p>spirit of the pattern which is most essential. Certainly, a building five stories high, perhaps</p><p>even six, might work if it were carefully handled. But it is difficult. On the whole, we advocate</p><p>a four-story limit, with only occasional departures, throughout the town.</p><p>Finally, we give the children of Glasgow the last word.</p><p>63</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>To fling a "piece," a slice of bread and jam, from a window down to a child in the street</p><p>below has been a recognised custom in Glasgow's tenement housing....</p><p>THE JEELY PIECE SONG</p><p>by Adam McNaughton</p><p>I'm a skyscraper wean, I live on the nineteenth flair,</p><p>On' I'm no' gaun oot tae play ony mair,</p><p>For since we moved tae oor new hoose I'm wastin' away,</p><p>'Cos I'm gettin' wan less meal every day,</p><p>Refrain</p><p>Oh, ye canny fling pieces oot a twenty-storey flat,</p><p>Seven hundred hungry weans will testify tae that,</p><p>If it's butter, cheese or jeely, if the breid is plain or pan,</p><p>The odds against it reachin' us is ninety-nine tae wan.</p><p>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</p><p>We've wrote away tae Oxfam tae try an' get some aid,</p><p>We've a' joined thegither an' formed a "piece" brigade,</p><p>We're gonny march tae London tae demand oor Civil Rights,</p><p>Like "Nae mair hooses ower piece flingin' heights."</p><p>Within the framework of the four-story limit the exact height of individual buildings,</p><p>according to the area of floor they need, the area of the site, and the height of surrounding</p><p>buildings, is given by the pattern NUMBER OF STORTES (96). More global Yariations of</p><p>density a-re given by DENSITY RINGS (29). The horizontal subdivision of large buildings</p><p>into smaller units, and separate smaller buildings, is given by BUlLDING COMPLEX (95).</p><p>HOUSING HILL (39) and OFFICE CONNECTIONS (82) help to shape multi-storied</p><p>apartments and offices within the constraints of a four-story limit. And finally, don't take the</p><p>four-story limit too literally. Occasional exceptions from the general rule are Yery important -</p><p>HIGH PLACES (62)....</p><p>22 .NINE PER CENT PARKING</p><p>. . . the integrity of local transport areas and the</p><p>tranquility of local communities and neighborhoods</p><p>depend very much on the amount of parking they</p><p>provide. The more parking they provide, the less</p><p>possible it will be to maintain these patterns, because</p><p>the parking spaces will attract cars, which in turn</p><p>violate the local transport areas and neighborhoods -</p><p>LOCAL TRANSPORT AREAS (11), COMMUNITY OF</p><p>7000 ( 12), IDENTIFIABLE NEIGHBORHOOD (14).</p><p>64</p><p>This pattern proposes radical limits on the distribution of parking spaces, to protect</p><p>communities.</p><p>Very simply‹when the area devoted to parking is</p><p>too great, it destroys the land.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Do not allow more than 9 per cent of the land in</p><p>any given area to be used for parking. In order to</p><p>prevent the "bunching" of parking in huge neglected</p><p>areas, it is necessary for a town or a community to</p><p>subdivide its land into "parking zones" no larger than 10</p><p>acres each and to apply the same rule in each zone.</p><p>In downtown Los Angeles over 60 per cent of the</p><p>land is given over to the automobile.</p><p>Very rough empirical observations lead us to</p><p>believe that it is not possible to make an environment fit</p><p>for human use when more than 9 per cent of it is given</p><p>to parking.</p><p>Our observations are very tentative. We have yet</p><p>to perform systematic studies - our observations rely on</p><p>our own subjective estimates of cases where "there are</p><p>too many cars" and cases where "the cars are all right." However, we have found in our</p><p>preliminary observations, that different people agree to a remarkable extent about these</p><p>estimates. This suggests that we are dealing with a phenomenon which, though obscure, is</p><p>nonetheless substantial.</p><p>An example of an environment which has the threshold density of 9 per cent parking,</p><p>is shown in our key photograph: a quadrant of the University of Oregon. Many people we</p><p>have talked to feel intuitively that this area is beautiful now, but that if more cars were</p><p>parked there it would be ruined.</p><p>What possible functional basis is there for this intuition? We conjecture as follows:</p><p>people realize, subconsciously, that the physical environment is the medium for their social</p><p>intercourse. It is the environment which, when it is working properly, creates the potential for</p><p>all social communion, including even communion with the self.</p><p>We suspect that when the density of cars passes a certain limit, and people</p><p>experience the feeling that there are too many cars, what is really happening is that</p><p>subconsciously they feel that the cars are overwhelming the environment, that the</p><p>environment is no longer "theirs", that they have no right to be there, that it is not a place for</p><p>people, and so on. After all, the effect of the cars reaches far beyond the mere presence of</p><p>the cars themselves. They create a maze of driveways, garage doors, asphalt and concrete</p><p>surfaces, and building elements which people cannot use. When the density goes beyond</p><p>the limit, we suspect that people feel the social potential of the environment has</p><p>disappeared. Instead of inviting them out, the environment starts giving them the message</p><p>65</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl15\apl15.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl17\apl17.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl103\apl103.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents</p><p>and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl103\apl103.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl97\apl97.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl9\apl9.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl16\apl16.htm</p><p>that the outdoors is not meant for them, that they should stay indoors, that they should stay</p><p>in their own buildings, that social communion is no longer permitted or encouraged.</p><p>We have not yet tested this suspicion. However, if it turns out to be true, it may be that</p><p>this pattern, which seems to be [ased on such slender evidence, is in fact one of the most</p><p>crucial patterns there is, and that it plays a key role in determining the diference between</p><p>environments which are socially and psychologically healthy and those which are</p><p>unhealthy.</p><p>We conjecture, then, that environments which are human, and not destroyed socially</p><p>or ecologically by the presence of parked cars, have less than 9 per cent of the ground area</p><p>devoted to parking space; and that parking lots and garages must therefore never be</p><p>allowed to cover more than 9 per cent of the land.</p><p>It is essential to interpret this pattern in the strictest possible way. The pattern</p><p>becomes meaningless if we allow ourselves to place the parking generated by a piece of</p><p>land A, on another adjacent piece of land B, thus keeping parking on A below 9 per cent,</p><p>but raising the parking on B to more than 9 per cent. In other words, each piece of land</p><p>must take care of itself; we must not allow ourselves to solve this problem on one piece of</p><p>land at the expense of some other piece of land. A town or a community can only implement</p><p>the pattern according to this strict interpretation by defining a grid of independent "parking</p><p>zones" - each zone 1 to 10 acres in area - which cover the whole community, and then</p><p>insisting that the rule be applied, independently, and strictly, inside every parking zone.</p><p>The 9 per cent rule has a clear and immediate implication for the balance between</p><p>surface parking and parking in garages, at different parking densities. This follows from</p><p>simple arithmetic. Suppose, for example, that an area requires 20 parking spaces per acre.</p><p>Twenty parking spaces will consume about 7000 square feet, which would be 17 per cent of</p><p>the land if it were all in surface parking. To keep 20 cars per acre in line with the 9 per cent</p><p>rule, at least half of them will have to be parked in garages. The table below gives similar</p><p>figures for different densities:</p><p>Cars per acre Per cent on surface Per cent in two story garages Per cent in three story garages</p><p>12 100 - -</p><p>17 50 50 -</p><p>23 50 - 50</p><p>30 - - 100</p><p>What about underground parking? May we consider it as an exception to this rule?</p><p>Only if it does not violate or restrict thc use of the land above. If, for example, a parking</p><p>garage is under a piece of land which was previously used as open space, with great trees</p><p>growing on it, then the garage will almost certainly change the nature of the space above,</p><p>because it will no longer be possible to grow large trees there. Such a parking garage is a</p><p>violation of the land. Similarly, if the structural grid of the garage - 60 foot bays - constrains</p><p>the structural grid of the building above, so that this building is not free to express its needs,</p><p>this is a violation too. Underground parking may be allowed only in those rare cases where</p><p>it does not constrain the land above at all: under a major road, perhaps, or under a tennis</p><p>court.</p><p>We see then, that the 9 per cent rule has colossal implications. Since underground</p><p>parking will only rarely satisfy the conditions we have stated, the pattern really says that</p><p>almost no part of the urban area may have more than 30 parking spaces per acre. This will</p><p>66</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl17\apl17.htm</p><p>create large changes in the central business district. Consider a part of a typical downtown</p><p>area. There may be several hundred commuters per acre working there; and, under today's</p><p>conditions, many of them park their cars in garages. But if it is true that there cannot be</p><p>more than 30 parking spaces per acre, then either the work will be forced to decentralize, or</p><p>the workers will have to rely on public transportation. It seems, in short, that this simple</p><p>pattern, based on the social psychology of the environment, leads us to the same far</p><p>reaching social conclusions as the patterns WEB OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION (16) and</p><p>SCATTERED WORK (9).</p><p>Two later patterns say that parking must take one of two forms: tiny, surface parking</p><p>lots, or shielded parking structures - SHIELDED PARKING (97), SMALL PARKING LOTS</p><p>(103). If you accept these patterns the 9 per cent rule will put an effective upper limit of 30</p><p>parking spaces per acre, on every part of the environment. Present-day on-street parking,</p><p>with driveways, which provides spaces for about 35 cars per acre on the ground is ruled out.</p><p>And those present-day high density business developments which depend on the car are</p><p>also ruled out....</p><p>23 .PARALLEL ROADS</p><p>. . . in earlier patterns, we have proposed that</p><p>cities should be subdivided into local transport areas,</p><p>whose roads allow cars to move in and out from the</p><p>ring roads, but strongly discourage internal movement</p><p>across the area - LOCAL TRANSPORT AREAS (11),</p><p>RING ROADS (17) - and that these transport areas</p><p>themselves be further subdivided into communities</p><p>and neighborhoods, with the provision that all major</p><p>roads are in the boundaries between communities and</p><p>neighborhoods - SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY (13)</p><p>NEIGHBORHOOD BOUNDARY (15) . Now, what</p><p>should the arrangement of these roads be like, to help</p><p>the flow required by LOCAL TRANSPORT AREAS</p><p>(11), and to maintain the boundaries?</p><p>The net-like pattern of streets is obsolete.</p><p>Congestion is choking cities. Cars can average 60</p><p>miles per hour on freeways, but trips across town have</p><p>an average speed of only 10 to 15 miles per hour.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Within a local transport area build no intersecting major</p><p>roads at all; instead, build a system of parallel and alternating</p><p>one-way roads to carry traffic to the RING ROADS (17). In</p><p>existing towns, create this structure piecemeal, by gradually</p><p>67</p><p>making major streets one-way and closing cross streets. Keep parallel roads at least 100</p><p>yards apart (to make room for neighborhoods between them) and no more than 300 or 400</p><p>yards apart.</p><p>Certainly, in many cases, we want to get rid of cars, not help them to go faster. This is</p><p>fully discussed in LOCAL TRANSPORT AREAS (11). But away from the areas where</p><p>children play and people walk or use their bikes, there still need to be certain streets which</p><p>carry cars. The question is: How can these streets be designed to carry the cars faster and</p><p>without congestion?</p><p>It turns out that the loss of speed on present city streets is caused mainly by crossing</p><p>movements: left-hand turns across traffic and four-way intersections. (G. F. Mewell, "The</p><p>Effect of Left Turns on the Capacity of Traffic Intersection," Quarterly of Applied</p><p>Mathematics,XVII, April 1959, pp. 67-76.)</p><p>To speed up traffic it is therefore necessary to create a network of major roads in</p><p>which there are no four-way intersections, and no left-</p><p>hand turns across traffic. This can easily be done if the</p><p>major roads are alternating,</p><p>one-way paralled roads, a</p><p>few hundred feet apart, with smaller local roads opening</p><p>off them, and the only connections between the parallel</p><p>roads given by larger freeways crossing them at two- or</p><p>three-mile intervals.</p><p>Parallel roads.</p><p>This pattern has been discussed at considerable length in three papers ("The Pattern</p><p>of Streets," C. Alexander, AIP Journal, September 1966; Criticisms by D. Carson and P.</p><p>Roosen-Runge, and Alexander's reply, in AIP Journal, September 1967.) We refer the</p><p>reader to these original papers for the full derivation of all the geometric details. Our present</p><p>statement is a radically condensed version. Here we concentrate mainly on one puzzling</p><p>question - that of detours - because this is for many people the most surprising aspect of the</p><p>full analysis.</p><p>The pattern of parallel roads‹since it contains no major cross streets‹creates many</p><p>detours not present in today's net-like pattern. At first sight it seems likely that these detours</p><p>will be impossibly large. However, in the papers mentioned above it is shown in detail that</p><p>they are in fact perfectly reasonable. We summarize the argument below.</p><p>It is possible to calculate the probable detour for any trip of a given length through this</p><p>proposed parallel road system as a function of the distance between the cross roads. Next,</p><p>the probability of any given trip length may be obtained from actual studies of metropolitan</p><p>auto trips. These two types of probabilities can finally be combined to yield an overall mean</p><p>trip length and overall mean detours as shown below.</p><p>Trip Length,</p><p>m</p><p>il</p><p>e</p><p>s</p><p>1 2 3 4 5 7 10</p><p>68</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl54\apl54.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl55\apl55.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl52\apl52.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl52\apl52.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl50\apl50.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl50\apl50.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl51\apl51.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl49\apl49.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>Proportion</p><p>o</p><p>f</p><p>T</p><p>ri</p><p>p</p><p>L</p><p>e</p><p>n</p><p>g</p><p>t</p><p>h</p><p>s</p><p>%</p><p>*</p><p>28 11 11 9 9 24 8</p><p>4.12</p><p>(O</p><p>ver</p><p>all</p><p>Me</p><p>an</p><p>Tri</p><p>pL</p><p>en</p><p>gth</p><p>)</p><p>miles</p><p>b</p><p>e</p><p>t</p><p>w</p><p>e</p><p>e</p><p>n</p><p>c</p><p>r</p><p>o</p><p>s</p><p>s</p><p>r</p><p>o</p><p>a</p><p>d</p><p>s</p><p>Mean</p><p>D</p><p>e</p><p>t</p><p>o</p><p>u</p><p>r,</p><p>m</p><p>il</p><p>e</p><p>s</p><p>Overall Mean</p><p>De</p><p>tou</p><p>r</p><p>1 .12 .05 .04 .03 .02 .01 .01 .05</p><p>2 .45 .24 .15 .11 .09 .07 .04 .21</p><p>3 .79 .58 .36 .25 .20 .15 .11 .41</p><p>* Data for distribution of trip lengths was obtained from Edward M. Hall, "Travel</p><p>Characteristics of Two San Diego Suburban Developments," Highway Research Board</p><p>Bulletin 2039, Washington, D. C., 1958, pp,1-19, Figure 11. These data are typical for</p><p>metropolitan areas all over the Western world.</p><p>We see, therefore, that even with cross roads two miles apart, the lack of cross streets</p><p>only increases trip lengths by 5 per cent. At the same time, the average speed of trips will</p><p>increase from 15 miles per hour to about 45 miles per hour, a threefold increase. The huge</p><p>savings in time and fuel costs will morc than offset the slight increase in distance.</p><p>69</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl66\apl66.htm</p><p>Referring back for a moment to the table of detours, it will be noticed that the highest</p><p>detours occur for the shortest trips. We have argued elsewhere - LOCAL TRANSPORT</p><p>AREAS (11) - that to preserve the quality of the city's environment it is necessary to</p><p>discourage the use of the automobile for very short trips, and to encourage walking, bikes,</p><p>buses, and horses instead. The pattern of parallel roads has precisely the feature which</p><p>local transport areas need. It makes longer trips vastly more efficient, while discouraging the</p><p>very short auto trips, and so provides the local transport area with just the internal structure</p><p>which it needs to support its function.</p><p>Although this pattern seems strange at first sight, it is in fact already happening in</p><p>many parts of the world and has already proved its worth. For example, Berne, Switzerland,</p><p>is one of the few cities in Europe that does not suffer from acute traffic congestion. When</p><p>one looks at a map of Berne, one can see that its old center is formed by five long parallel</p><p>roads with almost no cross streets. We believe that it has little</p><p>congestion in the old center precisely because it contains the</p><p>pattern. In many large cities today, the same insight is being</p><p>implemented piecemeal - in the form of more and more one-</p><p>way streets: in New York the alternating one-way Avenues, in</p><p>downtown San Francisco the one-way major streets.</p><p>Berne's five main parallel streets.</p><p>The parallel roads are the only through roads in a LOCAl, TRANSPORT AREA (11).</p><p>For access from the parallel roads to public buildings, house clusters, and individual houses</p><p>use safe, slow, narrow roads which are not through roads - LOOPED LOCAL ROADS (49),</p><p>GREEN STREETS (51) - and make their intersections with the parallel roads a "T" - T</p><p>JUNCTION (50). Keep the pedestrian path system at right angles to the parallel roads, and</p><p>raised above them where the two must run parallel - NETWORK OF PATHS AND CARS</p><p>(52), RAlSED WALK (55). Provide a ROAD CROSSING (54) where paths cross the parallel</p><p>roads.</p><p>24 .SACRED SITES</p><p>. . . in every region and every town, indeed in</p><p>every neighborhood, there are special places which</p><p>have come to symbolize the area, and the people's</p><p>roots there. These places may be natural beauties or</p><p>historic landmarks left by ages past. But in some form</p><p>they are essential.</p><p>People cannot maintain their spiritual roots and</p><p>their connections to the past if the physical world they</p><p>live in does not also sustain these roots.</p><p>70</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl24\apl24.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl66\apl66.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl176\apl176.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl171\apl171.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl134\apl134.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl59\apl59.htm</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Whether the sacred sites are large or small, whether they are at the center of the</p><p>towns, in neighborhoods, or in the deepest countryside, establish ordinances which will</p><p>protect them absolutely so that our roots in the visible surroundings cannot be violated.</p><p>Informal experiments in our communities have led</p><p>us to believe that people agree, to an astonishing</p><p>extent, about the sites which do embody people's</p><p>relation to the land and to the past. It seems, in other</p><p>words, as though "the" sacred sites for an area exist as</p><p>objective communal realities.</p><p>If this is so, it is then of course essential that</p><p>these specific sites be preserved and made important.</p><p>Destruction of sites which have become part of the</p><p>communal consciousness, in an agreed and</p><p>widespread sense, must inevitably create gaping wounds in the communal body.</p><p>Traditional societies have always recognized the importance of these sites. Mountains</p><p>are marked as places of special pilgrimage; rivers and bridges become holy; a building or a</p><p>tree, or rock or stone, takes on the power through which people can connect themselves to</p><p>their own past.</p><p>But modern society often ignores the psychological importance of these sites. They</p><p>are bulldozed, developed, changed, for political and economic reasons, without regard for</p><p>these simple but fundamental emotional matters; or they are simply ignored.</p><p>We suggest the following two steps.</p><p>1. In any geographic area large or small ask a large number of people which sites and</p><p>which places make them feel the most contact with the area; which sites stand most for the</p><p>important values of the past, and which ones embody their connection to the land. Then</p><p>insist that these sites be actively preserved.</p><p>2. Once the sites are chosen and preserved, embellish them in a way which intensifies</p><p>their public meaning. We believe that the best way to intensify a site is through a</p><p>progression of areas which people pass through as they approach the site. This is the</p><p>principle of "nested precincts," discussed in detail under the pattern HOLY GROUND (66).</p><p>A garden which can be reached only by passing through a series of outer gardens</p><p>keeps its secrecy. A temple which can be reached only by passing through a sequence of</p><p>approach courts is able to be a special thing in a man's heart. The magnificence of a</p><p>mountain peak is increased by the difficulty of reaching the upper valleys from which it can</p><p>be seen; the beauty of a woman is intensified by the slowness of her unveiling; the great</p><p>beauty of a river bank its rushes, water rats, small fish, wild flowers - are violated by a too</p><p>direct approach; even the ecology cannot stand up to the too direct approach - the thing will</p><p>simply be devoured.</p><p>We must therefore build around a sacred site a series of spaces which gradually</p><p>intensify and converge on the site. The site itself becomes a kind of inner sanctum, at the</p><p>core. And if the site is very large - a mountain - the same approach can be taken with</p><p>special places from which it can be seen - an inner sanctum, reached past many levels,</p><p>71</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl103\apl103.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl23\apl23.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl7\apl7.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl31\apl31.htm</p><p>which is not the mountain, but a garden, say, from which the mountain can be seen in</p><p>special beauty.</p><p>Give every sacred site a place, or a sequence of places, where people can relax,</p><p>enjoy themselves, and feel the presence of the place QUIET BACKS (59), ZEN VIEW (134),</p><p>TREE PLACES (171), GARDEN SEAT (176). And above all, shield the approach to the site,</p><p>so that it can only be approached on foot, and through a series of gateways and thresholds</p><p>which reveal it gradually - HOLY GROUND (66 ). . . .</p><p>25 .ACCESS TO WATER</p><p>. . . water is always precious. Among the special</p><p>natural places covered by SACRED SITES (24), we</p><p>single out the ocean beaches, lakes, and river banks,</p><p>because they are irreplaceable. Their maintenance</p><p>and proper use require a special pattern.</p><p>People have a fundamental yearning for great bodies</p><p>of water. But the very movement of the people toward</p><p>the water can also destroy the water.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>When natural bodies of water occur near</p><p>human settlements, treat them with great</p><p>respect. Always preserve a belt of common</p><p>land, immediately beside the water. And allow</p><p>dense settlements to come right down to the</p><p>water only at infrequent intervals along the</p><p>water's edge.</p><p>Either roads, freeways, and industries destroy the</p><p>water's edge and make it so dirty or so treacherous that it is</p><p>virtually inaccessible; or when the water's edge is preserved,</p><p>it falls into private hands.</p><p>Access to water is</p><p>blocked.</p><p>But the need that people</p><p>have for water is vital and</p><p>profound. (See, for example, C.</p><p>G. Jung, Symbols of</p><p>72</p><p>Transformation,where Jung takes bodies of water which appear in dreams as a consistent</p><p>representation of the dreamer's unconscious.)</p><p>The problem can be solved only if it is understood that people will build places near</p><p>the water because it is entirely natural; but that the land immediately along the water's edge</p><p>must be preserved for common use. To this end the roads which can destroy the water's</p><p>edge must be kept back from it and only allowed near it when they lie at right angles to it.</p><p>Life forms around the water's edge.</p><p>The width of the belt of land along the water may vary with the type of water, the</p><p>density of development along it, and the ecological conditions. Along high density</p><p>development, it may be no more than a simple stone promenade. Along low density</p><p>development, it may be a common parkland extending hundreds of yards beyond a beach.</p><p>The width of the common land will vary with the type of water and the ecological</p><p>conditions. In one case, it may be no more than a simple stone promenade along a river</p><p>bank a few feet wide - PROMENADE (31). In another case, it may be a swath of dunes</p><p>extending hundreds of yards beyond a beach - THE COUNTRYSIDE (7) . In any case, do</p><p>not build roads along the water within one mile of the water; instead, make all the approach</p><p>roads at right angles to the edge, and very far apart -PARALLEL ROADS (23). If parking is</p><p>provided, keep the lots small - SMALL PARKING LOTS (103). . . .</p><p>26. LIFE CYCLE</p><p>. . .real community provides, in full, for the</p><p>balance of human experience and human life -</p><p>COMMUNITY OF 7000 (12). To a lesser extent, a</p><p>good neighborhood will do the same - IDENTIFIABLE</p><p>NEIGHBORHOOD (14). To fulfill this promise,</p><p>communities and neighborhoods must have the range</p><p>of things which life can need, so that a person can</p><p>experience the full breadth and depth of life in his</p><p>community.</p><p>All the world's a stage,</p><p>And all the men and women merely players:</p><p>They have their exits and their entrances;</p><p>And one man in his time plays many parts,</p><p>His acts being seven ages.</p><p>As, first the infant,</p><p>73</p><p>Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.</p><p>And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel</p><p>And shining morning face, creeping like snail</p><p>Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,</p><p>Sighing like furnace,</p><p>It is not hard to see why the government of a region becomes less and less</p><p>manageable with size. In a population of N persons, there are of the order of N2</p><p>person-to-person links needed to keep channels of communication open. Naturally,</p><p>when N goes beyond a certain limit, the channels of communication needed for</p><p>democracy and justice and information are simply too clogged, and too complex;</p><p>bureaucracy overwhelms human processes.</p><p>And, of course, as N grows the number of levels in the hierarchy of government</p><p>increases too. In small countries like Denmark there are so few levels, that any private</p><p>10</p><p>citizen can have access to the Minister of Education. But this kind of direct access is</p><p>quite impossible in larger countries like England or the United States.</p><p>We believe the limits are reached when the population of a region reaches some</p><p>2 to 10 million. Beyond this size, people become remote from the large-scale</p><p>processes of government. Our estimate may seem extraordinary in the light of modern</p><p>history: the nation-states have grown mightily and their governments hold power over</p><p>tens of millions, sometimes hundreds of millions, of people. But these huge powers</p><p>cannot claim to have a natural size. They cannot claim to have struck the balance</p><p>between the needs of towns and communities, and the needs of the world community</p><p>as a whole. Indeed, their tendency has been to override local needs and repress local</p><p>culture, and at the same time aggrandize themselves to the point where they are out of</p><p>reach, their power barely conceivable to the average citizen.</p><p>2. Unless a region has at least several million people in it, it will not be large enough to have</p><p>a seat in a world government, and will therefore not be able to supplant the power and</p><p>authority of present nation-states.</p><p>We found this point expressed by Lord Weymouth of Warminster, England, in a</p><p>letter to the New York Times, March 15, 1973:</p><p>WORLD FEDERATION: A THOUSAND STATES</p><p>. . . the essential foundation stone for world federation on a democratic basis</p><p>consists of regionalization within centralized government.... This argument rests on the</p><p>idea that world government is lacking in moral authority unless each delegate</p><p>represents an approximately equal portion of the world's population. Working</p><p>backward from an estimate of the global population in the year 2000, which is</p><p>anticipated to rise to the 10,000 million mark, I suggest that we should be thinking in</p><p>terms of an ideal regional state at something around ten million, or between five and</p><p>fifteen million, to give greater flexibility. This would furnish the U.N. with an assembly</p><p>of equals of 1000 regional representatives: a body that would be justified in claiming to</p><p>be truly representative of the world's population.</p><p>Weymouth believes that Western Europe could take some of the initiative for</p><p>triggering this conception of world government. He looks for the movement for regional</p><p>autonomy to take hold in the European Parliament at Strasbourg; and hopes that</p><p>power can gradually be transferred from Westminister, Paris, Bonn, etc., to regional</p><p>councils, federated in Strasbourg.</p><p>I am suggesting that in the Europe of the future we shall see England split down</p><p>into Kent, Wessex, Mercia, Anglia and Northumbria, with an independent Scotland,</p><p>Wales and Ireland, of course. Other European examples will include Brittany, Bavaria</p><p>and Calabria. The national identities of our contemporary Europe will have lost their</p><p>political significance.</p><p>3. Unless the regions have the power to be self-governing, they will not be able to solve</p><p>their own environmental problems. The arbitrary lines of states and countries, which</p><p>often cut across natural regional boundaries, make it all but impossible for people to</p><p>solve regional problems in a direct and humanly efficient way.</p><p>An extensive and detailed analysis of this idea has been given by the French</p><p>economist Gravier, who has proposed, in a series of books and papers, the concept of</p><p>11</p><p>a Europe of the Regions, a Europe decentralized and reorganized around regions</p><p>which cross present national and subnational boundaries. (For example, the Basel-</p><p>Strasbourg Region includes parts of France, Germany, and Switzerland; the Liverpool</p><p>Region includes parts of England and parts of Wales). See Jean-Francois Gravier,</p><p>"L'Europe des regions," in 1965 Internationale Regio Planertagung, Schriften der</p><p>Regio 3, Regio, Basel, 1965, pp. 211-22; and in the same volume see also Emrys</p><p>Jones, "The Conflict of City Regions and Administrative Units in Britain," pp. 223-35.</p><p>4. Finally, unless the present-day great nations have their power greatly decentralized, the</p><p>beautiful and differentiated languages, cultures, customs, and ways of life of the</p><p>earth's people, vital to the health of the planet, will vanish. In short, we believe that</p><p>independent regions are the natural receptacles for language, culture, customs,</p><p>economy, and laws and that each region should be separate and independent enough</p><p>to maintain the strength and vigor of its culture.</p><p>The fact that human cultures within a city can only flourish when they are at least</p><p>partly separated from neighboring cultures is discussed in great detail in MOSAIC OF</p><p>SUBCULTURES (8). We are suggesting here that the same argument also applies to</p><p>regions - that the regions of the earth must also keep their distance and their dignity in</p><p>order to survive as cultures.</p><p>In the best of medieval times, the cities performed this function. They provided</p><p>permanent and intense spheres of cultural influence, variety, and economic exchange;</p><p>they were great communes, whose citizens were co-members, each with some say in</p><p>the city's destiny. We believe that the independent region can become the modern</p><p>polis - the new commune - that human entity which provides the sphere of culture,</p><p>language, laws, services, economic exchange, variety, which the old walled city or the</p><p>polis provided for its members.</p><p>Within each region encourage the population to distribute itself as widely as possible</p><p>across the region - THE DISTRIBUTION OF TOWNS (2). . . .</p><p>2 THE DISTRIBUTION OF TOWNS</p><p>. . . consider now the character of settlements within the region: what balance of</p><p>villages, towns, and cities is in keeping with the independence of the region -</p><p>INDEPENDENT REGIONS (1)?</p><p>If the population of a region is weighted too far</p><p>toward small villages, modern civilization can never</p><p>emerge; but if the population is weighted too far toward</p><p>big cities, the earth will go to ruin because the</p><p>population isn't where it needs to be, to take care of it.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Encourage a birth and death process for towns</p><p>within the region, which gradually has these effects:</p><p>12</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl1\apl1.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl2\apl2.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>1. The population is evenly distributed in terms of different sizes- example, one town</p><p>with 1,000,000 people, 10 towns with 100,000 people each, 100 towns with 10,000</p><p>people each, and 1000 towns with 1000 people each.</p><p>2. These towns are distributed in space in such a way that within each size category</p><p>the towns are homogeneously distributed all across the region.</p><p>This process can be implemented by regional zoning policies, land grants, and</p><p>incentives which encourage industries to locate according to the dictates of</p><p>with a woeful ballad</p><p>Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then the soldier,</p><p>Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the bard,</p><p>jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,</p><p>Seeking the bubble reputation</p><p>Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,</p><p>In fair round belly with good capon lined,</p><p>With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,</p><p>Full of wise saws and modern instances;</p><p>And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts</p><p>Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,</p><p>With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;</p><p>His youthful hose, well saved, a world-too wide</p><p>For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,</p><p>Turning again toward childish treble, pipes</p><p>And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,</p><p>That ends this strange eventful history,</p><p>Is second childishness and mere oblivion,</p><p>Sans teetb, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.</p><p>(Shakespeare, As You Like It, II.viii.)</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Make certain that the full cycle of life is represented and balanced in each community.</p><p>Set the ideal of a balanced life cycle as a principal guide for the evolution of communities.</p><p>This means:</p><p>1. That each community include a balance of people at every stage of the life cycle,</p><p>from infants to the very old; and include the full slate of settings needed for all</p><p>these stages of life;</p><p>2. That the community contain the full slate of settings which best mark the ritual</p><p>crossing of life from one stage to the next.</p><p>To live life to the fullest, in each of the</p><p>seven ages, each age must be clearly marked,</p><p>by the community, as a distinct wellmarked</p><p>time. And the ages will only seem clearly</p><p>marked if the ceremonies which mark the</p><p>passage from one age to the next are firmly</p><p>marked by celebrations and distinctions.</p><p>By contrast, in a flat suburban culture the</p><p>seven ages are not at all clearly marked; they are not celebrated; the passages from one</p><p>age to the next have almost been forgotten. Under these conditions, people distort</p><p>themselves. They can neither fulfill themselves in any one age nor pass successfully on to</p><p>74</p><p>the next. Like the sixty-year-old woman wearing bright red lipstick on her wrinkles, they cling</p><p>ferociously to what they never fully had.</p><p>This proposition hinges on two arguments.</p><p>A. The cycle of life is a definite psychological reality. It consists of discrete stages,</p><p>each one fraught with its own difficulties, each one with its own special</p><p>advantages.</p><p>B. Growth from one stage to another is not inevitable, and, in fact, it will not happen</p><p>unless the community contains a balanced life cycle.</p><p>I. The Reality of the Life Cycle.</p><p>Everyone can recognize the fact that a person's life traverses several stages-infancy to</p><p>old age. What is perhaps not so well understood is the idea that each stage is a discrete</p><p>reality, with its own special compensations and difficulties; that each stage has certain</p><p>characteristic experiences that go with it.</p><p>The most inspired work along these lines has come from Erik Erikson: "Identity and the</p><p>Life Cycle," in Psychological Issues, Vol. 1, No. 1, New York: International Universities</p><p>Press) 959; and Childhood and Society, New York: W. W. Norton, 1950.</p><p>Erikson describes the sequence of phases a person must pass through as he matures</p><p>and suggests that each phase is characterized by a specific developmental task - a</p><p>successful resolution of some life conflict-and that this task must be solved by a person</p><p>before he can move wholeheartedly forward to the next phase. Here is a summary of the</p><p>stages in Erikson's scheme, adapted from his charts:</p><p>1. Trust vs. mistrust:the infant; relationship between the infant and mother; the struggle</p><p>for confidence that the environment will nourish.</p><p>2. Autonomy vs. shame and doubt:the very young child; relationship between the child</p><p>and parents; the struggle to stand on one's own two feet, to find autonomy in the</p><p>face of experiences of shame and doubt as to one's capacity for self-control.</p><p>3. Initiative vs. guilt:the child; relationship to the family, the ring of friends; the search</p><p>for action, and the integrity of one's acts; to make and eagerly learn, checked by</p><p>the fear and guilt of one's own aggressions.</p><p>4. Industry vs. inferiority:the youngster; relationship to the neighborhood, the school;</p><p>adaptation to the society's tools; the sense that one can make things well, alone,</p><p>and with others, against the experience of failure, inadequacy.</p><p>5. Identity vs. identity diffusion:youth, adolescence; relationship to peers and</p><p>"outgroups" and the search for models of adult life; the search for continuity in</p><p>one's own character against confusion and doubt; a moratorium; a time to find</p><p>and ally oneself with creeds and programs of the world.</p><p>6. Intimacy vs. isolation:young adults; partners in friendship, sex, work; the struggle to</p><p>commit oneself concretely in relations with others; to lose and find oneself in</p><p>another, against isolation and the avoidance of others.</p><p>7. Generativity vs. stagnation:adults; the relationship between a person and the</p><p>division of labor, and the creation of a shared household; the struggle to establish</p><p>and guide, to create, against the failure to do so, and the feelings of stagnation.</p><p>8. Integrity vs. despair:old age; the relationship between a person and his world, his</p><p>kind, mankind; the achievement of wisdom; love for oneself and one's kind; to</p><p>face death openly, with the forces of one's life integrated; vs. the despair that life</p><p>has been useless.</p><p>75</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl187\apl187.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl156\apl156.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl155\apl155.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl155\apl155.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl154\apl154.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl153\apl153.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl86\apl86.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl85\apl85.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl84\apl84.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl83\apl83.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl83\apl83.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl79\apl79.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl75\apl75.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl70\apl70.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl65\apl65.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl65\apl65.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher</p><p>Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl57\apl57.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl44\apl44.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl40\apl40.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl35\apl35.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl66\apl66.htm</p><p>B. But growth through the life cycle is not inevitable.</p><p>It depends on the presence of a balanced community, a community that can sustain</p><p>the give and take of growth. Persons at each stage of life have something irreplaceable to</p><p>give and to take from the community, and it is just these transactions which help a person to</p><p>solve the problems that beset each stage. Consider the case of a young couple and their</p><p>new child. The connection between them is entirely mutual. Of course, the child "depends"</p><p>on the parents to give the care and love that is required to resolve the conflict of trust, that</p><p>goes with infancy. But simultaneously, the child gives the parents the experience of raising</p><p>and bearing, which helps them to meet their conflict of generativity, unique to adulthood.</p><p>We distort the situation if we abstract it in such a way that we consider the parent as</p><p>"having" such and such a personality when the child is born and then, remaining static,</p><p>impinging upon a poor little thing. For this weak and changing little being moves the whole</p><p>family along. Babies control and bring up their families as much as they are controlled by</p><p>them; in fact, we may say that the family brings up a baby by being brought up by him.</p><p>Whatever reaction patterns are given biologically and whatever schedule is predetermined</p><p>developmentally must be considered to be a series of potentialities for changing patterns of</p><p>mutual regulation. [Erikson, ibid. p. 69.1</p><p>Similar patterns of mutual regulation occur between the very old and the very young;</p><p>between adolescents and young adults, children and infants, teenagers and younger</p><p>teenagers, young men and old women, young women and old men, and so on. And these</p><p>patterns must be made viable by prevailing social institutions and those parts of the</p><p>environment which help to maintain them - the schools, nurseries, homes, cafes, bedrooms,</p><p>sports fields, workshops, studios, gardens, graveyards. . . .</p><p>We believe, however, that the balance of settings which allow normal growth through</p><p>the life cycle has been breaking down. Contact with the entire cycle of life is less and less</p><p>available to each person, at each moment in time. In place of natural communities with a</p><p>balanced life cycle we have retirement villages, bedrooms suburbs, teenage culture, ghettos</p><p>of unemployed, college towns, mass cemeteries, industrial parks. Under such conditions,</p><p>one's chances for solving the conflict that comes with each stage in the life cycle are slim</p><p>indeed.</p><p>To re-create a community of balanced life cycles requires, first of all, that the idea take</p><p>its place as a principal guide in the development of communities. Each building project,</p><p>whether the addition to a house, a new road, a clinic, can be viewed as either helping or</p><p>hindering the right balance for local communities.We suspect that the community repair</p><p>maps, discussed in The Oregon Experiment,Chapter V (Volume 3 in this series), can play</p><p>an especially useful role in helping to encourage the growth of a balanced life cycle.</p><p>But this pattern can be no more than an indication of work that needs to be done. Each</p><p>community must find ways of taking stock of its own relative "balance" in this respect, and</p><p>then define a growth process which will move it in the right direction. This is a tremendously</p><p>interesting and vital problem; it needs a great deal of development, experiment, and theory.</p><p>If Erikson is right, and if this kind of work does not come, it seems possible that the</p><p>development of trust, autonomy, initiative, industry, identity, intimacy, generativity, integrity</p><p>may disappear entirely.</p><p>x STAGE IMPORTANT SETTINGS RITES OF PASSAGE</p><p>76</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl141\apl141.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl9\apl9.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl26\apl26.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl26\apl26.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>1</p><p>.</p><p>INFANT</p><p>trust</p><p>Home, crib, nursery, garden Birth place, setting up the</p><p>home . . . . out</p><p>of the crib,</p><p>making a place</p><p>2</p><p>.</p><p>YOUNG CHILD</p><p>autonomy</p><p>Own place, couple's realm, children's</p><p>realm, commons, connected</p><p>play</p><p>Walking, making a place,</p><p>special birthday</p><p>3</p><p>.</p><p>CHILD</p><p>Initiative</p><p>Play space, own place, common land,</p><p>neighborhood, animals</p><p>First ventures in town . . .</p><p>joining</p><p>4</p><p>.</p><p>YOUNGSTER</p><p>Industry</p><p>Children's home, school, own place,</p><p>adventure play, club,</p><p>community</p><p>Puberty rites, private</p><p>entrance paying</p><p>your way</p><p>5</p><p>.</p><p>YOUTH</p><p>Identity</p><p>Cottage, teenage society, hostels,</p><p>apprentice, town and region</p><p>Commencement, marriage,</p><p>work, building</p><p>6</p><p>.</p><p>YOUNG ADULT</p><p>Intimacy</p><p>Household, couple's realm, small work</p><p>group, the family, network of</p><p>learning</p><p>Birth of a child, creating</p><p>social wealth . .</p><p>building</p><p>7</p><p>.</p><p>ADULT</p><p>Generativity</p><p>Work community, the family, town hall, a</p><p>room of one's own</p><p>Special birthday, gathering,</p><p>change in work</p><p>8</p><p>.</p><p>OLD PERSON</p><p>Integrity</p><p>Settled work, cottage, the family,</p><p>independent regions</p><p>Death, funeral, grave sites</p><p>The rites of passage are provided for, most concretely, by HOLY GROUND (66). Other</p><p>specific patterns which especially support the seven ages of man and the ceremonies of</p><p>transition are HOUSEHUOLD MIX (35), OLD PEOPLE EVERYWHERE (40), WORK</p><p>COMMUNITY (41), LOCAL TOWN HALL (44), CHILDREN IN THE CITY (57), BIRTH</p><p>PLACES (65), GRAVE SITES (70), THE FAMILY (75), YOUR OWN HOME (79), MASTER</p><p>AND APPRENTICES (83), TEENAGE SOCIETY (84), SHOPFRONT SCHOOLS (85),</p><p>CHILDREN'S ROME (86), ROOMS TO RENT (153), TEENAGER'S COTTAGE (154), OLD</p><p>AGE COTTAGE (155), SETTLED WORK (156), MARRIAGE BED (187).</p><p>27 .MEN AND WOMEN</p><p>. . and just as a community or neighborhood must</p><p>have a proper balance of activities for people of all the</p><p>different ages - COMMUNITY OF 7000 (12),</p><p>IDENTIFIABLE NEIGHBORHOOD (14), LIFE CYCLE</p><p>(26) - so it must also adjust itself and its activities to the</p><p>balance of the sexes, and provide, in equal part, the</p><p>things which reflect the masculine and feminine sides of</p><p>life.</p><p>77</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher</p><p>Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl10\apl10.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl21\apl21.htm</p><p>The world of a town in the 1970's is split along sexual lines. Suburbs are for women,</p><p>workplaces for men; kindergartens are for women, professional schools for men;</p><p>supermarkets are for women, hardware stores for men.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Make certain that each piece of the environment</p><p>- each building, open space, neighborhood, and work</p><p>community - is made with a blend of both men's and</p><p>women's instincts. Keep this balance of masculine</p><p>and feminine in mind for every project at every scale,</p><p>from the kitchen to the steel mill.</p><p>Since no aspect of life is purely masculine or purely feminine, a world in which the</p><p>separation of the sexes is extreme, distorts reality, and perpetuates and solidifies the</p><p>distortions. Science is dominated by a masculine, and often mechanical mentality; foreign</p><p>diplomacy is governed by war, again the product of the masculine ego. Schools for young</p><p>children are swayed by the world of women, as are homes. The house has become the</p><p>domain of woman to such a ridiculous extreme that home builders and developers portray</p><p>an image of homes which are delicate and perfectly "nice," like powder rooms. The idea that</p><p>such a home could be a place where things are made or vegetables grown, with sawdust</p><p>around the front door, is almost inconceivable.</p><p>The pattern or patterns which could resolve these problems are, for the moment,</p><p>unknown. We can hint at the kinds of buildings and land use and institutions which would</p><p>bring the problem into balance. But the geometry cannot be understood until certain social</p><p>facts are realized, and given their full power to influence the environment. In short, until both</p><p>men and women are able to mutually influence each part of a town's life, we shall not know</p><p>what kinds of physical patierns will best co-exist with this social order.</p><p>No large housing areas without workshops for men; no work communities which do not</p><p>provide for women with part-time jobs and child care - SCATTERED WORK (9). Within each</p><p>place which has a balance of the masculine and feminine., make sure that individual men</p><p>and women also have room to flourish, in their own right, distinct and separate from their</p><p>opposites - A ROOM OF ONE'S OWN (141). . . .</p><p>28 .ECCENTRIC NUCLEUS</p><p>. . . so far, we have established an overall height restriction on the city, with its</p><p>attendant limitation on average density FOURSTORY LIMIT (21). If we assume, also, that</p><p>the city contains major centers for every 300,000 people, spaced according to the rules in</p><p>MAGIC OF THE CITY (10), it will then follow that the overall density of the city slopes off</p><p>from these centers: the highest density near to them, the lowest far away. This means that</p><p>any individual COMMUNITY OF 7000 (12) will have an overall density, given by its distance</p><p>78</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl19\apl19.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl19\apl19.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl19\apl19.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl32\apl32.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl71\apl71.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl59\apl59.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl31\apl31.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl24\apl24.htm</p><p>from the nearest downtown. The question then arises: How should density vary locally,</p><p>within this community; what geometric pattern should the density have? The question is</p><p>complicated greatly by the principle of SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY (13), which requires</p><p>that communities are surrounded by their services, instead of having their services at their</p><p>geometri c centers. This pattern, and the next, defines a local distribution of density which is</p><p>compatible with this context.</p><p>The random character of local densities confuses the identity of our communities, and</p><p>also creates a chaos in the pattern of land use.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Encourage growth and the accumulation of density to form a clear configuration of</p><p>peaks and valleys according to the following rules:</p><p>1. Consider the town as a collection of communities of 7000. These communities will</p><p>be between 1/4 mile across and 2 miles across, according to their overall density.</p><p>2. Mark that point in the boundary of each community which is closest to the nearest</p><p>major urban center. This point will be the peak of the density, and the core of the</p><p>"eccentric" nucleus.</p><p>3. Allow the high density to bulge in from the boundary, toward the center of gravity of</p><p>the community, thus enlarging the eccentric nucleus toward the center.</p><p>4. Continue this high density to form a ridge around the boundary in horseshoe fashion</p><p>with the length of the horseshoe dependent on the overall mean gross density, at</p><p>that part of the city, and the bulge of the horseshoe toward the center of the</p><p>region, so that the horseshoes form a gradient, according to their position in the</p><p>region. Those close to a major downtown are almost complete; those further</p><p>away are only half complete; and those furthest from centers are shrunken to a</p><p>point.</p><p>Let us begin by considering the typical configuration of the residential densities in a</p><p>town. There is an overall slope to the densities: they are high toward the center and lower</p><p>toward the outskirts. But there is no recognizable structure within this overall slope: no</p><p>clearly visible repeating pattern we can see again and again within the city. Compare this</p><p>with the contours of a mountain range. In a mountain range, there is a great deal of</p><p>recognizable structure; we see systematic ridges and valleys, foothills, bowls, and peaks</p><p>which have arisen naturally from geological processes; and all this structure is repeated</p><p>again and again, from place to place, within the whole.</p><p>Of course, this is only an analogy. But it does raise the question: Is it natural, and all</p><p>right, if density conifgurations in a town are so random; or would a town be better off if there</p><p>was some more visible coherent structure, some kind of systematic variation in the pattern</p><p>of the densities?</p><p>What happens when the local densities in a town vary in their present rambling,</p><p>incoherent fashion? The high density areas, potentially capable of supporting intense</p><p>activity cannot actually do so because they are too widely spread. And the low density</p><p>79</p><p>areas, potentially capable of supporting silence and tranquility when they are concentrated,</p><p>are also too diffusely scattered. The result: the town has neither very intense activity, nor</p><p>very intense quiet. Since we have many arguments which show how vital it is for a town to</p><p>give people both intense activity, and also deep and satisfying quiet - SACRED SITES (24),</p><p>ACTIVITY NODES (30), PROMENADE (31), QUIET BACKS (59),</p><p>STILL WATER (71) - it</p><p>seems quite likely, then, that this randomness of density does harm to urban life.</p><p>We believe, indeed, that a town would be far better off if it did contain a coherent</p><p>pattern of densities. We present a systematic account of the factors which might naturally</p><p>influence the pattern of density - in the hope of showing what kind of coherent pattern might</p><p>be sensible and useful. The argument has five steps.</p><p>1. We may assume, reasonably, that some kind of center, formed by local services,</p><p>will occur at least once in every community of 7000. This center will typically be</p><p>the kind we have called a SHOPPING STREET (32). In WEB OF SHOPPING</p><p>(19) we have shown that shopping streets occur about once for every 10,000</p><p>persons.</p><p>2. From the arguments presented in SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY (13), we know that</p><p>this center of activity, since it is a service, should occur in the boundary between</p><p>subcultures, should help to form the boundary between subcultures, and should</p><p>therefore be located in the area of the boundary not inside the community, but</p><p>between communities.</p><p>3. We know, also, that this center must be in just</p><p>that part of the boundary which is closest to</p><p>the center of the larger town or city. This</p><p>follows from a dramatic and little known</p><p>series of results which show that catch</p><p>basins of shopping centers are not circles,</p><p>as one might naively suppose, but half-</p><p>circles, with the half-circle on that side of</p><p>the center away from the central city,</p><p>because people always go to that shopping</p><p>center which lies toward the center of</p><p>their city, never to the one which lies</p><p>toward the city's periphery.</p><p>Brennan's catch basins.</p><p>This phenomenon was originally discovered by Brennan in his post-war</p><p>studies of Wolverhampton (T. Brennan, Midland City,London: Dobson, 1948). It</p><p>has, since then, been confirmed and studied by several writers, most notably</p><p>Terence Lee, "Perceived Distance as a Function of Direction in the City,"</p><p>Environment and Behavior, June 1970, 40-51. Lee has shown that the</p><p>phenomenon is not only caused by the fact that people are simply more familiar</p><p>with the roads and paths that lie toward the center, and use them more often, but</p><p>80</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl28\apl28.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl28\apl28.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl71\apl71.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl59\apl59.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl24\apl24.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl24\apl24.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl32\apl32.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl32\apl32.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl31\apl31.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl29\apl29.htm</p><p>that their very perception of distance varies with direction, and that distances</p><p>along lines toward the center are seen as much shorter than distances along</p><p>lines away from the center.</p><p>Since we certainly want the community to correspond with the catch basin</p><p>of its "center" it is essential, then, that the</p><p>center be placed off-center in fact, at that</p><p>point in the community which lies toward the</p><p>center of the larger city. This is, of course,</p><p>compatible with the notion discussed</p><p>already, that the center should lie in the</p><p>boundary of the community.</p><p>Eccentric centers.</p><p>4. Even though the center lies on one side of the community, forming a boundary of</p><p>the community, we may also assume that the center does need to bulge into the</p><p>community just a little. This follows from the fact that, even though services do</p><p>need to be in the boundary of the community, not in its middle, still, people do</p><p>have some need for the psychological</p><p>center of their community to be at least</p><p>somewhere toward the geometric center of</p><p>gravity. If we make the boundary bulge</p><p>toward the geometric center, then this axis</p><p>will naturally form a center and, further, its</p><p>catch basin, according to the data given</p><p>above, will correspond almost perfectly with</p><p>the community.</p><p>The inward bulge.</p><p>5. Finally, although we know that the center needs to be mainly in the boundary, we do</p><p>not know exactly just how large it needs to be. At the edge of the city, where the</p><p>overall density is low the center will be small. At the</p><p>center of the city, where the overall density is higher, it</p><p>will be larger, because the greater density of population</p><p>supports more services. In both cases, it will be in the</p><p>boundary. If it is too large to be contained at one point, it</p><p>will naturally extend itself along the boundary, but still</p><p>within the boundary, thus forming a lune, a partial</p><p>horseshoe, long or short, according to its position in the</p><p>greater city.</p><p>A partial horseshoe.</p><p>These rules are rather simple. If we follow them, we shall find a beautiful gradient of</p><p>overlapping imbricated horseshoes, not unlike the scales of a fish. If the city gradually gets</p><p>81</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl28\apl28.htm</p><p>this highly coherent structure, then we can be sure that the articulation of dense areas, and</p><p>areas of little density, will be so clear that both activity and quiet can exist, each intense,</p><p>unmixed, and each available to everyone.</p><p>Given this overall configuration, now calculate the average densities at different</p><p>distances from this ridge of high density, according to the computations given in the next</p><p>pattern DENSITY RINGS (29); keep major shopping streets and promenades toward the</p><p>dense part of the horseshoe - ACTIVITY NODES (30), PROMENADE (31), SHOPPING</p><p>STREET (32); and keep quiet areas toward the open part of the horseshoe - SACRED</p><p>SITES (24), QUIET BACKS (59), STILL WATER (71)....</p><p>29 .DENSITY RINGS</p><p>. . . in ECCENTRIC NUCLEUS (28) we have given a general</p><p>form for the configuration of density "peaks" and "valleys," with</p><p>respect to the MOSAlC OF SUBCULTURES (8) and SUBCULTURE</p><p>BOUNDARIES (13). Suppose now that the center of commercial</p><p>activity in a COMMUNITY OF 7000 (12)</p><p>is placed according to the</p><p>prescriptions of ECCENTRIC NUCLEUS (28), and according to the</p><p>overall density within the region. We then face the problem of</p><p>establishing local densities, for house clusters and work</p><p>communities, at different distances around this peak. This pattern</p><p>gives a rule for working out the gradient of these local densities.</p><p>Most concretely, this gradient of density can be specified, by drawing</p><p>rings at different distances from the main center of activity and then</p><p>assigning different densities to each ring, so that the densities in the</p><p>succeeding rings create the gradient of density. The gradient will</p><p>vary from community to community both according to a community's</p><p>position in the region, and according to the cultural background of</p><p>the people.</p><p>People want to be close to shops and services, for excitement and convenience. And</p><p>they want to be away from services, for quiet and green. The exact balance of these two</p><p>desires varies from person to person, but in the aggregate it is the balance of these two</p><p>desires which determines the gradient of housing densities in a neighborhood.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Once the nucleus of a community is clearly placed - define rings of decreasing local</p><p>housing density around this nucleus. If you cannot avoid it, choose the densities from the</p><p>foregoing table. But, much better, if you can possibly manage it, play the density rings</p><p>game, to obtain these densities, from the intuitions of the very people who are going to live</p><p>in the community.</p><p>82</p><p>In order to be precise about the gradient of</p><p>housing densities, let us agree at once, to analyze the</p><p>densities by means of three concentric semi-circular</p><p>rings, of equal radial thickness, around the main</p><p>center of activity.</p><p>Rings of equal thickness.</p><p>[We make them semi-circles, rather than full circles,</p><p>since it has been shown, empirically, that the catch basin of a given local center is a half-</p><p>circle, on the side away from the city see discussion in</p><p>ECCENTRIC NUCLEUS (28) and the refercnces to Brennan</p><p>and Lee given in that pattern. However, even if you do not</p><p>accept this finding, and wish to assume that the circles are</p><p>full circles, the following analysis remains essentially</p><p>unchanged.] We now define a density gradient, as a set of</p><p>three densities, one for each of the three rings.</p><p>A density gradient.</p><p>Imagine that the three rings of some actual neighborhood</p><p>have densities D1, D2, D3. And assume, now, that a new</p><p>person moves into this neighborhood. As we have said, within the given density gradient, he</p><p>will choose to live in that ring, where his liking for green and quiet just balances his liking for</p><p>access to shops and public services. This means that each person is essentially faced with</p><p>a choice among three alternative density-distance combinations:</p><p>Ring 1. The density D1, with a distance of about R1 to shops.</p><p>Ring 2. The density D2, with a distance of about R2 to shops.</p><p>Ring 3. The density D3, with a distance of about R3 to shops.</p><p>Now, of course, each person will make a different choice according to his own</p><p>personal preference for the balance of density and distance. Let us imagine, just for the</p><p>sake of argument, that all the people in the neighborhood are asked to make this choice</p><p>(forgetting, for a moment, which houses are available). Some will choose ring 1, some ring</p><p>2, and some ring 3. Suppose that N1 choose ring 1, N2 choose ring 2, and N3 choose ring 3.</p><p>Since the three rings have specific, well-defined areas, the numbers of people who have</p><p>chosen the three areas, can be turned into hypothetical densities. In other words, if we (in</p><p>imagination) distribute the people among the three rings according to their choices, we can</p><p>work out the hypothetical densities which would occur in the three rings as a result.</p><p>Now we are suddenly faced with two fascinating possibilities:</p><p>I. These new densities are different from the actual densities.</p><p>II. These new densities are the same as the actual densities.</p><p>83</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl28\apl28.htm</p><p>Case I is much more likely to occur. But this is unstable - since people's choices will</p><p>tend to change the densities. Case II, which is less likely to occur, is stable since it means</p><p>that people, choosing freely, will together re-create the very same pattern of density within</p><p>which they have made these choices. This distinction is fundamental.</p><p>If we assume that a given neighborhood, with a given total area, must accommodate a</p><p>certain number of people (given by the average density of people at that point in the region),</p><p>then there is just one configuration of densities which is stable in this sense. We now</p><p>describe a computational procedure which can be used to obtain this stable density</p><p>configuration.</p><p>Before we explain yhe computational procedure, we must explain how very</p><p>fundamental and important this kind of stable density configuration is.</p><p>In today's world, where density gradients are usually not stable, in our sense, most</p><p>people are forced to live under conditions where the balance of quiet and activity does not</p><p>correspond to their wishes or their needs, because the total number of available houses and</p><p>apartments at different distances is inappropriate. What happens, then, is that the rich, who</p><p>can afford to pay for what they want, are able to find houses and apartments with the</p><p>balance that they want; the not so rich and poor are forced to take the leavings. All this is</p><p>made legitimate by the middleclass economics of "ground rent" - the idea that land at</p><p>different distances from centers of activity, commands different prices, because more or</p><p>less people want to be at those distances. But actually the fact of differential ground rent is</p><p>an economic mechanism which springs up, within an unstable density configuration, to</p><p>compensate for its instability.</p><p>We want to point out that in a neighborhood with a stable density configuration (stable</p><p>in our sense of the word), the land would not need to cost different prices at different</p><p>distances, because the total available number of houses in each ring would exactly</p><p>correspond to the number of people who wanted to live at those distances. With demand</p><p>equal to supply in every ring, the ground rents, or the price of land, could be the same in</p><p>every ring, and everyone, rich and poor, could be certain of having the balance they require.</p><p>We now come to the problem of computing the stable densities for a given</p><p>neighborhood. The stability depends on very subtle psychological forces; so far as we know</p><p>these forces cannot be represented in any psychologically accurate way by mathematical</p><p>equations, and it is therefore, at least for the moment, impossible to give a mathematical</p><p>model for the stable density. Instead, we have chosen to use the fact that each person can</p><p>make choices about his required balance of activity and quiet, and to use people's choices,</p><p>within a simple game, as the source of the computation. In short, we have constructed a</p><p>game, which allows one to obtain the stable density configuration within a few minutes. This</p><p>game essentially simulates the behavior of the real system, and is, we believe, far more</p><p>reliable than any mathematical computation.</p><p>DENSlTY GRADIENTS GAME</p><p>1. First draw a map of the three concentric half rings. Make it a half-circle - if you</p><p>accept the arguments of ECCENTRIC NUCLEUS (28) - otherwise a full circle</p><p>Smooth this half-circle to fit the horseshoe of the highest density mark its center</p><p>as the center of that horseshoe.</p><p>2. It the overall radius of the half-circle is R, then the mean radii of the three rings are</p><p>R1,R2,R3 given by:</p><p>84</p><p>R1 = R/6</p><p>R2 = 3R/6</p><p>R3= 5R/6</p><p>3. Make up a board for the game,</p><p>which has the three concentric circles shown on it,</p><p>with the radii marked in blocks, so people can understand them easily, i.e., 1000</p><p>feet = 3 blocks.</p><p>4. Decide on the total population of this neighborhood. This is the same as settling on</p><p>an overallaverage net density for the area. It will have to be roughly compatible</p><p>with the overall pattern of density in the region. Let us say that the total</p><p>population of the community is N families.</p><p>5. Find ten people who are roughly similar to the people in the community - vis-a-vis</p><p>cultural habits, background, and so on. If possible, they should be ten of the</p><p>people in the actual community itself.</p><p>6. Show the players a set of photographs of areas that show typical best examples of</p><p>different population densities (in families per gross acre), and leave these</p><p>photographs on display throughout the game so that people can use them when</p><p>they make their choices.</p><p>7. Give each player a disk, which he can place on the board in one of the three rings.</p><p>8. Now, to start the game, decide what percentage of the total population is to be in</p><p>each of the three rings. It doesn't matter what percentages you choose to start</p><p>with they will soon right themselves as the game gets under way - but, for the</p><p>sake of simplicity, choose multiples of 10 per cent for each ring, i.e., 10 per cent</p><p>in ring 1, 30 per cent in ring 2, 60 per cent in ring 3. 9. Now translate these</p><p>percentages into actual densities of families per net acre. Since you will have to</p><p>do this many times during the course of the game, it is advisable to construct a</p><p>table which translates percentages directly into densities. You can make up such</p><p>a table by inserting the values for N and R which you have chosen for your</p><p>community into the formulae below. The formulae are based on the simple</p><p>arithmetic of area, and population. R is expressed in hundreds of yards roughly in</p><p>blocks. The densities are expressed in families per gross acre. Multiply each ring</p><p>density by a number between 1 and 10, according to the per cent in that ring.</p><p>Thus, if there are 30 per cent in ring 3, the density there is 3 times the entry in the</p><p>formule, or 24N/5¼R2.10%</p><p>Ring 1: 8N/¼R2</p><p>Ring 2: 8N/3¼R2</p><p>Ring 3: 8N/5¼R2</p><p>(*=pi=3.14)</p><p>10. Once you have found the proper densities, from the formulae, write them on three</p><p>slips of paper, and place these slips into their appropriate rings, on the garne</p><p>board.</p><p>11. The slips define a tentative density configuration for the community. Each ring has</p><p>a certain typical distance from the center. And each ring has a density. Ask</p><p>people to look carefully at the pictures which represent these densities, and then</p><p>to decide which of the three rings gives them the best balance of quiet and green,</p><p>85</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl29\apl29.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl29\apl29.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl28\apl28.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl15\apl15.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl100\apl100.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl52\apl52.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl52\apl52.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl52\apl52.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl31\apl31.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl123\apl123.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl61\apl61.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl31\apl31.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl39\apl39.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl38\apl38.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl37\apl37.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl37\apl37.htm</p><p>as against access to shops. Ask each person to place his disk in the ring he</p><p>chooses.</p><p>12. When all ten disks are on the board, this defines a new distribution of population.</p><p>Probably, it is different from the one you started with. Now make up a new set of</p><p>percentages, half-way between the one you originally defined, and the one which</p><p>people's disks define, and, again, round off the percentages to the nearest 10 per</p><p>cent. Here is an example of the way you can get new percentages.</p><p>Old percentages People's disks New percentages</p><p>10% 3 == 30% ----> 20%</p><p>30°% 4 == 40% ----> 30%</p><p>60% 3 == 30% ----> 5°%</p><p>As you see, the new ones are not perfectly half-way between the other two - but</p><p>as near as you can get, and still have multiples of ten. 13. Now go back to step 9,</p><p>and go through 9, 10, 11, 12 again and again, until the percentages defined by</p><p>people's disks are the same as the ones you defined for that round. If you turn</p><p>these last stable percentages into densities, you have found the stable density</p><p>configuration for this community. Stop, and have a drink all round.</p><p>In our experiments, we have found that this game reaches a stable state very quickly</p><p>indeed. Ten people, in a few minutes, can define a stable density distribution. We have</p><p>presented the results of one set of games in the table which follows below.</p><p>STABLE DENSITY DISTRIBUTIONS FOR DIFFERENT SIZED COMMUNITIES</p><p>These figures are for semi-circular communities.</p><p>Density in families per gross acre</p><p>Radius</p><p>Population</p><p>i</p><p>n</p><p>f</p><p>a</p><p>m</p><p>i</p><p>l</p><p>i</p><p>e</p><p>s</p><p>Ring 1 Ring 2 Ring 3</p><p>2 150 15 9 5</p><p>3 150 7 5 2</p><p>3 300 21 7 5</p><p>4 300 7 3 2</p><p>4 600 29 7 4</p><p>6 600 15 4 2</p><p>86</p><p>6 1200 36 9 3</p><p>9 1200 18 5 1</p><p>It is essential to recognize that the densities given in this table cannot wisely be used just as</p><p>they stand. The figures will vary with the exact geometry of the neighborhood and with</p><p>different cultural attitudes in different subcultures. For this reason, we consider it essential</p><p>that the people of a given community, who want to apply this pattern, play the game</p><p>themselves, in order to find a stable gradient of densities for their own situation. The</p><p>numbers we have given above are more for the sake of illustration than anything else.</p><p>Within the rings of density,</p><p>encourage housing to take the form of housing clusters -</p><p>self-governing cooperatives of 8 to 15 households, their physical size varying according to</p><p>the density - HOUSE CLUSTER (37). According to the densities in the different rings, build</p><p>these houses as free-standing houses -HOUSE CLUSTER (37), ROW HOUSES (38), or</p><p>higher density clusters of housing - HOUSING HILL (39). Keep public spaces -</p><p>PROMENADE (31), SMALL PUBLIC SQUARES (61) to those areas which have a high</p><p>enough density around them to keep them alive PEDESTRIAN DENSITY (123) . . . .</p><p>30 .ACTIVITY NODES</p><p>. . . this pattern forms those essential nodes of life which help to generate</p><p>IDENTIFlABLE NEIGHBORHOOD (14), PROMENADE (31), NETWORK OF PATHS AND</p><p>CARS (52), and PEDESTRIAN STREET (100).</p><p>To understand its action, imagine that a</p><p>community and its boundary are growing under</p><p>the influence of COMMUNITY OF 7000 (12),</p><p>SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY (13),</p><p>IDENTIFIABLE NEIGHBORHOOD (14),</p><p>NEIGHBORHOOD BOUNDARY (15 ),</p><p>ECCENTRIC NUCLEUS (28), and DENSITY</p><p>RINGS (29) . As they grow, certain "stars"</p><p>begin to form, where the most important paths</p><p>meet. These stars are potentially the vital spots</p><p>of a community. The growth of these stars and</p><p>of the paths which form them need to be guided</p><p>to form genuine communi ty crossroads.</p><p>Community facilities scattered individually through the city do nothing for the life of the</p><p>city.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>87</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl93\apl93.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl90\apl90.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl88\apl88.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl87\apl87.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl85\apl85.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl84\apl84.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl65\apl65.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl47\apl47.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl44\apl44.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl44\apl44.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl43\apl43.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl61\apl61.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl36\apl36.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl120\apl120.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl33\apl33.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl31\apl31.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl33\apl33.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl61\apl61.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl61\apl61.htm</p><p>Create nodes of activity throughout the community, spread about 300 yards apart.</p><p>First identify those existing spots in the community where action seems to concentrate itself.</p><p>Then modify the layout of the paths in the community to bring as many of them through</p><p>these spots as possible. This makes each spot function as a "node" in the path network.</p><p>Then, at the center of each node, make a small public square, and surround it with a</p><p>combination of community facilities and shops which are mutually supportive.</p><p>One of the greatest problems in existing</p><p>communities is the fact that the available public life in</p><p>them is spread so thin that it has no impact on the</p><p>community. It is not in any real sense available to the</p><p>members of the community. Studies of pedestrian</p><p>behavior make it clear that people seek out</p><p>concentrations of other people, whenever they are</p><p>available (for instance, Jan Gehl, "Mennesker til Fods</p><p>(Pedestrians)," Arkitekten, No. 20, 1968).</p><p>To create these concentrations of people in a</p><p>community, facilities must be grouped densely round</p><p>very small public squares which can function as nodes -</p><p>with all pedestrian movement in the community</p><p>organized to pass through these nodes. Such nodes require four properties.</p><p>First, each node must draw together the main paths in the surrounding community.</p><p>The major pedestrian paths should converge on the square, with minor paths funneling into</p><p>the major ones, to create the basic star-shape of the pattern. This is much harder to do than</p><p>one might imagine. To give an example of the difficulty</p><p>which arises when we try to build this relationship into</p><p>a town, we show the following plan - a scheme of ours</p><p>for housing in Peru - in which the paths are all</p><p>convergent on a very small number of squares.</p><p>Public paths converge on centers of action.</p><p>This is not a very good plan - it is too stiff and formal. But it is possible to achieve the</p><p>same relationship in a far more relaxed manner. In any case the relationship between paths,</p><p>community facilities, and squares is vital and hard to achieve. It must be taken seriously,</p><p>from the very outset, as a major feature of the city.</p><p>Second, to keep the activity concentrated, it is essential to make the squares rather</p><p>small, smaller than one might imagine. A square of about 45 x 60 feet can keep the normal</p><p>pace of public life well concentrated. This figure is discussed in detail under SMALL PUBLIC</p><p>SQUARE (61) .</p><p>Third, the facilities grouped around any one node must</p><p>be chosen for their symbiotic relationships. It is not enough</p><p>merely to group communal</p><p>functions in so-called community</p><p>centers. For example, church,</p><p>cinema, kindergarten, and police</p><p>88</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher</p><p>Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>station are all community facilities, but they do not support one another mutually. Different</p><p>people go to them, at different times, with different things in mind. There is no point in</p><p>grouping them together. To create intensity of action, the facilities which are placed together</p><p>round any one node must function in a cooperative manner, and must attract the same</p><p>kinds of people, at the same times of day. For example, when evening entertainments are</p><p>grouped together, the people who are having a night out can use any one of them, and the</p><p>total concentration of action increases - see NIGHT LIFE (33). When kindergartens and</p><p>small parks and gardens are grouped together, young families with children may use either,</p><p>so their total attraction is incre ased.</p><p>Fourth, these activity nodes should be distributed rather evenly across the community,</p><p>so that no house or workplace is more than a few hundred yards from one. In this way a</p><p>contrast of "busy and quiet" can be achieved at a small scale - and large dead areas can be</p><p>avoided.</p><p>Nodes of different size.</p><p>Connect those centers which are most dense, with a wider, more important path for</p><p>strolling PROMENADE (31); make special centers for night activities NIGHT LIFE (33);</p><p>whenever new paths are built, make certain that they pass through the centers, so that they</p><p>intensify the life still further PATHS AND GOALS (120); and differentiate the paths so they</p><p>are wide near the centers and smaller away from them DEGREES OF PUBLICNESS (36).</p><p>At the heart of every center, build a small public square - SMALL PUBLIC SQUARES (61),</p><p>and surround each square with an appropriate mix of mutually self-reinforcing facilities -</p><p>WORK COMMUNITY (41), UNIVERSITY AS A MARKETPLACE (43), LOCAL TOWN HALL</p><p>(44), HEALTH CENTER (47), BIRTH PLACES (65), TEENAGE SOCIETY (84),</p><p>SHOPFRONT SCHOOL (85), INDIVlDUALLY OWNED SHOPS (87), STREET CAFE (88),</p><p>BEER HALL (90), FOOD STANDS (93 ). . . .</p><p>31. PROMENADE</p><p>. . . assume now that there is an urban area,</p><p>subdivided into subcultures and communities each</p><p>with its boundaries. Each subculture in the MOSAlC</p><p>OF SUBCULTURES (8), and each COMMUNITY OF</p><p>7000 (12) has a promenade as its backbone. And</p><p>each promenade helps to form ACTIVITY NODES</p><p>(30) along its length, by generating the flow of people</p><p>which the activity nodes need in order to survive.</p><p>89</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl123\apl123.htm</p><p>Each subculture needs a center for its public life: a place where you can go to see</p><p>people, and to be seen.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Encourage the gradual formation of a promenade at the heart of every community,</p><p>linking the main activity nodes, and placed centrally, so that each point in the community is</p><p>within 10 minutes' walk of it. Put main points of attraction at the two ends, to keep a</p><p>constant movement up and down.</p><p>The promenade, "paseo," "passegiata,"</p><p>evening stroll, is common in the small towns of Italy,</p><p>Spain, Mexico, Greece, Yugoslavia, Sicily, and</p><p>South America. People go there to walk up and</p><p>down, to meet their friends, to stare at strangers,</p><p>and to let strangers stare at them.</p><p>Throughout history there have been places in</p><p>the city where people who shared a set of values</p><p>could go to get in touch with each other. These</p><p>places have always been like street theaters: they invite people to watch others, to stroll and</p><p>browse, and to loiter:</p><p>In Mexico, in any small town plaza every Thursday and Sunday night with the band</p><p>playing and the weather mild, the boys walk this way, the girls walk that, around and</p><p>around, and the mothers and fathers sit on iron-scrolled benches and watch. (Ray</p><p>Bradbury, "The girls walk this way; the boys walk that way . . ." West, Los Angeles Times</p><p>Sunday Magazine, April 5, 1970.)</p><p>In all these places the beauty of the promenade is simply this: people with a shared</p><p>way of life gather together to rub shoulders and confirm their community.</p><p>Is the promenade in fact a purely Latin institution? Our experiments suggest that it is</p><p>not. The fact is that the kinds of promenades where this strolling happens are not common</p><p>in a city, and they are especially uncommon in a sprawling urban region. But experiments</p><p>by Luis Racionero at the Department of Architecture at the University of California,</p><p>Berkeley, have shown that wherever the possibility of this public contact does exist, people</p><p>will seek it, as long as it is close enough. Racionero interviewed 37 people in several parts</p><p>of San Francisco, living various distances from a promenade, and found that people who</p><p>lived within 20 minutes used it, while people who lived more than 20 minutes away did not.</p><p>Do not use the promenade Use the promenade People who live less than 20 minutes</p><p>away 13 1 People who live more than 20 minutes away 5 18</p><p>It seems that people, of all cultures, may have a general need for the kind of human</p><p>mixing which the promenade makes possible; but that if it is too far, the effort to get there</p><p>simply outweighs the importance of the need. In short, to make sure that all the people in a</p><p>city can satisfy this need, there must be promenades at frequent intervals. Exactly how</p><p>frequent should they be? Racionero establishes 20 minutes</p><p>90</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl121\apl121.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl121\apl121.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl100\apl100.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl63\apl63.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl58\apl58.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl32\apl32.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl33\apl33.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl123\apl123.htm</p><p>as the upper limit, but his survey does not investigate frequency of use. We know that the</p><p>closer the promenade is, the more often people will use it. We guess that if the promenade</p><p>is within 10 minutes or less, people will use it often perhaps even once or twice a week. The</p><p>relation between the catch basin of the promenade, and the actual physical paved area of</p><p>the promenade itself, is extremely critical. We show in PEDESTRIAN DENSITY (123), that</p><p>places with less than one person for every 150 to 300 square feet of paved surface, will</p><p>seem dead and uninviting. It is therefore essential to be certain that the number of people</p><p>who might, typically, be out strolling on the promenade, is large enough to maintain this</p><p>pedestrian density along its length. To check this relation,</p><p>we calculate as follows: A 10-</p><p>minute walk amounts to roughly 1500 feet (150 feet per minute), which is probably also</p><p>about the right length for the promenade itself. This means that the catch basin for a</p><p>promenade has a shape roughly like this:</p><p>A promenade and its catch basin.</p><p>This area contains 320 acres. If we assume an average density of 50 people per gross</p><p>acre, then there are 16,000 people in the area. If one-fifth of this population uses the</p><p>promenade once a week, for an hour between 6 and 10 p.m., then at any given moment</p><p>between those hours, there are some 100 people on the promenade. If it is 1500 feet long,</p><p>at 300 square feet per person, it can therefore be 20 feet wide, at the most, and would be</p><p>better if it were closer to 10 feet wide. It is feasible, but only just. We see then, that a</p><p>promenade 1500 feet long, with the catch basin we have defined and the population density</p><p>stated, should be able to maintain a lively density of activity, provided that it is not more than</p><p>about 20 feet wide. We want to emphasize that a promenade will not work unless the</p><p>pedestrian density is high enough, and that a calculation of this kind must always be made</p><p>to check its feasibilily.</p><p>The preceding figures are meant to be illustrative. They establish a rough order of</p><p>magnitude for promenades and. their catch basin populations. But we have also seen</p><p>successful promenades for populations of 2000 (a fishing village in Peru); and we have</p><p>seen a promenade for 2,000,000 (Las Ramblas in Barcelona). They both work, although</p><p>they are very different in character. The small one with its catch basin of 2000 works,</p><p>because the cultural habit of the paseo is so strong there, a higher percentage of the people</p><p>use it more often, and the density of people on the promenade is less than we would</p><p>imagine - it is so beautiful that people enjoy it even if it is not so crowded. The large one</p><p>works as a city wide event. People are willing to drive a long distance to it - they may not</p><p>come as often, but when they do, it is worth the ride - it is exciting - packed - teeming with</p><p>people.</p><p>We imagine the pattern of promenades in a city to be just</p><p>as varied a continuum ranging from small local promenades</p><p>serving 2000 people to large intense ones serving the entire</p><p>city - each different in character and density of action. Finally,</p><p>what are the characteristics of a successful promenade? Since</p><p>people come to see people and to be seen, a promenade must</p><p>have a high density of pedestrians using it. It must therefore be</p><p>associated with places that in themselves attract people, for</p><p>example, clusters of eating places and small shops.</p><p>91</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl19\apl19.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl31\apl31.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl10\apl10.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl10\apl10.htm</p><p>A promenade in Paris.</p><p>Further, even though the real reasons for coming might have to do with seeing people</p><p>and being seen, people find it easier to take a walk if they have a "destination." This</p><p>destination may be real, like a coke shop or cafe, or it may be partly imaginary, "let's walk</p><p>round the block." But the promenade must provide people with a strong goal.</p><p>It is also important that people do not have to walk too far between the most important</p><p>points along the promenade. Informal observation suggests that any point which is more</p><p>than 150 feet from activity becomes unsavory and unused. In short, good promenades are</p><p>part of a path through the most active parts of the community; they are suitable as</p><p>destinations for an evening walk; the walk is not too long, and nowhere on it desolate: no</p><p>point of the stroll is more than 150 feet from a hub of activity.</p><p>A variety of facilities will function as destinations along the promenade: ice cream</p><p>parlors, coke shops, churches, public gardens, movie houses, bars, volleyball courts. Their</p><p>potential will depend on the extent to which it is possible to make provisions for people to</p><p>stay: widening of pedestrian paths, planting of trees, walls to lean against, stairs and</p><p>benches and niches for sitting, opening of street fronts to provide sidewalk cafes, or</p><p>displays of activities or goods where people might like to linger.</p><p>No matter how large the promenade is, there must be enough people coming to it to</p><p>make it dense with action, and this can be precisely calculated by the formula of</p><p>PEDESTRIAN DENSITY (123). The promenade is mainly marked by concentrations of</p><p>activity along its length ACTIVITY NODES (30); naturally, some of these will be open at</p><p>night - NIGHT LIFE (33); and somewhere on the promenade there will be a concentration of</p><p>shops - SHOPPING STREET (32). It might also be appropriate to include CARNIVAL (58)</p><p>and DANCING IN THE STREET (63) in very large promenades. The detailed physical</p><p>character of the promenade is given by PEDESTRIAN STREET (1OO) and PATH SHAPE</p><p>(121). . . .</p><p>32 .SHOPPING STREET</p><p>. . . this pattern helps to complete the MAGIC OF</p><p>THE CITY (10) and PROMENADE (31). And, each time</p><p>a shopping street gets built, it will also help to generate</p><p>the WEB OF SHOPPING (19).</p><p>Shopping centers depend on access: they need</p><p>locations near major traffic arteries. However, the</p><p>shoppers themselves don't benefit from traffic: they</p><p>need quiet, comfort, and convenience, and access from</p><p>the pedestrian paths in the surrounding area.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>92</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl10\apl10.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl48\apl48.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl48\apl48.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl46\apl46.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl244\apl244.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl97\apl97.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl54\apl54.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl87\apl87.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl87\apl87.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl52\apl52.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl100\apl100.htm</p><p>Encourage local shopping centers to grow in the form of short pedestrian streets, at</p><p>right angles to major roads and opening off these roads with parking behind the shops, so</p><p>that the cars can pull directly off the road, and yet not harm the shopping street.</p><p>This simple</p><p>and obvious conflict has almost never been effectively resolved. On the</p><p>one hand, we have shopping strips. Here the shops are</p><p>arranged along the major traffic arteries. This is convenient for</p><p>cars, but it is not convenient for pedestrians. A strip does not</p><p>4ave the characteristics which pedestrian areas need.</p><p>Shopping strip f or cars.</p><p>On the other hand, we</p><p>have those "pre-</p><p>automobile" shopping streets in the center of old towns.</p><p>Here the pedestrians' needs are taken into account, at</p><p>least partially. But, as the town spreads out and the</p><p>streets become congested, they are inconvenient to reach;</p><p>and again the cars dominate the narrow streets.</p><p>Old shopping street - inconvenient f or cars and people.</p><p>The modern solution is the shopping center. They are</p><p>usually located along, or near to, major traffic arteries, so they</p><p>are convenient for cars; and they often have pedestrian</p><p>precincts in them so that, in theory at least, they are</p><p>comfortable and convenient for pedestrians. But they are</p><p>usually isolated, in the middle of a vast parking lot, and</p><p>thereby disconnected from the pedestrian fabric of the</p><p>surrounding areas. In short, you cannot walk to them.</p><p>New shopping center - only f or cars.</p><p>To be convenient for traffic, and convenient for people walking, and connected to the</p><p>fabric of the surrounding town, the shops must be arranged along a street, itself pedestrian,</p><p>but opening off a major traffie artery, perhaps two, with parking behind, or underneath, to</p><p>keep the cars from isolating the shops from surrounding areas.</p><p>We observed this pattern growing spontaneously in certain neighborhoods of Lima,</p><p>Peru: a wide road is set down for automobile traffic, and the shops begin to form</p><p>themselves, in pedestrian streets that are perpendicular off-shoots off this road.</p><p>93</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl31\apl31.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>Shopping streets growing spontaneously in Lima, Peru.</p><p>This pattern is also the form of the famous Stroget in Copenhagen. The Stroget is the</p><p>central shopping spine for the city; it is extremely long - almost a mile - and is entirely</p><p>pedestrian, only cut periodically by roads which run at right angles to it.</p><p>Treat the physical character of the street like any other PEDESTRIAN STREET (1OO)</p><p>on the NETWORK OF PATHS AND CARS (52), at right angles to major PARALLEL.</p><p>ROADS (23); have as many shops as small as possible - INDIVIDUALLY OWNED SHOPS</p><p>(87); where the shopping street crosses the road, make the crossing wide, giving priority to</p><p>the pedestrians ROAD CROSSTNG (54); parking can easily be provided by a single row of</p><p>parking spaces in an alley lying behind the shops all along the backs of the shops, off the</p><p>alley, with the parking spaces walled, and perhaps even given canvas roofs, so that they</p><p>don't destroy the area - SHIELDED PARKING (97), CANVAS ROOFS (244). Make sure that</p><p>every shopping street includes a MARKET OF MANY SHOPS (46), and some HOUSING IN</p><p>BETWEEN (48 ) . . . .</p><p>33 .NIGHT LIFE</p><p>. . . every community has some kind of public</p><p>night life - MAGIC OF THE CITY (10), COMMUNITY</p><p>OF 7000 (12). If there is a promenade in the</p><p>community, the night life is probably along the</p><p>promenade, at least in part PROMENADE (31). This</p><p>pattern describes the details of the concentration of</p><p>night time activities.</p><p>Most of the city's activities close down at night;</p><p>those which stay open won't do much for the night life</p><p>of the city unless they are together.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Knit together shops, amusements, and services</p><p>which are open at night, along with hotels, bars, and</p><p>all-night diners to form centers of night life: well-lit, safe,</p><p>and lively places that increase the intensity of</p><p>pedestrian activity at night by drawing all the people</p><p>who are out at night to the same few spots in the town.</p><p>Encourage these evening centers to distribute</p><p>themselves evenly across the town.</p><p>94</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl11\apl11.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl16\apl16.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl16\apl16.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl16\apl16.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl91\apl91.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl90\apl90.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl88\apl88.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl63\apl63.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl63\apl63.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl58\apl58.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl44\apl44.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>This pattern is drawn from the following seven points:</p><p>1. People enjoy going out at night; a night on the town is</p><p>something special.</p><p>2. If evening activities such as movies, cafes, ice cream</p><p>parlors, gas stations, and bars are scattered</p><p>throughout the community, each one by itself</p><p>cannot generate enough attraction.</p><p>One bar by itself is a lonely place at night.</p><p>3. Many people do not go out at night because they feel they have no place to go.</p><p>They do not feel like going out to a specifc establishment, but they do feel like</p><p>going out. An evening center, particularly when it is</p><p>full of light, functions as a focus for such people.</p><p>4. Fear of the dark, especially in those places far away</p><p>from one's own back yard, is a common</p><p>experience, and quite simple to understand.</p><p>Throughout our evolution night has been a time to</p><p>stay quiet and protected, not a time to move about</p><p>freely.</p><p>A cluster of night spots creates life in the street.</p><p>5. Nowadays this instinct is anchored in the fact that at night street crimes are most</p><p>prevalent in places where there are too few pedestrians to provide natural</p><p>surveillance, but enough pedestrians to make it worth a thief's while, in other</p><p>words, dark, isolated night spots invite crime. A paper by Shlomo Angel, "The</p><p>Ecology of Night Life" (Center for</p><p>Environmental Structure, Berkeley, ~968),</p><p>shows the highest number of street crimes</p><p>occurring in those areas where night spots</p><p>are scattered. Areas of very low or very high</p><p>night pedestrian density are subject to much</p><p>less crime.</p><p>Isolated night spots invite crime.</p><p>6. It is difficult to estimate the exact number of night spots that need to be grouped to</p><p>create a sense of night life. From observation, we guess that it takes about six,</p><p>minimum. 7. On the</p><p>the distribution.</p><p>towns of 1,000,000 - 250 miles apart</p><p>towns of 100,000 - 80 miles apart</p><p>towns of 10,000 - 25 miles apart</p><p>towns of 1,000 - 8 miles apart</p><p>Two different necessities govern the distribution of population in a region. On the one</p><p>hand, people are drawn to cities: they are drawn by the growth of civilization, jobs,</p><p>education, economic growth, information. On the other hand, the region as a social and</p><p>ecological whole will not be properly maintained unless the people of the region are fairly</p><p>well spread out across it, living in many different kinds of settlentents - farms, villages,</p><p>towns, and cities-with each settlement taking care of the land around it. Industrial society</p><p>has so far been following only the first of these necessities. People leave the farms and</p><p>towns and villages and pack into the cities, leaving vast parts of the region depopulated and</p><p>undermaintained.</p><p>In order to establish a reasonable distribution of population within a region, we must fix</p><p>two separate features of the distribution: its statistical character and its spatial character.</p><p>First, we must be sure that the statistical distribution of towns, by size, is appropriate: we</p><p>must be sure that there are many small towns and few large ones. Second, we must then</p><p>be sure that the spatial distribution of towns within the region is appropriate: we must be</p><p>sure that the towns in any given size category are evenly spread out across the region, not</p><p>highly concentrated.</p><p>In practice, the statistical distribution will take care of itself. A large number of studies</p><p>has shown that the natural demographic and political and economic processes at work in</p><p>city growth and population movement will create a distribution of towns with many small</p><p>towns and few large ones; and indeed, the nature of this distribution does correspond,</p><p>13</p><p>roughly, to the logarithmic distribution that we propose in this pattern. Various explanations</p><p>have been given by Christaller, Zipf, Herbert Simon, and others; they are summarized in</p><p>Brian Berry and William Garrison, "Alternate Explanations of Urban Rank-Size</p><p>Relationships," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 4-8, March 1958,</p><p>No. I, pp. 83-91.</p><p>Let us assume, then, that towns will have the right distribution of sizes. But are they</p><p>adjacent to one another, or are they spread out? If all the towns in a region, large, medium,</p><p>and small, were crammed together in one continuous urban area, the fact that some are</p><p>large and some are small, though interesting politically, would have no ecological meaning</p><p>whatsoever. As far as the ecology of the region is concerned, it is the spatial distribution of</p><p>the towns which matters, not the statistics of political boundaries within the urban sprawl.</p><p>Two arguments have led us to propose that the towns in any one size category should</p><p>be uniformly distributed across the region: an economic argument and an ecological</p><p>argument.</p><p>Economic. All over the world, underdeveloped areas are facing economic ruin</p><p>because the jobs, and then the people, move toward the largest cities, under the influence</p><p>of their economic gravity. Sweden, Scotland, Israel, and Mexico are all examples. The</p><p>population moves toward Stockholm, Glasgow, Tel Aviv, Mexico City -as it does so, new</p><p>jobs get created in the city, and then even more people have to come to the city in search of</p><p>jobs. Gradually the imbalance between city and country becomes severe. The city becomes</p><p>richer, the outlying areas continuously poorer. in the end the region may have the highest</p><p>standard of living in the world at its center, yet only a few miles away, at its periphery,</p><p>people may be starving.</p><p>This can only be halted by policies which guarantee an equal sharing of resources,</p><p>and economic development, across the entire region. In Israel, for example, there has been</p><p>some attempt to pour the limited resources with which the government can subsidize</p><p>economic growth into those areas which are most backward economically. (See "Urban</p><p>Growth Policies in Six European Countries," Urban Growth Policy Study Group, Office of</p><p>International Affairs, HUD, Washington, D.C., 1972-)</p><p>Ecological. An overconcentrated population, in space, puts a huge burden on the</p><p>region's overall ecosystem. As the big cities grow, the population movement overburdens</p><p>these areas with air pollution, strangled transportation, water shortages, housing shortages,</p><p>and living densities which go beyond the realm of human reasonableness. In some</p><p>metropolitan centers, the ecology is perilously close to cracking. By contrast, a population</p><p>that is spread more evenly over its region minimizes its impact on the ecology of the</p><p>environment, and finds that it can take care of itself and the land more prudently, with less</p><p>waste and more humanity:</p><p>This is because the actual urban superstructure required per inhabitant goes up</p><p>radically as the size of the town increases beyond a certain point. For example, the per</p><p>capita cost of high rise flats is much greater than that of ordinary houses; and the cost of</p><p>roads and other transportation routes increases with the number of commuters carried.</p><p>Similarly, the per capita expenditure on other facilities such as those for distributing food</p><p>and removing wastes is much higher in cities than in small towns and villages. Thus, if</p><p>everybody lived in villages the need for sewage treatment plants would be somewhat</p><p>reduced, while in an entirely urban society they are essential, and the cost of treatment is</p><p>high. Broadly speaking, it is only by decentralization that we can increase self-sufficiency</p><p>14</p><p>and self-sufficiency is vital if we are to minimize the burden of social systems on the</p><p>ecosystems that support them. The Ecologist, Blueprint for Survival, England: Penguin,</p><p>1972) pp. 52 - 53.)</p><p>As the distribution evolves, protect the prime agricultural land for farming - VALLEYS</p><p>(4) ; protect the smaller outlying towns, by establishing belts of countryside around them</p><p>and by decentralizing industry, so that the towns arc economically stable - COUNTRY</p><p>TOWNS (6). In the larger more central urban areas work toward land policies which</p><p>maintain open belts of countryside between the belts of oity - CITY COUNTRY FINGERS</p><p>(3). . . .</p><p>3 CITY COUNTRY FINGERS</p><p>. . . the distribution of towns required to make a</p><p>balanced region - DISTRIBUTION OF TOWNS (2) -</p><p>can be further helped by controlling the balance of</p><p>urban land and open countryside within the towns and</p><p>cities themselves.</p><p>Continuous sprawling urbanization destroys life,</p><p>and makes cities unbearable. But the sheer size of</p><p>cities is also valuable and potent.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Keep interlocking fingers of farmland and urban</p><p>land, even at the center of the metropolis. The urban</p><p>fingers should never be more than 1 mile wide, while</p><p>the farmland fingers should never be less than 1 mile</p><p>wide.</p><p>People feel comfortable when they have access</p><p>to the countryside, experience of open fields, and</p><p>agriculture; access to wild plants and birds and</p><p>animals. For this access, cities must have boundaries</p><p>with the countryside near every point. At the same</p><p>time, a city becomes good for life only when it contains</p><p>a great density of interactions among people and work,</p><p>and different ways of life. For the sake of this</p><p>15</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl2\apl2.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis</p><p>other hand, massive evening centers, combining evening</p><p>services which a person could not possibly use on the same night, are alienating.</p><p>For example, in New York the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts makes a big</p><p>splash at night, but it makes no sense. No one is going to the ballet and the</p><p>theater and a concert during one night on the town. And centralizing these places</p><p>robs the city as a whole of several centers of night life.</p><p>All these arguments together suggest small, scattered centers of mutually enlivening</p><p>night spots, the services grouped to form cheery squares, with lights and places to loiter,</p><p>95</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl40\apl40.htm</p><p>where people can spend several hours in an interesting way. Here are some examples of</p><p>small groups of mutually sustaining night activities.</p><p>A movie theater, a restaurant and a bar, and a bookstore open till midnight; a smoke</p><p>shop.</p><p>A laundromat, liquor store and cafe; and a meeting hall and beer hall.</p><p>Lodge hall, bowling alley, bar, playhouse.</p><p>A terminal, a diner, hotels, nightclubs, casinos.</p><p>Treat the physical layout of the night life area exactly like any other ACTIVITY NODE</p><p>(30), except that all of its establishments are open at night. The evening establishments</p><p>might include: LOCAL TOWN HALL (44), CARNIVAL (58), DANCING IN THE STREET</p><p>(63), STREET CAFE (88), BEER HALL (90), TRAVELER'S INN (91) . . . .</p><p>34. INTERCHANGE</p><p>96</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl26\apl26.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl26\apl26.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl37\apl37.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl20\apl20.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl92\apl92.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl119\apl119.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl40\apl40.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl40\apl40.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl39\apl39.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl9\apl9.htm</p><p>97</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl78\apl78.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl78\apl78.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl77\apl77.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl76\apl76.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl75\apl75.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl75\apl75.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl68\apl68.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl40\apl40.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl40\apl40.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl26\apl26.htm</p><p>98</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl29\apl29.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>. . . this pattern defines the points which generate the WEB</p><p>OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION (16) . It also helps to</p><p>complete LOCAL TRANSPORT AREAS (11) by</p><p>guaranteeing the possibIlity of interchanges at the center of</p><p>each transport area, where people can change from their</p><p>bikes, or local mini-buses, to the long distance transit lines</p><p>that connect different transport areas to one another.</p><p>Interchanges play a central role in public transportation.</p><p>Unless the interchanges are working properly, the public</p><p>transportation system will not be able to sustain itself.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>At every interchange in the web of transportation follow these principles:</p><p>1. Surround the interchange with workplaces and housing types which specially need</p><p>public transportation.</p><p>2. Keep the interior of the interchange continuous with the exterior pedestrian network,</p><p>and maintain this continuity by building in small shops and kiosks and by keeping</p><p>parking to one side.</p><p>3. Keep the transfer distance between diderent modes of transport down to 300 feet</p><p>wherever possible, with an absolute maximum of 600 feet.</p><p>Everyone needs public transportation</p><p>sometimes. But it is the steady users who keep</p><p>it going. If the steady users do not keep it</p><p>going, then there is no system for the</p><p>occasional user. To maintain a steady flow of</p><p>users, interchanges must be extremely</p><p>convenient and easy to use: 1. Workplaces and</p><p>the housing for people who especially need</p><p>public transportation must be distributed rather</p><p>evenly around interchanges. 2. The</p><p>interchanges must connect up with the surrounding flow of pedestrian street life. 3. It must</p><p>be easy to change from one mode of travel to another.</p><p>In more detail:</p><p>1. Workers are the bread and butter of the transportation system. If the system is to be</p><p>healthy, all the workplaces in town must be within walking distance of</p><p>the</p><p>interchanges. Furthermore, the distribution of workplaces around interchanges</p><p>should be more or less even - see SCATTERED WORK (9). When they are</p><p>concentrated around one or two, the rush hour flow crowds the trains, and</p><p>creates inefficiencies in the system as a whole.</p><p>Furthermore, some of the area around interchanges should be given over to houses</p><p>for those people who rely entirely on public transportation - especially old people.</p><p>Old people depend on public transportation; they make up a large proportion of</p><p>99</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl123\apl123.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl121\apl121.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl51\apl51.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl55\apl55.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl100\apl100.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl38\apl38.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl37\apl37.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl38\apl38.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl39\apl39.htm</p><p>the system's regular users. To meet their needs, the area around interchanges</p><p>must be zoned so that the kind of housing that suits them will develop there -</p><p>OLD PEOPLE EVERYWHERE (40).</p><p>2. The interchange must be convenient for people walking from their homes and jobs,</p><p>and it must be safe. People will not use an interchange if it is dingy, derelict, and</p><p>deserted. This means that the interchange must be continuous with local</p><p>pedestrian life. Parking lots must be kept to one side, so that people do not have</p><p>to walk across them to get to the station. And there must be enough shops and</p><p>kiosks in the interchange, to keep a steady flow of people moving in and out of it</p><p>and through it.</p><p>3. If the system is going to be successful, there must be no more than a few minutes'</p><p>walk - 600 feet at the most between points of transfer. And the distance should</p><p>decrease as the trips become more local: from bus to bus, 100 feet maximum;</p><p>from rapid transit to bus, 200 feet maximum; from train to rapid transit, 300 feet</p><p>maximum. In rainy climates the connecting paths should be almost entirely</p><p>covered - ARCADES (119). What's more, the most important transfer</p><p>connections should not involve crossing streets: if necessary sink the roads or</p><p>build bridges to make the transfer smooth.</p><p>For details on the organization of interchanges, see '`390 Requirements for Rapid</p><p>Transit Stations," Center for Environmental Structure, 1964, partly published in "Relational</p><p>Complexes in Architecture" (Christopher Alexander, Van Maren King, Sara Ishikawa,</p><p>Michael Baker, Architectural Record,September 1966, pp. 185-90).</p><p>Recognizing that the creation of workplaces around every interchange contributes to</p><p>the development of SCATTERED WORK (9). Place HOUSING HILLS (39), OLD PEOPLE</p><p>EVERYWHERE (40), and WORK COMMUNITIES (41) round the interchange; treat the</p><p>outside of the interchange as an ACTIVITY NODE (30) to assure its continuity with the</p><p>pedestrian network; treat the transfers as ARCADES (119) where necessary to keep them</p><p>under cover; give every interchange a BUS STOP (92) on the MINI-BUS (20) network. . . .</p><p>35. HOUSEHOLD MIX</p><p>. . . the mix of households in an area does almost</p><p>more than anything else to generate, or destroy, the</p><p>character of an IDENTIFlABLE NEIGHBORHOOD</p><p>(14), of a HOUSE CLUSTER (37), of a WORK</p><p>COMMUNITY (41), or, most generally of all, of a LIFE</p><p>CYCLE (26). The question is, what kind of mix should</p><p>a well-balanced neighborhood contain?</p><p>No one stage in the life cycle is self-sufficient.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>100</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl36\apl36.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl35\apl35.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl29\apl29.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>Encourage growth toward a mix of household types in every neighborhood, and every</p><p>cluster, so that one-person households, couples, families with children, and group</p><p>households are side by side.</p><p>People need support and confirmation</p><p>from people who have reached a different stage</p><p>in the life cycle, at the same time that they also</p><p>need support from people who are at the same</p><p>stage as they are themselves.</p><p>However, the needs which generate</p><p>separation tend to overwhelm the need for</p><p>mixture. Present housing patterns tend to keep</p><p>different types of households segregated from</p><p>each other. There are vast areas of two-</p><p>bedroom houses, other areas of studio and one-</p><p>bedroom apartments, other areas of three- and</p><p>four-bedroom houses. This means that we have corresponding areas of single people,</p><p>couples, and small families with children, segregated by type.</p><p>The effects of household segregation are profound. In the pattern LIFE CYCLE (26),</p><p>we have suggested that normal growth through the stages of life requires contact, at each</p><p>stage, with people and institutions from all the other ages of man. Such contact is</p><p>completely foiled if the housing mix in one's neighborhood is skewed toward one or two</p><p>stages only. On the other hand, when the balance of life cycles is well related to the kinds of</p><p>housing that are available in a neighborhood, the possibilities for contact become concrete.</p><p>Each person can find in the face-to-face life of his neighborhood at least passing contact</p><p>with people from every stage of life. Teenagers see young couples, old people watch the</p><p>very young, people living alone draw sustenance from large families, youngsters look to the</p><p>middle-aged for models, and so on: it is all a medium through which people feel their way</p><p>through life.</p><p>This need for a mx of housing must be offset against the need to be near people</p><p>similar in age and way of life to oneself. Taking these two needs together, what is the right</p><p>balance for the housing mix?</p><p>The right balance can be derived straightforwardly from the statistics of the region.</p><p>First, determine the percentage of each household type for the region as a whole; second,</p><p>use the same percentages to guide the gradual growth of the housing mix within the</p><p>neighborhood. For example, if 40 per cent of a metropolitan region's households are</p><p>families, 25 per cent are couples, 20 per cent are individuals, and 10 per cent group</p><p>households, then we would expect the houses in each neighborhood to have roughly the</p><p>same balance.</p><p>Let us ask, finally, how large a group should the mix be applied to? We might try to</p><p>create a mix in every house (obviously absurd), or in every cluster of a dozen houses, or in</p><p>every neighborhood, or merely in every town (this last has almost no significant effect). We</p><p>believe that the mix will only work if it exists in a human</p><p>group small enough to have some</p><p>internal political and human intercourse - this could be a cluster of a dozen families, or a</p><p>neighborhood of 500 people.</p><p>101</p><p>Make especially sure there are provisions for old people in every neighborhood OLD</p><p>PEOPLE EVERYWHERE (40), and that even with this mix, young children will have enough</p><p>playmates - CONNECTED PLAY (68); and build the details of the different kinds of</p><p>households, according to the appropriate more detailed patterns to reinforce the mix - THE</p><p>FAMILY (75), HOUSE FOR A SMALL FAMILY (76), HOUSE FOR A COUPLE (77), HOUSE</p><p>FOR ONE PERSON (78) . . . .</p><p>36 .DEGREES OF PUBLICNESS</p><p>. . . within the neighborhoods - IDENTIFlABLE</p><p>NEIGHBORHOOD (14) - there are naturally some</p><p>areas where life is rather concentrated ACTIVITY</p><p>NODES (30), others where it is slower, and others in</p><p>between - DENSITY RINGS (29). It is essential to</p><p>differentiate groups of houses and the paths which</p><p>lead to them according to this gradient.</p><p>People are different, and the way they want to</p><p>place their houses in a neighborhood is one of the</p><p>most basic kinds of difference.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Make a clear distinction between three kinds of homes - those on quiet backwaters,</p><p>those on busy streets, and those that are more or less in between. Make sure that those on</p><p>quiet backwaters are on twisting paths, and that these houses are themselves physically</p><p>secluded; make sure that the more public houses are on busy streets with many people</p><p>passing by all day long and that the houses themselves are relatively exposed to the</p><p>passersby. The inbetween houses may then be located on the paths half-way between the</p><p>other two. Give every neighborhood about equal numbers of these three kinds of homes.</p><p>Some people want to live where the action is.</p><p>Others want more isolation. This corresponds to a</p><p>basic human personality dimension, which could be</p><p>102</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl75\apl75.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl67\apl67.htm</p><p>called the "extrovert-introvert" dimension, or the "community loving-privacy loving,'</p><p>dimension. Those who want the action like being near services, near shops, they like a</p><p>lively atmosphere outside their houses, and they are happy to have strangers going past</p><p>their houses all the time. Those who want more isolation like being away from services and</p><p>shops, enjoy a very small scale in the areas outside their houses, and don't want strangers</p><p>going past their houses. (See for example, Nancy Marshall, "Orientations Toward Privacy:</p><p>Environmental and Personality Components," Tames Madison College, Michigan State</p><p>tJniversity, East Lansing, Michigan.)</p><p>The variation of different people along the extrovert-introvert dimension is very well</p><p>described by Frank Hendricks and Malcolm MacNair in "Concepts of Environmental Quality</p><p>Standards Based on Life Styles," report to the American Public Health Association,</p><p>February 12, 1969, pp. 11-15. The authors identify several kinds of persons and</p><p>characterize each by the relative amount of time spent in extroverted activities and in</p><p>introverted aetivities. Francis Loetterle has shed further light on the problem in</p><p>"Environment Attitudes and Social Life in Santa Clara County," Santa Clara County</p><p>Planning Department, San Jose, California, 1967. He asked 3300 households how far they</p><p>wanted to be from various community services. The results were: 20 per cent of the</p><p>households interviewed wanted to be located less than three blocks from commercial</p><p>centers; 60 per cent wanted to be located between four and six blocks away; 20 per cent</p><p>wanted to be located more than six blocks away (mean block size in Santa Clara County is</p><p>150 yards). The exact distances apply only to Santa Clara. But the overall result</p><p>overwhelmingly supports our contention that people vary in this way and shows that they</p><p>have quite different needs as far as the location and character of houses is concerned.</p><p>To make sure that the different kinds of people can find houses which satisfy their own</p><p>particular desires, we suggest that each cluster of houses, and each neighborhood should</p><p>have three kinds of houses, in about equal numbers: those which are nearest to the action,</p><p>those which are half-way between, and those which are almost completely isolated. And, to</p><p>support this pattern we need, also, three distinct kinds of paths:</p><p>1. Paths along services, wide and open for activities and crowds, paths that connect</p><p>activities and encourage busy through traffic.</p><p>2. Paths remote from services, narrow and twisting, to discourage through traffic, with</p><p>many at right angles and dead ends.</p><p>3. Intermediate types of paths linking the most remote and quiet paths to the most</p><p>central and busy ones.</p><p>This pattern is as important in the design of a cluster of a few houses as it is in the</p><p>design of a neighborhood. When we were helping a group of people to design their own</p><p>cluster of houses, we first asked each person to consider his preference for location on the</p><p>basis of extrovert-introvert. Three groups emerged:</p><p>four "extroverts" who wished to be as near the</p><p>pedestrian and community action as possible, four</p><p>"introverts" who desired as much remoteness and</p><p>privacy as possible, and the remaining four who</p><p>wanted a bit of both. The site plan they made, using</p><p>this pattern, is shown below, with the positions which</p><p>the three kinds of people chose.</p><p>103</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl36\apl36.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl36\apl36.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl29\apl29.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl37\apl37.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl79\apl79.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl79\apl79.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl78\apl78.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl77\apl77.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl76\apl76.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl75\apl75.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl103\apl103.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl36\apl36.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl98\apl98.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl57\apl57.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl67\apl67.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl67\apl67.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl39\apl39.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl38\apl38.htm</p><p>In one house cluster: private homes, public homes, and in-between.</p><p>Use this pattern to help differentiate the houses both in neighborhoods and in house</p><p>clusters. Within a neighborhood, place higher density clusters along the busier streets-</p><p>HOUSING HILL (39), ROW HOUSES (38), and lower density clusters along the backwaters</p><p>HOUSE CLUSTER (37), ROW HOUSES (38). The actual busy streets themselves should</p><p>either be PEDESTRIAN STREETS (100) or RAlSED WALKS (55) on major roads; the</p><p>backwaters - GREEN STREETS (51), or narrow paths with a distinct PATH SHAPE (121).</p><p>Where lively streets are wanted, make sure the density of housing is high enough to</p><p>generate the liveliness PEDESTRIAN DENSITY (123). . . .</p><p>37 .HOUSE CLUSTER</p><p>. . . the fundamental unit of organization within the</p><p>neighborhood - IDENTIFlABLE NEIGHBORHOOD (14) - is the</p><p>cluster of a dozen houses. By varying the density and</p><p>composition of different clusters, this pattern may also help to</p><p>generate DENSITY RINGS (29), HOUSEHOLD MIX (35), and</p><p>DEGREES OF PUBLICNESS (36).</p><p>People will not feel comfortable in their houses unless a</p><p>group of houses forms a cluster, with the public land between</p><p>them jointly owned by all the householders.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Arrange houses to form very rough, but identifiable clusters of 8 to 12 households</p><p>around some common land and paths. Arrange the clusters so that anyone can walk</p><p>through them, without feeling like a trespasser.</p><p>When houses are arranged on streets,</p><p>and the streets owned by the town, there is no</p><p>way in which the land immediately outside the</p><p>houses can reflect the needs of families and</p><p>individuals living in those houses. The land will</p><p>only gradually get shaped to meet their needs if</p><p>they have direct control over the land and its</p><p>repair.</p><p>104</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl52\apl52.htm</p><p>This pattern is based on the idea that the cluster of land and homes immediately</p><p>around one's own home is of special importance. It is the source for gradual differentiation</p><p>of neighborhood land use, and it is the natural focus of neighborly interaction.</p><p>Herbert Gans, in The Levittowners(New York: Pantheon, 1967), has collected some</p><p>powerful evidence for this tendency. Gans surveyed visiting habits on a typical block tract</p><p>development. Of the 149 people he surveyed, all of them</p><p>were engaged in some pattern of regular visiting with their</p><p>neighbors. The interesting finding is the morphology of this</p><p>visiting pattern.</p><p>Consider the following diagram - one like it can be made</p><p>for almost every house in a tract. There is a house on either</p><p>side, one or two across the street, and one directly behind,</p><p>across a garden fence.</p><p>Ninety-three per cent of all the neighborhood visiting</p><p>engaged in by the subjects is confined to this spatial cluster.</p><p>0n a typical block each home is at the center of its own cluster.</p><p>And when asked "Whom do you visit most? " 91 per cent said the people they visit</p><p>most are immediately across the street or next door.</p><p>The beauty of this finding is its indication of the strength of the spatial cluster to draw</p><p>people together into neighborly contact. The most obvious and tribal-like cluster - the homes</p><p>on either side and across the street - forms roughly a circle, and it is there that most contact</p><p>occurs. And if we add to this shape the home immediately behind, although it is separated</p><p>by private gardens and a fence, we can account for nearly all the visiting that goes on in the</p><p>Levittown neighborhood.</p><p>We conclude that people continue to act according to the laws of a spatial cluster,</p><p>even when the block layout and the neighborhood plan do their best to destroy this unit and</p><p>make it anonymous.</p><p>Gans' data underscore our intuitions: people want to be part of a neighborly spatial</p><p>cluster; contact between people sharing such a cluster is a vital function. And this need</p><p>stands, even when people are able to drive and see friends all over the city.</p><p>What about the size of the cluster? What is the appropriate size? In Gans'</p><p>investigations each home stands at the center of a cluster of five or six other homes. But</p><p>this is certainly not a natural limit for a housing cluster since the Levittown block layouts are</p><p>so confining. In our experience, when the siting of the homes is attuned to the cluster</p><p>pattern, the natural limit arises entirely from the balance between the informality and</p><p>coherence of the group.</p><p>The clusters seem to work best if they have</p><p>between 8 and 12 houses each. With one</p><p>representative from each family, this is the number of</p><p>people that can sit round a common meeting table,</p><p>can talk to each other directly, face to face, and can</p><p>therefore make wise decisions about the land they</p><p>hold in common. With 8 or 10 households, people can</p><p>105</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl21\apl21.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl29\apl29.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl95\apl95.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl37\apl37.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl103\apl103.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl52\apl52.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl23\apl23.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl78\apl78.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl77\apl77.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl76\apl76.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl75\apl75.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl109\apl109.htm</p><p>meet over a kitchen table, exchange news on the street and in the gardens, and generally,</p><p>without much special attention, keep in touch with the whole of the group. When there are</p><p>more than 10 or 12 homes forming a cluster, this balance is strained. We therefore set an</p><p>upper limit of around12 on the number of households that can be naturally drawn into a</p><p>cluster. Of course, the average size for clusters might be less, perhaps around 6 or 8; and</p><p>clusters of 3, 4, or 5 homes can work perfectly well.</p><p>Now, assuming that a group of neighbors, or a neighborhood association, or a planner,</p><p>wants to give some expression to this pattern, what are the critical issues?</p><p>First, the geometry. In a new neighborhood, with houses built on the ground, we</p><p>imagine quite dramatic clusters,</p><p>with the houses built around or to the side of common land;</p><p>and with a core to the cluster that gradually tapers off at the edges.</p><p>A cluster of 12 houses.</p><p>In existing neighborhoods of free-standing houses, the pattern must be brought into</p><p>play gradually by relaxing zoning ordinances, and allowing people to gradually knit together</p><p>clusters out of the existing grid - see COMMON LAND (67) and THE FAMILY (75). It is even</p><p>possible to implement the pattern with ROW HOUSES (38) and HOUSING HILLS (39). In</p><p>this case the configuration of the rows, and the wings of the apartment building, form the</p><p>cluster.</p><p>In all cases common land which is shared by the</p><p>cluster is an essential ingredient. It acts as a focus and</p><p>physically knits the group together. This common land</p><p>can be as small as a path or as large as a green.</p><p>On the other hand, care must be taken not to</p><p>make the clusters too tight or self-contained, so that</p><p>they exclude the larger community or seem too</p><p>constricting and claustrophobic. There needs to be</p><p>some open endedness and overlapping among</p><p>clusters.</p><p>Overlapping clusters in a Turkish village.</p><p>Along with the shape of the cluster, the way in which it is owned is critical. If the</p><p>pattern of ownership is not in accord with the physical properties of the cluster, the pattern</p><p>will not take hold. Very simply, the cluster must be owned and maintained by its constituent</p><p>households. The households must be able to organize themselves as a corporation,</p><p>capable of owning all the common land they share. There are many examples of tiny, user-</p><p>owned housing corporations such as this. We know several places in our region where such</p><p>experiments are under way, and places where they have been established for many years.</p><p>And we have heard, from visitors to the Center, of similar developments in various parts of</p><p>the world.</p><p>We advocate a system of ownership where the deed to one home carries with it part</p><p>ownership in the cluster to which the home belongs; and ideally, this in turn carries with it</p><p>part owner ship in the neighborhood made up of several clusters. In this way, every owner is</p><p>automatically a shareholder in several levels of public land. And each level, beginning with</p><p>106</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl21\apl21.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl21\apl21.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl79\apl79.htm</p><p>the homes in their clusters, is a political unit with the power to control the processes of its</p><p>own growth and repair.</p><p>Under such a system, the housing, whether in low or high depsity neighborhoods, can</p><p>gradually find its way toward an abiding expression of the cluster. And the clusters</p><p>themselves will come to support a quality of neighborhood life that, from our broken down</p><p>neighborhoods now, we can only dimly perceive.</p><p>The unavowed secret of man is that he wants to be confirmed in his being and his</p><p>existence by his fellow men and that he wishes them to make it possible for him to confirm</p><p>them, and . . . not merely in the family, in the party assembly or in the public house, but also</p><p>in the course of neighborly encounters, perhaps when he or the other steps out of the door</p><p>of his house or to the window of his house and the greeting with which they greet each other</p><p>will be accompanied by a glance of well-wishing, a glance in which curiosity, mistrust, and</p><p>routine will have been overcome by a mutual sympathy: the one gives the other to</p><p>understand that he affirms his presence. This is the indispensable minimum of humanity.</p><p>(Martin Buber, Gleanings, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969, p. 94.)</p><p>Use this pattern as it is for low densities, up to about 15 houses per acre; at higher</p><p>densities, modify the cluster with the additional structure given by ROW HOUSES (38) or</p><p>HOUSING HILL (39). Always provide common land between the houses - COMMON L.AND</p><p>(67) and a shared common workshop - HOME WORKSHOP (57) . Arrange paths clearly -</p><p>CIRCULATION REALMS (98) - and lay these paths out in such a way that they create</p><p>busier paths and backwaters, even within the cluster - DEGREES OF PUBLICNESS (36);</p><p>keep parking in SMALL PARKING LOTS (103), and make the houses in the cluster suit the</p><p>households which will live there - THE FAMILY (75), HOUSE FOR A SMALL FAMILY (76),</p><p>HOUSE FOR A COUPLE (77), HOUSE FOR ONE PERSON (78) , YOUR OWN HOME</p><p>(79). . . .</p><p>38 .ROW HOUSES</p><p>. . in certain parts of a community, the detached homes</p><p>and gardens of a HOUSE CLUSTER (37) will not work,</p><p>because they are not dense enough to generate the denser</p><p>parts of DENSITY RINGS (29) and DEGREES OF</p><p>PUBLICNESS (36). To help create these larger patterns, it is</p><p>necessary to build row houses instead.</p><p>At densities of 15 to 30 houses per acre, row houses are</p><p>essential. But typical row houses are dark inside, and</p><p>stamped from an identical mould.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>107</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl21\apl21.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>For row houses, place houses along pedestrian paths that run at right angles to local</p><p>roads and parking lots, and give each house a long frontage and a shallow depth.</p><p>Above 15 houses per acre, it is almost</p><p>impossible to make houses freestanding without</p><p>destroying the open space around them; the open</p><p>space which is left gets reduced to nothing more than</p><p>shallow rings around the houses. And apartments do</p><p>not solve the problem of higher densities; they keep</p><p>people off the ground and they have no private</p><p>gardens.</p><p>Row houses solve</p><p>these problems. But</p><p>row houses, in their conventional form, have problems of</p><p>their own. Conventional row houses all conform,</p><p>approximately, to the following diagram. The houses have a</p><p>short frontage and a long depth, and share the party wall</p><p>along their long side.</p><p>Typical row house pattern.</p><p>Because of the long party walls, many of the rooms are poorly lit. The houses lack</p><p>privacy there is nowhere in the houses or their yards that is very far from a party wall. The</p><p>small yards are made even worse by the fact that they are at the short ends of the house,</p><p>so that only a small part of the indoor space can be adjacent to the garden. And there is</p><p>almost no scope for individual variation in the houses, with the result that terraces of row</p><p>houses are often rather sterile.</p><p>These four problems of row houses can easily be solved</p><p>by making the houses long and thin, along the paths, like</p><p>cottages. In this case, there is plenty of room for subtle</p><p>variations from house to house - each plan can be quite</p><p>different; and it is easy to arrange the plan to let the light in.</p><p>Houses long and thin along the path.</p><p>This kind of house has 30 per cent of its perimeter fixed and 70 per cent free for</p><p>individual variations. A house in a conventional terrace of row houses has 70 per cent of its</p><p>perimeter fixed and only 30 per cent open to individual variations. So the house can take on</p><p>a variety of shapes, with a guarantee of a reasonable amount</p><p>of privacy for its garden and for most of the house, an</p><p>increase in the amount of light into the house, and an</p><p>increase in the amount of indoor space that can be next to</p><p>outdoor areas.</p><p>Crinkling and variation.</p><p>108</p><p>file:///C:\Documents</p><p>and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl35\apl35.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl26\apl26.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl177\apl177.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl177\apl177.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl68\apl68.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl67\apl67.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl158\apl158.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl158\apl158.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl118\apl118.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl79\apl79.htm</p><p>These advantages of the long thin row house are so obvious, it is natural to wonder</p><p>why they aren't used more often. The reason is, of course, that roads do not permit it. So</p><p>long as houses front directly onto roads, it is imperative that they have the shortest frontage</p><p>possible, so as to save the cost of roads and services - the</p><p>cost of roads is a large part of any housing budget. But in the</p><p>pattern we propose, we have been able to avoid this difficulty</p><p>altogether, by making the houses front only onto paths which</p><p>don't cost much - and it is then these paths which connect to</p><p>the roads, at right angles, in the way prescribed by</p><p>NETWORK OF PATHS AND CARS (52).</p><p>Roads away from houses..</p><p>Finally, a word on density. As we see from the sketch</p><p>below, it is possible to build a two-story house of 1200</p><p>square feet on an area 30 x 20, using a total area (path,</p><p>house, garden) of about 1300 square feet, and it is even</p><p>possible to manage with an absolute minimum of 1000</p><p>square feet.</p><p>1300 square feet of land per house.</p><p>It is therefore possible to build row houses at a density of 30 per net acre. Without</p><p>parking, or with less parking, this figure could conceivably be even higher.</p><p>Make the individual houses and cottages as long and thin along the paths as possible</p><p>LONG THIN HOUSE (109); vary the houses according to the different household types -</p><p>THE FAMILY (75), HOUSE FOR A SMALL FAMILY (76), HOUSE FOR A COUPLE (77),</p><p>HOUSE FOR ONE PERSON (78); build roads across</p><p>the paths, at right angles to them PARALLEL ROADS</p><p>(23), NETWORK OF PATHS AND CARS (52), with</p><p>small parking lots off the roads - SMALL PARKING</p><p>LOTS (103). In other respects build row houses in</p><p>clusters HOUSE CLUSTER (37), BUlLDING</p><p>COMPLEX (95). . . .</p><p>39 .HOUSING HILL</p><p>. . . at the still higher densities required in the</p><p>inner ring of the community's DENSITY RINGS (29),</p><p>109</p><p>and wherever densities rise above 30 houses per acre or are four stories high -</p><p>FOURSTORY LIMIT (21), the house clusters become like hills.</p><p>Every town has places in it which are so central and desirable that at least 30-50</p><p>households per acre will be living there. But the apartment houses which reach this density</p><p>are almost all impersonal.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>To build more than 30 dwellings per net acre, or to build housing three or four stories</p><p>high, build a hill of houses. Build them to form stepped terraces, sioping toward the south,</p><p>served by a great central open stair which also faces south and leads toward a common</p><p>garden . . .</p><p>In the pattern YOUR OWN HOME (79), we</p><p>discuss the fact that every family needs its own home</p><p>with land to build on, land where they can grow things,</p><p>and a house which is unique and clearly marked as</p><p>theirs. A typical apartment house, with flat walls and</p><p>identical windows, cannot provide these qualities.</p><p>The form of the HOUSING HILL comes essentially froM three requirements. First,</p><p>people need to maintain contact with the ground and with their neighbors, far more contact</p><p>than high-rise living permits. Second, people want an outdoor garden or yard. This is among</p><p>the most common reasons for their rejecting apartment living. And third, people crave for</p><p>variation and uniqueness in their homes, and this desire is almost always constrained by</p><p>high-rise construction, with its regular facades and identical units.</p><p>1. Connection to the ground and to neighbors. The strongest evidence comes from D.</p><p>M. Fanning ("Families in Flats," British Medical Journal,November 1967, pp. 382-</p><p>86). Fanning shows a direct correlation between incidence of mental disorder and</p><p>high-rise living. These findings are presented in detail in FOUR-STORY LIMIT</p><p>(21). High-rise living, it appears, has a terrible tendency to leave people alone,</p><p>stranded, in their apartments. Home life is split away from casual street life by</p><p>elevators, hallways, and long stairs. The decision to go</p><p>out for some public life becomes formal and awkward;</p><p>and unless there is some specific task which brings</p><p>people out in the world, the tendency is to stay home,</p><p>alone.</p><p>Fanning also found a striking lack of</p><p>communication between families in the high-</p><p>rise flats he studied. Women and children were</p><p>especially isolated. The women felt they had</p><p>little reason to take the trip from their</p><p>apartment to the ground, except to go</p><p>shopping. They and their children were</p><p>110</p><p>effectively imprisoned in their apartments, cut off from the ground and from their</p><p>neighbors.</p><p>Contact is impossible.</p><p>It seems as if the ground, the common ground between houses, is the</p><p>medium through which people are able to make contact with one another and</p><p>with themselves. Living on the ground, the yards around houses join those of the</p><p>neighbors, and, in the best arrangements, they also adjoin neighborhood byways.</p><p>Under these conditions it is easy and natural to meet with people. Children</p><p>playing in the yard, the flowers in the garden, or just the weather outside provide</p><p>endless topics for conversations. This kind of contact is impossible to maintain in</p><p>high-rise apartments.</p><p>2. Private gardens. In the Park Hill survey (J. F. Demors, "Park Hill Survey," O.A.P.,</p><p>February 1966, p. 235), about one-third of the high-rise residents interviewed</p><p>said they missed the chance to putter around in their garden.</p><p>The need for a small garden, or some kind of private outdoor space, is</p><p>fundamental. It is equivalent, at the family scale, to the biological need that a</p><p>society has to be integrated with its country side - CITY COUNTRY FINGERS</p><p>(3). In all traditional architectures, wherever building is essentially in the hands of</p><p>the people, there is some expression of this need. The miniature gardens of</p><p>Japan, outdoor workshops, roof gardens, courtyards, backyard rose gardens,</p><p>communal cooking pits, herb gardens - there are thousands of examples. But in</p><p>modern apartment structures this kind of space is simply not available.</p><p>3. Identity of each unit. During the course of a seminar held at the Center for</p><p>Environmental Structure, Kenneth Radding made the following experiment. He</p><p>asked people to draw their dream apartment, from the outside, and stuck the</p><p>drawing on a small piece of cardboard. He then asked them to place the</p><p>cardboard on a grid representing the facade of a huge apartment house, and</p><p>asked them to move their "homes" around, until they liked the position they were</p><p>in. Without fail, people wanted their apartments to be on the edge of the building,</p><p>or set off from other units by blank walls. No one wanted his own apartment to be</p><p>lost in a grid of apartments.</p><p>In another survey we visited a nineteen-story apartment building in San Francisco. The</p><p>building contained 190 apartments each with a balcony. The management had set very rigid</p><p>restrictions on the use of these balconies - no political posters, no painting, no clothes</p><p>drying, no mobiles, no barbecues, no tapestries. But even when confined by such</p><p>restrictions, over half of the residents were still able, in some way, to personalize their</p><p>balconies with plants in pots, carpets, and furniture. In short, in the face of the most extreme</p><p>regimentation people try to give their apartments a unique face.</p><p>What building form is compatible with these three basic requirements? First of all, to</p><p>maintain a strong and direct connection to the ground, the building must be no higher than</p><p>four stories - FOUR-STORY LIMIT (21) . Also, and perhaps more important, we believe that</p><p>each "house" must be within a few steps of a rather wide and gradual stair that rises directly</p><p>from the ground. If the stair is open, somewhat rambling, and very gradual, it will be</p><p>continuous with the street and the life of the street. Furthermore, if we take this need</p><p>111</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl15\apl15.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl9\apl9.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl177\apl177.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl156\apl156.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl86\apl86.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl18\apl18.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl75\apl75.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl155\apl155.htm</p><p>seriously, the stair must be connected at the ground to a piece of land, owned in common</p><p>by the residents this land organized to form a semi-private green.</p><p>Concerning the private gardens. They need sunlight and privacy - two requirements</p><p>hard to satisfy in ordinary balcony arrangemcnts. The terraces must be south-facing, large,</p><p>and intimately connected to the houses, and solid enough for earth, and bushes, and small</p><p>trees. This suggests a kind of housing hill; with a gradual slope toward the south and a</p><p>garage for parking below the "hill."</p><p>And for identity the only genuine solution to the problem of identity is to let each family</p><p>gradually build and rebuild its own home on a terraced superstructure. If the floors of this</p><p>structure are capable of supporting a house and some earth, each unit is free to take its</p><p>own character and develop its own tiny garden.</p><p>Although these requirements bring to mind a form similar to Safdie's Habitat, it is</p><p>important to realize that Habitat fails to solve two of the three problem discussed here. It has</p><p>private gardens; but it fails to solve the problem of connection to the ground - the units are</p><p>strongly separated from the casual life of the street; and</p><p>the mass-produced dwellings are anonymous, far from</p><p>unique.</p><p>The following sketch for an apartment</p><p>building‹originally made for the Swedish community of</p><p>Marsta, near Stockholmincludes all the essential</p><p>features of a housing hill.</p><p>Apartment building for Marsta, near Stockholm.</p><p>Let people lay out their own houses individually, upon the terraces, just as if they were</p><p>land - YOUR OWN HOME (79). Since each terrace overlaps the one below it, each house</p><p>has its garden on the house below - ROOF GARDENS (118). Leave the central stair open</p><p>to the air, but give it a roof, in wet or snowy climates - perhaps a glass roof OPEN STAIRS</p><p>(158); and place the common land right at the bottom of the stair with playgrounds, flowers,</p><p>and vegetables for everyone - COMMON LAND (67), CONNECTED PLAY (68),</p><p>VEGETABLE GARDEN (177) . . . .</p><p>40 .OLD PEOPLE EVERYWHERE</p><p>. . . when neighborhoods are properly formed</p><p>they give the people there a cross section of ages and</p><p>stages of development - IDENTIFlABLE</p><p>NEIGHBORHOOD (14), LIFE CYCLE (26),</p><p>HOUSEHOLD MIX (35); however, the old people are</p><p>so often forgotten and left alone in modern society, that</p><p>it is necessary to formulate a special pattern which</p><p>underlines their needs.</p><p>112</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl9\apl9.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl80\apl80.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl80\apl80.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl9\apl9.htm</p><p>Old people need old people, but they also need the young, and young people need</p><p>contact with the old.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Create dwellings for some 50 old people in every neighborhood. Place these dwellings</p><p>in three rings . . .</p><p>1. A central core with cooking and nursing provided.</p><p>2. Cottages near the core.</p><p>3. Cottages further out from the core, mixed among the other houses of the</p><p>neighborhood, but never more than 200 yards from the core.</p><p>. . . in such a way that the 50 houses together form a single coherent swarm, with its</p><p>own clear center, but interlocked at its periphery with other ordinary houses of the</p><p>neighlborhood.</p><p>There is a natural tendency for old people</p><p>to gather together in clusters or communities.</p><p>But when these elderly communities are too</p><p>isolated or too large, they damage young and</p><p>old alike. The young in other parts of town, have</p><p>no chance of the benefit of older company, and</p><p>the old people themselves are far too isolated.</p><p>Treated like outsiders, the aged have increasingly clustered together for mutual</p><p>support or simply to enjoy themselves. A now familiar but still amazing phenomenon has</p><p>sprung up in the past decade: dozens of good-sized new towns that exclude people under</p><p>65. Built on cheap, outlying land, such communities offer two-bedroom houses starting at</p><p>$18,000 plus a refuge from urban violence . . . and generational pressures. (Time, August 3,</p><p>1970.)</p><p>But the choice the old people have made by moving to these communities and the</p><p>remarks above are a serious and painful reflection of a very sad state of affairs in our</p><p>culture. The fact is that contemporary society shunts away old people; and the more</p><p>shunted away they are, the deeper the rift between the old and young. The old people have</p><p>no choice but to segregate themselves they, like anyone else, have pride; they would rather</p><p>not be with younger people who do not appreciate them, and they feign satisfaction to justify</p><p>their position.</p><p>And the segregation of the old causes the same rift inside each individual life: as old</p><p>people pass into old age communities their ties with their own past become</p><p>unacknowledged, lost, and there fore broken. Their youth is no longer alive in their old age -</p><p>the two become dissociated; their lives are cut in two.</p><p>In contrast to the situation today, consider how the aged were respected and needed</p><p>in traditional cultures:</p><p>Some degree of prestige for the aged seems to have been practically universal in all</p><p>known societies. This is so general, in fact, that it cuts across many cultural factors that</p><p>have appeared to determine trends in other topics related to age. (The Role of Aged in</p><p>Primitive Society, Leo W. Simmons, New Haven: Yale University Press, I945, p. 69.)</p><p>113</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl9\apl9.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl147\apl147.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl147\apl147.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl93\apl93.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl88\apl88.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl80\apl80.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl80\apl80.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl115\apl115.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl60\apl60.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl72\apl72.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl61\apl61.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl27\apl27.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl27\apl27.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl9\apl9.htm</p><p>More specifically:</p><p>. . . Another family relationship of great significance for the aged has been the</p><p>commonly observ~ed intimate association between the very young and the very old.</p><p>Frequently they have been left together at home while the able-bodied have gone forth to</p><p>earn the family living These oldsters, in their wisdom and experience, have protected and</p><p>instructed the little ones, while the chiIdren, in turn, have acted as the "eyes, ears, hands,</p><p>and feet" of their feeble old friends. Care of the young has thus very generally provided the</p><p>aged with a useful occupation and a vivid interest in life during the long dull days of</p><p>senescence. (Ibid. p. 199.)</p><p>Clearly, old people cannot be integrated socially as in traditional cultures unless they</p><p>are first integrated physically - unless they share the same streets, shops, services, and</p><p>common land with everyone else. But, at the same time, they obviously need other old</p><p>people around them; and some old people who are infirm need special services.</p><p>And of course old people vary in their need or desire to be among their own age group. The</p><p>more able-bodied and independent they are, the less they need to be among other old</p><p>people, and the farther they can be from special medical services. The variation in the</p><p>amount of care they need ranges from complete nursing care; to semi-nursing care</p><p>involving house calls once a day or twice a week; to an old person getting some help with</p><p>shopping, cooking, and cleaning; to an old person being completely independent. Right</p><p>now, there is no such fine differentiation made in the care of old people - very often people</p><p>who simply need a little help cooking and cleaning are put into rest homes which provide</p><p>total nursing care, at huge expense to them, their families, and the community. It is a</p><p>psychologically debilitating situation, and they turn frail and helpless because that is the way</p><p>they are treated.</p><p>We therefore need a way of taking care of old people which provides for the full range</p><p>of their needs:</p><p>1. It must allow them to stay in the neighborhood they know best - hence some old</p><p>people in every neighborhood.</p><p>2. It must allow old people to be together, yet in groups small enough not to isolate</p><p>them from the younger people in the neighborhood.</p><p>3. It must allow those old people who are independent to live independently, without</p><p>losing the benefits of communality.</p><p>4. It must allow those who need nursing care or prepared meals, to get it, without</p><p>having to go to nursing homes far from the neighborhood.</p><p>All these requirements can be solved together, very simply, if every neighborhood</p><p>contains a small pocket of old people, not concentrated all in one place, but fuzzy at the</p><p>edges like a swarm of bees. This will both preserve the symbiosis between young and old,</p><p>and give the old people the mutual support they need within the pockets. Perhaps 20 might</p><p>live in a central group house, another 10 or 15 in cottages close to this house, but interlaced</p><p>with other houses, and another 10 to 15 also in cottages, still further from the core, in</p><p>among the neighborhood, yet always within 100 or 200 yards of the core, so they can easily</p><p>walk there to play chess, have a meal, or get help from the nurse.</p><p>The number 50 comes from Mumford's argument:</p><p>114</p><p>The first thing to be determined is the number of aged people to be accommodated in</p><p>a neighborhood unit; and the answer to this, I submit, is that the normal age distribution in</p><p>the community as a whole should be maintained. This means that there should be from five</p><p>to eight people over sixty-five in every</p><p>hundred people; so that in a neighborhood unit of,</p><p>say, six hundred people, there would be between thirty and fifty old people. (Lewis</p><p>Mumford, The Human Prospect, New York, I968, p. 49.)</p><p>As for the character of the group house, it might vary fron case to case. In some cases</p><p>it might be no more than a commune, where people cook together and have part-time help</p><p>from young girls and boys, or professional nurses. However, about 5 per cent of the nation's</p><p>elderly need full-time care. This means that two or three people in every 50 will need</p><p>complete nursing care. Since a nurse can typically work with six to eight people, this</p><p>suggests that every second or third neighborhood group house might be equipped with</p><p>complete nursing care.</p><p>Treat the core like any group house; make all the cottages, both those close to and</p><p>those further away, small - OLD AGE COTTAGE (155), some of them perhaps connected to</p><p>the larger family houses in the neighborhood - THE FAMILY (75); provide every second or</p><p>third core with proper nursing facilities; somewhere in the orbit of the old age pocket,</p><p>provide the kind of work which old people can manage best - especially teaching and</p><p>looking after tiny children - NETWORK OF LEARNING (18), CHILDREN'S HOME (86),</p><p>SETTLED WORK (156), VEGETABLE GARDEN (177) . . . .</p><p>41 .WORK COMMUNITY</p><p>. . . according to the pattern SCATTERED WORK (9), work</p><p>is entirely decentralized and woven in and out of housing areas.</p><p>The effect of SCATTERED WORK - can be increased piecemeal,</p><p>by building individual work communities, one by one, in the</p><p>boundaries between the neighborhoods; these work communities</p><p>will then help to form the boundaries - SUBCULTURE</p><p>BOUNDARY (13), NEIGHBORHOOD BOUNDARY (15) - and</p><p>above all in the boundaries, they will help to form ACTIVITY</p><p>NODES (30).</p><p>If you spend eight hours of your day at work, and eight</p><p>hours at home, there is no reason why your workplace should be</p><p>any less of a community than your home.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Build or encourage the formation of work communities - each one a collection of</p><p>smaller clusters of workplaces which have their own courtyards, gathered round a larger</p><p>115</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl18\apl18.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl122\apl122.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl106\apl106.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl41\apl41.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl17\apl17.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl17\apl17.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl17\apl17.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl13\apl13.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl15\apl15.htm</p><p>common square or common courtyard which contains shops and lunch counters. The total</p><p>work community should have no more than 10 or 20 workplaces in it.</p><p>When someone tells you where he "lives,"</p><p>he is always talking about his house or the</p><p>neighborhood his house is in. It sounds harmless</p><p>enough. But think what it really means. Why</p><p>should the people of our culture choose to use</p><p>the word "live," which, on the face of it applies to</p><p>every moment of our waking lives, and apply it</p><p>only to a special portion of our lives - that part</p><p>associated with our families and houses. The</p><p>implication is straightforward. The people of our</p><p>culture believe that they are less alive when they</p><p>are working than when they are at home; and we</p><p>make this distinction subtly clear, by choosing to keep the word "live" only for those places</p><p>in our lives where we are not working. Anyone who uses the phrase "where do you live" in</p><p>its everyday sense, accepts as his own the widespread cultural awareness of the fact that</p><p>no one really "lives" at his place of work - there is no song or music there, no love, no food -</p><p>that he is not alive while working, not living, only toiling away, and being dead.</p><p>As soon as we understand this situation it leads at once to outrage. Why should we accept</p><p>a world in which eight hours of the day are "dead"; why shall we not create a world in which</p><p>our work is as much part of life, as much alive, as anything we do at home with our family</p><p>and with our friends?</p><p>This problem is discussed in other patterns - SCATTERED WORK (9), SELF-</p><p>GOVERNING WORKSHOPS AND OFFICES (80). Here we focus on the implications which</p><p>this problem has for the physical and social nature of the area in which a workplace sits. If a</p><p>person spends eight hours a day working in a certain area, and the nature of his work, its</p><p>social character, and its location, are all chosen to make sure that he is living, not merely</p><p>earning money, then it is certainly essential that the area immediately around his place of</p><p>work be a community, just like a neighborhood but oriented to the pace and rhythms of</p><p>work, instead of the rhythms of the family.</p><p>For workplaces to function as communities, five relationships are critical:</p><p>i. Workplaces must not be too scattered, nor too agglomerated, but clustered in groups</p><p>of about 15.</p><p>We know from SCATTERED WORK (9) that workplaces should be</p><p>decentralized, but they should not be so scattered that a single workplace is</p><p>isolated from others. On the other hand, they should not be so agglomerated that a</p><p>single workplace is lost in a sea of others. The workplaces should therefore be</p><p>grouped to form strongly identifiable communities. The communities need to be</p><p>small enough so that one can know most of the people working in them, at least by</p><p>sight - and big enough to support as many amenities for the workers as possible -</p><p>lunch counters, local sports, shops, and so on. We guess the right size may be</p><p>between 8 and 20 establishments.</p><p>116</p><p>ii. The workplace community contains a mix of manual jobs, desk jobs, craft jobs,</p><p>selling, and so forth.</p><p>Most people today work in areas which are specialized: medical buildings, car</p><p>repair, advertising, warehousing, financial, etc. This kind of segregation leads to</p><p>isolation from other types of work and other types of people, leading in turn to less</p><p>concern, respect, and understanding of them. We believe that a world where</p><p>people are socially responsible can only come about where there is a value</p><p>intrinsic to every job, where there is dignity associated with all work. This can</p><p>hardly come about when we are so segregated from people who do different kinds</p><p>of work from us.</p><p>iii. There is a common piece of land within the work community, which ties the individual</p><p>workshops and offices together.</p><p>A shared street does a little to tie individual houses and places together; but a</p><p>shared piece of common land does a great deal more. If the workplaces are</p><p>grouped around a common courtyard where people can sit, play volleyball, eat</p><p>lunches, it will help the contact and community among the workers.</p><p>iv. The work community is interlaced with the larger community in which it is located.</p><p>A work community, though forming a core community by itself, cannot work</p><p>well in complete isolation</p><p>from the surrounding community. This is already</p><p>discussed to some extent in SCATTERED WORK (9) and MEN AND WOMEN</p><p>(27). In addition, both work community and residential community can gain by</p><p>sharing facilities and services - restaurants, cafes, libraries. Thus it makes sense</p><p>for the work community to be open to the larger community with shops and cafes at</p><p>the seam between them.</p><p>v. Finally, it is necessary that the common land, or courtyards, exist at two distinct and</p><p>separate levels.</p><p>On the one hand, the courtyards for common table tennis, volleyball, need</p><p>half-adozen workgroups around them at the most - more would swamp them. On</p><p>the other hand, the lunch counters and laundries and barbershops need more like</p><p>20 or 30 workgroups to survive. For this reason the work community needs two</p><p>levels of clustering.</p><p>Make the square at the heart of the community a public square with public paths</p><p>coming through it - SMALL PUBLIC SQUARES (61); either in this square, or in some</p><p>attached space, place opportunities for sports - LOCAL SPORTS (72); make sure that the</p><p>entire community is always within three minutes' walk of an ACCESSIBLE GREEN (60); lay</p><p>out the individual smaller courtyards in such a way that people naturally gather there -</p><p>COURTYARDS WHICH LIVE (115); keep the workshops small - SELF-GOVERNING</p><p>WORKSHOPS AND OFFICES (80); encourage communal cooking and eating over and</p><p>beyond the lunch counters - STREET CAFE (88), FOOD STANDS (93), COMMUNAL</p><p>EATING (147). . . .</p><p>42 .INDUSTRIAL RIBBON</p><p>117</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl83\apl83.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl48\apl48.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl59\apl59.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl100\apl100.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl100\apl100.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl95\apl95.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl31\apl31.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl158\apl158.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl158\apl158.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl119\apl119.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl100\apl100.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl95\apl95.htm</p><p>. . . in a city where work is decentralized by</p><p>SCATTERED WORK (9), the placing of industry is of</p><p>particular importance since it usually needs a certain</p><p>amount of concentration. Like WORK</p><p>COMMUNITIES (41), the industry can easily be</p><p>placed to help in the formation of the larger</p><p>boundaries between subcultures - SUB CULTURE</p><p>BOUNDARY (13).</p><p>Exaggerated zoning laws separate industry from</p><p>the rest of urban life completely, and contribute to the</p><p>plastic unreality of sheltered residential</p><p>neighborhoods.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Place industry in ribbons, between 200 and 500 feet wide, which form the boundaries</p><p>between communities. Break these ribbons into long blocks, varying in area between 1 and</p><p>25 acres; and treat the edge of every ribbon as a place where people from nearby</p><p>communities can benefit from the offshoots of the industrial activity.</p><p>It is true, obviously, that industry creates</p><p>smoke, smells, noise, and heavy truck traffic;</p><p>and it is therefore necessary to prevent the</p><p>heaviest industry, especially, from interfering</p><p>with the calm and safety of the places where</p><p>people live.</p><p>But it is also true that in the modern city</p><p>industry gets treated like a disease. The areas</p><p>where it exists are assumed to be dirty and</p><p>derelict. They are kept to the "other side of the</p><p>tracks," swept under the rug. And people forget altogether that the things which surround</p><p>them in their daily lives - bread, chemicals, cars, oil, gaskets, radios, chairs - are all made in</p><p>these forbidden industrial zones. Under these conditions it is not surprising that people treat</p><p>life as an unreal charade, and forget the simplest realities and facts of their existence.</p><p>Since the 1930's various efforts have been made, on behalf of the workers, to make</p><p>factories green and pleasant. This social welfare approach to the nature of industries is</p><p>once again unreal, in the opposite direction. A workshop, where things are being made, is</p><p>not a garden or a hospital. The gardens which</p><p>surround the new industrial "parks" are more for show</p><p>than for the workers anyway since a few small inner</p><p>courts or gardens would be far more useful to the</p><p>118</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>workers themselves. And the contribution of an industrial park to the social and emotional</p><p>life of the surrounding city is almost nil.</p><p>The social welfare "green" industrial park.</p><p>What is needed is a form of industry which is small enough so that it does not need to</p><p>be so sharply segregated; genuine, so that it seems like a workshop, because it is a</p><p>workshop; placed in such a way that the truck traffic which it generates does not endanger</p><p>nearby neighborhoods; and formed along the edge of neighborhoods so that it is not a</p><p>dangerous, forgotten zone, but so that it is a real part of life, accessible to children from the</p><p>surrounding houses, woven into the fabric of city life, in a way that properly reflects its huge</p><p>importance in the scheme of things.</p><p>But many industries are not small. They need large areas to function properly. A</p><p>survey of planned industrial districts shows that 71.2 per cent of the industries require 0 to</p><p>5.0</p><p>documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl6\apl6.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl6\apl6.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl4\apl4.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl4\apl4.htm</p><p>interaction, the city must be continuous - not broken up. In this pattern we shall try to bring</p><p>these two facts to balance.</p><p>Let us begin with the fact that people living in cities need contact with true rural land to</p><p>maintain their roots with the land that supports them. A 1972 Gallup poll gives very strong</p><p>evidence for this fact. The poll asked the question: "If you could live anywhere, would you</p><p>prefer a city, suburban area, small town, or farm?" and received the following answers from</p><p>1465 Americans:</p><p>City</p><p>Suburb</p><p>Small town</p><p>Farm</p><p>13%</p><p>13%</p><p>32%</p><p>23%</p><p>And this dissatisfaction with cities is getting worse. In 1966, 22 percent said they</p><p>preferred the city - in 1972, only six years later, this figure dropped to 13 percent. ("Most</p><p>don't want to live in a city," George Gallup, San Francisco Chronicle, Monday, December</p><p>18, 1972, p. 12.)</p><p>It is easy to understand why city people long for contact with the countryside. Only 100</p><p>years ago 85 percent of the Americans lived on rural land; today 70 percent live in cities.</p><p>Apparently we cannot live entirely within cities - at least the kinds of cities we have built so</p><p>far - our need for contact with the countryside runs too deep, it is a biological necessity:</p><p>Unique as we may think we are, we are nevertheless as likely to be genetically</p><p>programmed to a natural habitat of clean air and a varied green landscape as any other</p><p>mammal. To be relaxed and feel healthy usually means simply allowing our bodies to react</p><p>in the way for which one hundred millions of years of evolution has equipped us. Physically</p><p>and genetically, we appear best adapted to a tropical savanna, but as a cultural animal we</p><p>utilize learned adaptations to cities and towns. For thousands of years we have tried in our</p><p>houses to imitate not only the climate, but the setting of our evolutionary past: warm, humid</p><p>air, green plants, and even animal companions. Today, if we can afford it, we may even</p><p>build a greenhouse or swimming pool next to our living room, buy a place in the country, or</p><p>at least take our children vacationing on the seashore. The specific physiological reactions</p><p>to natural beauty and diversity, to the shapes and colors of nature (especially to green), to</p><p>the motions and sounds of other animals, such as birds, we as yet do not comprehend. But</p><p>it is evident that nature in our daily life should be thought of as a part of the biological need.</p><p>It cannot be neglected in the discussions of resource policy for man. (H. H. Iltis, P. Andres,</p><p>and O. L. Loucks, in Population Resources Environment: Issues in Human Ecology, P. R.</p><p>Ehrlich and A. H. Ehrlich, San Francisco: Freeman and Co., 1970, p. 204.)</p><p>But it is becoming increasingly difficult for city dwellers to come into contact with rural</p><p>life. In the San Francisco Bay Region 21 square miles of open space is lost each year</p><p>(Gerald D. Adams, "The Open Space Explosion," Cry California, Fall 1970, pp. 27-32.) As</p><p>cities get bigger the rural land is farther and farther away.</p><p>With the breakdown of contact between city dwellers and the countryside, the cities</p><p>become prisons. Farm vacations, a year on the farm for city children, and retirement to the</p><p>country for old people are replaced by expensive resorts, summer camps, and retirement</p><p>villages. And for most, the only contact remaining is the weekend exodus from the city,</p><p>choking the highways and the few organized recreation centers. Many weekenders return to</p><p>the city on Sunday night with their nerves more shattered than when they left.</p><p>16</p><p>When the countryside is far away the city becomes a prison.</p><p>If we wish to re-establish and maintain the proper connection between city and</p><p>country, and yet maintain the density of urban interactions, it will be necessary to stretch out</p><p>the urbanized area into long sinuous fingers which extend into the farmland, shown in the</p><p>diagram above. Not only will the city be in the form of narrow fingers, but so will the</p><p>farmlands adjacent to it.</p><p>The maximum width of the city fingers is determined by the maximum acceptable</p><p>distance from the heart of the city to the countryside. We reckon that everyone should be</p><p>within 10 minutes' walk of the countryside. This would set a maximum width of 1 mile for the</p><p>city fingers.</p><p>The minimum for any farmland finger is determined by the minimum acceptable</p><p>dimensions for typical working farms. Since 90 percent of all farms are still 500 acres or less</p><p>and there is no respectable evidence that the giant farm is more efficient (Leon H.</p><p>Keyserling, Agriculture and the Public Interest, Conference on Economic Progress,</p><p>Washington, D. C., February 1965), these fingers of farmland need be no more than 1 mile</p><p>wide.</p><p>The implementation of this pattern requires new policies of three diderent kinds. With</p><p>respect to the farmland, there must be policies encouraging the reconstruction of small</p><p>farms, farms that fit the one-mile bands of country land. Second, there must be policies</p><p>which contain the cities' tendency to scatter in every direction. And third, the countryside</p><p>must be truly public, so that people can establish contact with even those parts of the land</p><p>that are under private cultivation.</p><p>Imagine how this one pattern would transform life in cities.</p><p>Every city dweller would have access to the countryside; the open country would be a</p><p>half-hour bicycle ride from downtown.</p><p>Whenever land is hilly, keep the country fingers in the valleys and the city fingers on</p><p>the upper slopes of hillsides - AGRICULTURAL VALLEYS (4) . Break the city fingers into</p><p>hundreds of distinct self-governing subcultures - MOSAIC OF SUBCULTURES (8), and run</p><p>the major roads and railways down the middle of these city fingers - WEB OF PUBLIC</p><p>TRANSPORTATION (6), RING ROADS (7)....</p><p>4 AGRICULTURAL VALLEYS</p><p>. . . this pattern helps maintain the</p><p>INDEPENDENT REGIONS (1) by making regions</p><p>more self-sufficient agriculturally; and it will create</p><p>CITY COUNTRY FINGERS (3) almost automatically</p><p>by preserving agricultural land in urban areas. But just</p><p>exactly which land ought to be preserved, and which</p><p>land built upon?</p><p>17</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl1\apl1.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl7\apl7.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl6\apl6.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl6\apl6.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl8\apl8.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl4\apl4.htm</p><p>The land which is best for agriculture happens to be best for building too. But it is</p><p>limited and once destroyed, it cannot be regained for centuries.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Preserve all agricultural valleys as farmland and protect this land from any</p><p>development</p><p>acres, 13.6 per cent require 5 to 10 acres, and 9.9 per cent require 10 to 25 acres.</p><p>(Robert E. Boley, Industrial Districts Restudied: An Analysis of Characteristics, Urban Land</p><p>Institute, Technical Bulletin No. 41, 1961.) These industries can only fit into a</p><p>NEIGHBORHOOD BOUNDARY (15) or SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY (13) if the boundary is</p><p>wide enough. Ribbons whose width varies between 200 and 500 feet, with sites varying in</p><p>length between 200 and 2000 feet, will be able to provide the necessary range of one to 25-</p><p>acre sites in compact blocks, and are still narrow enough to keep communities on opposite</p><p>sides of the ribbon reasonably connected.</p><p>The industrial ribbons require truck access and some rail transport. Truck roads and</p><p>rail spurs should always be located in the center of the ribbon,</p><p>so that the edges of the ribbon remain open to the community.</p><p>Even more important, the ribbons must be placed so that they</p><p>do not generate a heavy concentration of dangerous and</p><p>noisy truck traffic through neighborhoods. Since most truck</p><p>traffic comes to and from the freeways, this means that the</p><p>industrial ribbons must be placed fairly near to RING ROADS</p><p>(17).</p><p>Truck traffic from an industrial area to a nearby freeway destroys a neighborhood.</p><p>Place the ribbons near enough to RING ROADS (17) so that trucks can pass directly</p><p>from the ribbons to the ring road, without having to pass through any other intermediate</p><p>areas. Develop the internal layout of the industrial ribbon like any other work community,</p><p>though slightly more spread out WORK COMMUNITY (41). Place the important buildings of</p><p>each industry, the "heart" of the plant, toward the edge of the ribbon to form usable streets</p><p>and outdoor spaces - POSITIVE OUTDOOR SPACE (106), BUlLDING FRONTS (122).</p><p>43 .UNIVERSITY AS MARKETPLACE</p><p>. . . the NETWORK OF :LEARNING (18) has established the importance of a whole</p><p>society devoted to the learning process with decentralized opportunities for learning. The</p><p>network of learning can be greatly helped by building a university, which treats the learning</p><p>process as a normal part of adult life, for all the people in society.</p><p>119</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl45\apl45.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl45\apl45.htm</p><p>Concentrated, cloistered universities, with</p><p>closed admission policies and rigid procedures which</p><p>dictate who may teach a course, kill opportunities for</p><p>learning.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Establish the university as a marketplace of</p><p>higher education. As a social conception this means</p><p>that the university is open to people of all ages, on a</p><p>full-time, part-time, or course by course basis.</p><p>Anyone can offer a class. Anyone can take a class.</p><p>Physically, the university marketplace has a central</p><p>crossroads where its main buildings and offices are,</p><p>and the meeting rooms and labs ripple out from this</p><p>crossroads - at first concentrated in small buildings</p><p>along pedestrian streets and then gradually becoming more dispersed and mixed with the</p><p>town.</p><p>The original universities in the middle ages</p><p>were simply collections of teachers who</p><p>attracted students because they had something</p><p>to offer. They were marketplaces of ideas,</p><p>located all over the town, where people could</p><p>shop around for the kinds of ideas and learning</p><p>which made sense to them. By contrast, the</p><p>isolated and over-administered university of</p><p>today kills the variety and intensity of the</p><p>different ideas at the university and also limits</p><p>the student's opportunity to shop for ideas.</p><p>To re-create this kind of academic freedom and the opportunity for exchange and</p><p>growth of ideas two things are needed.</p><p>First, the social and physical environment must provide a setting which encourages</p><p>rather than discourages individuality and freedom of thought. Second, the environment must</p><p>provide a setting which encourages the student to see for himself which ideas make sense -</p><p>a setting which gives him the maximum opportunity and exposure to a great variety of ideas,</p><p>so that he can make up his mind for himself.</p><p>The image which most clearly describes this kind of setting is the image of the</p><p>traditional marketplace, where hundreds of tiny stalls, each one developing some specialty</p><p>and unique flavor which can attract people by its genuine quality, are so arranged that a</p><p>potential buyer can circulate freely, and examine the wares before he buys.</p><p>What would it mean to fashion the university after this model?</p><p>1. Anyone can take a course. To begin with, in a university marketplace there are no</p><p>admission procedures. Anyone, at any age, may come forward and seek to take</p><p>a class. In effect, the "course catalog" of the university is published and circulated</p><p>at large, in the newspapers and on radio, and posted in public places throughout</p><p>the region.</p><p>120</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl47\apl47.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl47\apl47.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl47\apl47.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl43\apl43.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl44\apl44.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl45\apl45.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl81\apl81.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl123\apl123.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl61\apl61.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl61\apl61.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl30\apl30.htm</p><p>2. Anyone can give a course. Similarly, in a university marketplace, anyone can come</p><p>forward and offer a course. There is no hard and fast distinction between</p><p>teachers and the rest of the citizenry. If people come forward to take the course,</p><p>then it is established. There will certainly be groups of teachers banding together</p><p>and offering interrelated classes; and teachers may set prerequisities and</p><p>regulate enrollment however they see fit. But, like a true marketplace, the</p><p>students create the demand. If over a period of time no one comes forward to</p><p>take a professor's course, then he must change his offering or find another way</p><p>to make a living.</p><p>Many courses, once they are organized, can meet in homes and meeting rooms all</p><p>across the town. But some will need more space or special equipment, and all the classes</p><p>will need access to libraries and various other communal facilities. The university</p><p>marketplace, then, needs a physical structure to support its social structure.</p><p>Certainly, a marketplace could never have the form of an isolated campus. Rather it</p><p>would tend to be open and public, woven through the city, perhaps with one or two streets</p><p>where university facilities are concentrated.</p><p>In an early version of this pattern, written expressly for the University</p><p>which would</p><p>destroy or lock up the unique</p><p>fertility of the soil. Even when</p><p>valleys are not cultivated now,</p><p>protect them: keep them for</p><p>farms and parks and wilds.</p><p>In the last few years,</p><p>suburban growth has been spreading over all land, agricultural or not. It eats up this limited</p><p>resource and, worse still, destroys the possibility of farming close to cities once and for all.</p><p>But we know, from the arguments of CITY COUNTRY FINGERS (3), that it is important to</p><p>have open farmland near the places where people live. Since the arable land which can be</p><p>used for farming lies mainly in the valleys, it is essential that the valley floors within our</p><p>urban regions be left untouched and kept for farming.</p><p>The most complete study of this problem that we know, comes from Ian McHarg</p><p>(Design With Nature, New York: Natural History Press, 1969). In his "Plan for the Valleys"</p><p>(WallaceMcHarg Associates, Philadelphia, 1963), he shows how town development can be</p><p>diverted to the hillsides and plateaus, leaving the valleys clear. The pattern is supported,</p><p>also, by the fact that there are several possible practical approaches to the task of</p><p>implementation (McHarg, pp. 79-93).</p><p>Keep town and city development along the hilltops and hillsides - CITY COUNTRY</p><p>FINGERS (3). And in the valleys, treat the ownership of the land as a form of stewardship,</p><p>embracing basic ecological responsibilities - THE COUNTRYSIDE (7)...</p><p>5 LACE OF COUNTRY STREETS</p><p>. . . according to the pattern CITY COUNTRY</p><p>FINGERS (3), there is a rather sharp division between</p><p>city land and rural land. But at the ends of city fingers,</p><p>where the country fingers open out, there is a need for</p><p>an additional kind of structure. This structure has</p><p>traditionally been the suburbs. But. . .</p><p>The suburb is an obsolete and contradictory form</p><p>of human</p><p>settlement.</p><p>18</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl7\apl7.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>In the zone where city and country meet, place country roads at least a mile apart, so</p><p>that they enclose squares of countryside and farmland at least one square mile in area.</p><p>Build homesteads along these roads, one lot deep, on lots of at least half an acre, with the</p><p>square mile of open countryside or farmland behind the houses.</p><p>Many people want to live in the country; and they also want to be close to a large city.</p><p>But it is geometrically impossible to have thousands of small farms, within a few minutes of</p><p>a major city center.</p><p>To live well in the country, you must have a reasonable piece of land of your own -</p><p>large enough for horses, cows, chickens, an orchard - and you must have immediate</p><p>access to continuous open countryside, as far as the eye can see. To have quick access to</p><p>the city, you must live on a road, within a few minutes' drive from city centers, and with a</p><p>bus line outside your door.</p><p>It is possible to have both, by arranging country roads around large open squares of</p><p>countryside or farmland, with houses closely packed along the road, but only one house</p><p>deep. Lionel March lends support to this pattern in his paper, ''Homes beyond the Fringe"</p><p>(Land Use and Built Form Studies, Cambridge, England, 1968). March shows that such a</p><p>pattern, fully developed, could work for millions of people even in a country as small and</p><p>densely populated as England.</p><p>A "lace of country streets" contains square miles of open countryside, fast roads from</p><p>the city at the edge of these square miles, houses clustered along the roads, and footpaths</p><p>stretching out from the city, crisscrossing the countryside.</p><p>1. Square miles of open countryside. We believe that one square mile is the smallest</p><p>piece of open land which still maintains the integrity of the countryside. This</p><p>figure is derived from the requirements of small farms, presented in the argument</p><p>for CITY COUNTRY FINGERS (3).</p><p>2. Roads. To protect the countryside from suburban encroachment, the roads running</p><p>out into the countryside must be vastly reduced in number. A loose network of</p><p>interconnected roads, at one-mile intervals with little encouragement for</p><p>throughtraffic to pass through them, is quite enough.</p><p>3. Lots. Situate homesteads, houses, and cottages along these country roads one or</p><p>two lots deep, always setting them off the road with the open land behind them.</p><p>The minimum land for a homestead must be approximately one-half acre to allow</p><p>for basic farming. However, some of the housing could be in rows or clusters,</p><p>with people working the land behind collectively. Assuming one-half acre lots</p><p>around a one mile square of open land, we can have 400 households to the</p><p>square mile. With four people per household, that is 1600 people per square</p><p>mile; not very different from an ordinary low density suburb.</p><p>4. Footpaths. The countryside can be made accessible to city people by means of</p><p>footpaths and trails running from the edge of the city and from the country roads</p><p>into the countryside, across the squares of open land.</p><p>Make each square mile of country side, both farm and park, open to the public - THE</p><p>COUNTRYSIDE (7); arrange the half acre lots to form clusters of houses and</p><p>19</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl7\apl7.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl7\apl7.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>neighborhoods, even when they are rather spread out - IDENTIFIABLE</p><p>NEIGHBORHOODS (14), HOUSE CLUSTER (37)....</p><p>6 .COUNTRY TOWNS</p><p>. . . this pattern forms the backbone of the</p><p>DISTRIBUTION OF TOWNS (2), which requires that</p><p>scores of smaller country towns support the larger</p><p>towns and cities of the region.</p><p>The big city is a magnet. It is terribly hard for</p><p>small towns to stay alive and healthy in the face of</p><p>central urban growth.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Preserve country towns where they exist; and encourage the growth of new self-</p><p>contained towns, with populations between 500 and 10,000, entirely surrounded by open</p><p>countryside and at least 10 miles from neighboring towns. Make it the region's collective</p><p>concern to give each town the wherewithal it needs to build a base of local industry, so that</p><p>these towns are not dormitories for people who work in other places, but real towns - able to</p><p>sustain the whole of life.</p><p>During the last 30 years, 30 million rural</p><p>Americans have been forced to leave their farms</p><p>and small towns and migrate to crowded cities. This</p><p>forced migration continues at the rate of 800,000</p><p>people a year. The families that are left behind are</p><p>not able to count on a future living in the country:</p><p>about half of them live on less than $3000 a year.</p><p>And it is not purely the search for jobs that has</p><p>led people away from small towns to the cities. It is</p><p>also a search for information, for connection to the popular culture. In Ireland and India, for</p><p>example,</p><p>lively people leave the villages where there is some work, and some little food,</p><p>and they go to the city, looking for action, for better work, for a better life.</p><p>Unless steps are taken to recharge the life of country towns, the cities will swamp</p><p>those towns which lie the nearest to them; and will rob those which lie furthest out of their</p><p>most vigorous inhabitants. What are the possibilities?</p><p>1. Economic reconstruction. Incentives to business and industry to decentralize and</p><p>locate in small towns. Incentives to the inhabitants of small towns to begin</p><p>20</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl2\apl2.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl37\apl37.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl14\apl14.htm</p><p>grassroots business and production ventures. (See, for example, the bill</p><p>introduced by Joe Evins in the House of Representatives, Congressional Record</p><p>-House, October 3, 1967, 27687.)</p><p>2. Zoning. Zoning policy to protect small towns and the countryside around them.</p><p>Greenbelt zoning was defined by Ebenezer Howard at the turn of the century and</p><p>has yet to be taken seriously by American governments. 3. Social services.</p><p>There are connections between small towns and cities that take the form of social</p><p>services, that are irreplaceable: small town visits, farm weekends and vacations</p><p>for city dwellers, schools and camps in the countryside for city children, small</p><p>town retirement for old people who do not like the pace of city life. Let the city</p><p>invite small towns to provide these services, as grassroots ventures, and the city,</p><p>or private groups, will pay for the cost of the service.</p><p>Treat each of these small towns as a political community, with full provision for all the</p><p>stages of human life - COMMUNITY OF 7000 (12), LIFE CYCLE (26). Treat the belt of open</p><p>country which surrounds the town as farm land which belongs to the people and can be</p><p>freely used by them - THE COUNTRYSIDE (7) ...</p><p>7 .THE COUNTRYSIDE</p><p>...within each region, in between the towns,</p><p>there are vast areas of countryside - farmland,</p><p>parkland, forests, deserts, grazing meadows,</p><p>lakes, and rivers. The legal and ecological</p><p>character of this countryside is crucial to the</p><p>balance of the region. When properly done, this</p><p>pattern will help to complete THE</p><p>DISTRIBUTION OF TOWNS (2), CITY</p><p>COUNTRY FINGERS (3), AGRICULTURAL</p><p>VALLEYS (4), LACE OF COUNTRY STREETS</p><p>(5) and COUNTRY TOWNS (6).</p><p>I</p><p>conceive that land belongs for use to a vast family</p><p>of which many are dead, few are living, and</p><p>countless members are still unborn.</p><p>- a Nigerian tribesman</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Define all farms as parks, where the public</p><p>has a right to be; and make all regional parks into</p><p>working farms. Create stewardships among groups of people, families and cooperatives,</p><p>21</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl6\apl6.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl5\apl5.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl5\apl5.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl4\apl4.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl4\apl4.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl2\apl2.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl2\apl2.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl7\apl7.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl26\apl26.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl12\apl12.htm</p><p>with each stewardship responsible for one part of the countryside. The stewards are given a</p><p>lease for the land, and they are free to tend the land and set ground rules for its use - as a</p><p>small farm, a forest, marshland, desert, and so forth. The public is free to visit the land, hike</p><p>there, picnic, explore, boat, so long as they conform to the ground rules. With such a setup,</p><p>a farm near a city might have picnickers in its fields every day during the summer.</p><p>Parks are dead and artificial. Farms, when treated as private property, rob the people</p><p>of their natural biological heritage - the countryside from which they came.</p><p>In Norway, England, Austria, it is commonly understood that people have a right to</p><p>picnic in farmland, and walk and play - provided they respect the animals and crops. And</p><p>the reverse is also true‹there is no wilderness which is abandoned to its own processes -</p><p>even the mountainsides are terraced, mown, and grazed and cared for.</p><p>We may summarize these ideas by saying that there is only one kind of nonurban land</p><p>- the countryside.There are no parks; no farms; no uncharted wilderness. Every piece of</p><p>countryside has keepers who have the right to farm it, if it is arable; or the obligation to look</p><p>after it, if it is wild; and every piece of land is open to the people at large, provided they</p><p>respect the organic processes which are going on there.</p><p>The central conception behind this view of the land is given by Aldo Leopold in his</p><p>essay, "The Land Ethic" (A Sand County Almanac, New York: Oxford University Press,</p><p>1949); Leopold believes that our relationship to the land will provide the framework for the</p><p>next great ethical transformation in the human community:</p><p>This extension of ethics, so far studied only by philosophers, is actually a process in</p><p>ecological evolution. Its sequences may be described in ecological as well as in</p><p>philosophical terms. An ethic, ecologically, is a limitation on freedom of action in the</p><p>struggle for existence. An ethic, philosophically, is a differentiation of social from anti-social</p><p>conduct. These are two definitions of one thing. The thing has its origin in the tendency of</p><p>interdependent individuals or groups to evolve modes of co-operation. The ecologist calls</p><p>these symbioses. Politics and economics are advanced symbioses in which the original</p><p>free-for-all competition has been replaced, in part, by co-operative mechanisms with an</p><p>ethical content....</p><p>All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of</p><p>a community of interdependent parts. His instincts prompt him to compete for his place in</p><p>that community, but his ethics prompt him also to co-operate....</p><p>The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils,</p><p>waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land...</p><p>Within the framework of this ethic, parks and campgrounds conceived as "pieces of</p><p>nature" for people's recreation,</p><p>without regard for the intrinsic value of the land itself, are</p><p>dead things and immoral. So also are farms conceived as areas "owned" by the farmers for</p><p>their own exclusive profit. If we continue to treat the land as an instrument for our</p><p>enjoyment, and as a source of economic profit, our parks and camps will become more</p><p>artificial, more plastic, more like Disneyland. And our farms will become more and more like</p><p>factories. The land ethic replaces the idea of public parks and public campgrounds with the</p><p>concept of a single countryside.</p><p>22</p><p>One example of support for this idea lies in the Blueprint for Survival, and the proposal</p><p>there to give traditional communities stewardship over certain estuaries and marshes.</p><p>These wetlands are the spawning grounds for the fish and shellfish which form the base of</p><p>the food chain for 60 per cent of the entire ocean harvest, and they can only be properly</p><p>managed by a group who respects them as a cooperating part in the chain of life. (The</p><p>Ecologist, England: Penguin, 1972, p. 41.)</p><p>The residential forests of Japan provide another example. A village grows up along the</p><p>edge of a forest; the villagers tend the forest. Thinning it properly is one of their</p><p>responsibilities. The forest is available to anyone who wants to come there and partake in</p><p>the process:</p><p>The farmhouses of Kurume-machi stand in a row along the main road for about a mile.</p><p>Each house is surrounded by a belt of trees of similar species, giving the aspect of a single</p><p>large forest. The main trees are located so as to produce a shelter-belt. In addition, these</p><p>small forests are homes for birds, a device for conserving water, a source of firewood and</p><p>timber, which is selectively cut, and a means of climate control, since the temperature</p><p>inside the residential forest is cooler in summer and warmer in winter.</p><p>It should be noted that these residential forests, established more than 300 years ago,</p><p>are still intact as a result of the careful selective cutting and replacement program followed</p><p>by the residents. (John L. Creech, "Japan‹Like a National Park," Yearbook of Agriculture</p><p>1963, U. S. Department of Agriculture, pp. 525-28.)</p><p>Within each natural preserve, we imagine a limited number of houses - HOUSE</p><p>CLUSTER (37) - with access on unpaved country lanes - GREEN STREETS (51).</p><p>8 .MOSAIC OF SUBCULTURES</p><p>. . . the most basic structure of a city is given</p><p>by the relation of urban land to open country - CITY</p><p>COUNTRY FINGERS (3). Within the swaths of</p><p>urban land the most important structure must come</p><p>from the great variety of human groups and</p><p>subcultures which can co-exist there.</p><p>The homogeneous and undifferentiated</p><p>character of modern cities kills all variety of life</p><p>styles and arrests the growth of individual character.</p><p>Therefore:</p><p>Do everything possible to enrich the cultures and</p><p>subcultures of the city, by breaking the city, as far as possible,</p><p>23</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl3\apl3.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl51\apl51.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl37\apl37.htm</p><p>file:///C:\Documents and Settings\Arqui.657A7663CE4845F\Mis documentos\Mis Downloads\Christopher Alexander\A_pattern_language_book\apl37\apl37.htm</p><p>into a vast mosaic of small and different subcultures, each with its own spatial territory, and</p><p>each with the power to create its own distinct life style. Make sure that the subcultures are</p><p>small enough, so that each person has access to the full variety of life styles in the</p><p>subcultures near his own.</p><p>Compare three possible alternative ways in which people may be distributed</p><p>throughout the city:</p><p>1. In the heterogeneous city, people are mixed together,</p><p>irrespective of their life style or culture. This seems rich. Actually it</p><p>dampens all significant variety, arrests most of the possibilities for</p><p>differentiation, and encourages conformity. It tends to reduce all</p><p>life styles to a common denominator. What appears</p><p>heterogeneous turns out to be homogeneous and dull.</p><p>2. In a city made up of ghettos, people have the support of the</p><p>most basic and banal forms of differentiation - race or economic</p><p>status. The ghettos are still homogeneous internally, and do not allow</p><p>a significant variety of life styles to emerge. People in the ghetto are</p><p>usually forced to live there, isolated from the rest of society, unable to</p><p>evolve their way of life, and often intolerant of ways of life different</p><p>from their own.</p><p>3. In a city made of a large number of subcultures</p><p>relatively small in size, each occupying an identifiable place</p><p>and separated from other subcultures by a boundary of</p><p>nonresidential land, new ways of life can develop. People</p><p>can choose the kind of subculture they wish to live in, and</p><p>can still experience many ways of life different from their</p><p>own. Since each environment fosters mutual support and a</p><p>strong sense of shared values, individuals can grow.</p><p>This pattern for a mosaic of subcultures was originally proposed by Frank Hendricks.</p><p>His latest paper dealing with it is "Concepts of environrnental quality standards based on life</p><p>styles," with Malcolm MacNair (Pittsburg, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh, February</p><p>1969). The psychological needs which underlie this pattern and which make it necessary for</p><p>subcultures to be spatially separated in order to thrive have been described by Christopher</p><p>Alexander, "Mosaic of Subcultures," Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, 1968.</p><p>The following statement is an excerpt from that paper.</p><p>I.</p><p>We are the hollow men.</p><p>We are the stuiled men.</p><p>Leaning together</p><p>Headpiece filled with straw. Alas.</p><p>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</p><p>24</p><p>Shape without form, shade without color,</p><p>Paralyzed force, gesture without motion;</p><p>. . .</p><p>-T. S. Eliot</p><p>Many of the people who live in metropolitan areas have a weak character. In fact,</p><p>metropolitan areas seem almost marked by the fact that the people in them have markedly</p><p>weak character, compared with the character which develops in simpler and more rugged</p><p>situations. This weakness of character is the counterpart of another, far more visible feature</p><p>of metropolitan areas: the homogeneity and lack of variety among the people who live there.</p><p>Of course, weakness of character and lack of variety, are simply two sides of the same coin:</p><p>a condition in which people have relatively undifferentiated selves. Character can only occur</p><p>in a self which is strongly differentiated and whole: by definition, a society where people are</p><p>relatively homogeneous, is one where individual selves are not strongly differentiated.</p><p>Let us begin with the problern of variety. The idea of men as millions of faceless</p><p>nameless cogs pervades 20th century literature. The nature of modern housing reflects this</p><p>image and sustains it. The vast majority of housing built today has the touch of mass-</p><p>production. Adjacent apartments are identical. Adjacent houses are identical. The most</p><p>devastating image of all was a photograph published in Life magazine several years ago as</p><p>an advertisement for a timber company: The photograph showed a huge roomful of people;</p><p>all of them had exactly the same face. The caption underneath explained: In honor of the</p><p>chairman's birthday, the shareholders of the corporation are wearing masks made from his</p><p>face.</p><p>These are no more than images and indications.... But where do all the frightening</p><p>images of sameness, human digits, and human cogs, come from? Why have Kafka and</p><p>Camus and Sartre spoken to our hearts?</p><p>Many writers have answered this question in detail - [David Riesman in The Lonely</p><p>Crowd; Kurt Goldstein in The Organism; Max Wertheimer in The Story of Three Days;</p><p>Abraham Maslow in Motivation and Personality; Rollo May in Man's Search for Himself, etc.]</p><p>. Their answers all converge on the following essential point: Although a person may have a</p><p>different mixture of attributes from his neighbour, he is not truly different, until he has a</p><p>strong center, until his uniqueness is integrated and forceful. At present, in metropolitan</p><p>areas, this seems not to be the case. Different though they are in detail, people are forever</p><p>leaning on one another, trying to be whatever will not displease the others, afraid of being</p><p>themselves.</p><p>People do things a certain way "because that's the way to get them done" instead of</p><p>"because we believe them right." Compromise, going along with the others, the spirit of</p><p>committees and all that it implies - in metropolitan areas, these characteristics have been</p><p>made to appear adult, mature, well-adjusted. But euphemisms do little to disguise the fact</p><p>that people who do things because that's the way to get along with others, instead of doing</p><p>what they believe in, do it because it avoids coming to terms with their own self, and</p><p>standing on it, and confronting others with it. It is easy to defend this weakness of character</p><p>on the grounds of expediency. But however many excuses are made for it, in the end</p><p>weakness of character destroys a person; no one weak in character can love himself. The</p><p>self-hate that it creates is not a condition in which a person can become whole.</p><p>By contrast, the person who becomes whole, states his own nature, visibly, and</p><p>outwardly, loud and clear, for everyone to see. He is not afraid of his own self; he stands up</p><p>25</p><p>for what he is; he is himself, proud of himself, recognising his shortcomings, trying to</p><p>change them, but still proud of himself and glad to be himself.</p><p>But it is hard to allow that you which lurks beneath the surface to come out and show</p><p>itself. It is so much easier to live according to the ideas of life which have been laid down by</p><p>others, to bend your true self to the wheel of custom, to hide yourself in demands which are</p><p>not yours, and which do not leave you full.</p><p>It seems clear, then, that variety, character, and finding your own self, are closely</p><p>interwoven. In a society where a man can find his own self, there will be ample variety of</p><p>character, and character will be strong. In a society where people have trouble finding their</p><p>own selves, people will seem homogeneous, there will be less variety, and character will be</p><p>weak.</p><p>If it is true that character is weak in metropolitan areas today, and we want to do</p><p>something about it, the first thing we must do, is to understand how the metropolis has this</p><p>effect.</p><p>II.</p><p>How does a metropolis create conditions in which people find it hard to find</p><p>themselves?</p><p>We know that the individual forms his own self out of the values, habits and beliefs,</p><p>and attitudes which his society presents him with. [George Herbert Mead, Mind, Self and</p><p>Society.] In a metropolis the individual is confronted by a vast tableau of different values,</p><p>habits and beliefs and attitudes. Whereas, in a primitive society, he had merely to integrate</p><p>the traditional beliefs (in a sense, there was a self already there for the asking), in modern</p><p>society each person has literally to fabricate a self, for himself, out of the chaos of values</p><p>which surrounds him.</p><p>If, every day you do something, you meet someone with a slightly different</p><p>background, and each of these peoples' response to what you do is different even when</p><p>your actions are the same, the situation becomes more and more confusing. The possibility</p><p>that you can become secure and strong in yourself, certain of what you are, and certain of</p><p>what you are doing, goes down radically. Faced constantly with an unpredictable changing</p><p>social world, people no longer generate the strength to draw on themselves; they draw more</p><p>and more on the approval of others; they look to see whether people are smiling when they</p><p>say something, and if they are, they go on saying it, and if not, they shut up. In a world like</p><p>that, it is very hard for anyone to establish any sort of inner strength.</p><p>Once we accept the idea that the formation of the self is a social process, it becomes</p><p>clear that the formation of a strong social self depends on the strength of the surrounding</p><p>social order. When attitudes, values, beliefs and habits are highly diffuse and mixed up as</p><p>they are in a metropolis, it is almost inevitable that the person who grows up in these</p><p>conditions will be diffuse and mixed up too. Weak character is a direct product of the</p><p>present metropolitan society.</p><p>This argument has been summarized in devastating terms by Margaret Mead [Culture,</p><p>Change and Character Structure]. A number of writers have supported this view empirically:</p><p>Hartshorne, H. and May, M. A., Studies in the Nature of Character, New York, Macmillan,</p><p>1929; and "A Summary of the Work of the Character Education Inquiry," Religious</p><p>Education, 1930, Vol. 25, 607-619 and 754-762. "Contradictory demands made upon the</p><p>child in the varied situations in which he is responsible to adults, not only prevent the</p><p>26</p><p>organisation of a consistent character, but actually compel inconsistency as the price of</p><p>peace and self-respect." . . .</p><p>But this is not the end of the story. So far we have seen how the diffusion of a</p><p>metropolis creates weak character. But diffusion, when it becomes pronounced, creates a</p><p>special kind of superficial uniformity. When many colors are mixed, in many tiny scrambled</p><p>bits and pieces, the overall effect is grey. This greyness helps to create weak character in</p><p>its own way.</p><p>In a society where there are many voices, and many values, people cling to those few</p><p>things which they all have in common. Thus Margaret Mead (op. cit.): "There is a tendency</p><p>to reduce all values to simple scales of dollars, school grades, or some other simple</p><p>quantitative measure, whereby the extreme incommensurables of many different sets of</p><p>cultural values can be easily, though superficially, reconciled." And Joseph T. Klapper [T:he</p><p>Effects of Mass Communication, Free Press, 1960]:</p><p>"Mass society not only creates a confusing situation in which people find it hard to find</p><p>themselves - it also . . . creates chaos, in which people are confronted by impossible variety</p><p>- the variety becomes a slush, which then concentrates merely on the most obvious."</p><p>. . . It seems then, that the metropolis creates weak character in two almost opposite</p><p>ways; first, because people are exposed to a chaos of values; second, because they cling to</p><p>the superficial uniformity common to all these values. A nondescript mixture of values will</p><p>tend to produce nondescript people.</p><p>III.</p><p>There are obviously many ways of solving the problem. Some of these solutions will</p><p>be private. Others will involve a variety of social processes including, certainly, education,</p><p>work, play, and family. I shall now describe one particular solution, which involves the large</p><p>scale social organisation of the metropolis.</p><p>The solution is this. The metropolis must contain a large number of different</p><p>subcultures, each one strongly articulated, with its own values sharply delineated, and</p><p>sharply distinguished from the others. But though these subcultures must be sharp and</p><p>distinct and separate, they must not be closed; they must be readily accessible to one</p><p>another, so that a person can move easily from one to another, and can settle in the one</p><p>which suits him best.</p><p>This solution is based on two assumptions:</p>
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