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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 13h

226 - Column Place * Thin columns, spindly columns, columns which take their shape from structural arguments alone, will never make a comfortable environment.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

145 - Bulk Storage In houses and workplaces there is always some need for bulk storage space; a place for things like suitcases, old furniture, old files, boxes - all those things which you are not ready to throw away, and yet not using everyday.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

155 - Old Age Cottage ** Old people, especially when they are alone, face a terrible dilemma. On the one hand, there are inescapable forces pushing them toward independence: their children move away; the neighborhood changes; their friends and wives and husbands die. On the other hand, by the very

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

216 - Box Columns ** In all the world's traditional and historic buildings, the columns are expressive, beautiful, and treasured elements. Only in modern buildings have they become ugly and meaningless.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

125 - Stair Seats * Wherever there is action in a place, the spots which are the most inviting, are those high enough to give people a vantage point, and low enough to put them in action.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

205 - Structure Follows Social Spaces ** No building ever feels right to the people in it unless the physical spaces (defined by columns, walls, and ceilings) are congruent with the social spaces (defined by activities and human groups).

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

200 - Open Shelves * Cupboards that are too deep waste valuable space, and it always seems that what you want is behind something else.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

121 - Path Shape * Streets should be for staying in, and not just for moving through, the way they are today.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

101 - Building Thoroughfare When a public building complex cannot be completely served by outdoor pedestrian streets, a new form of indoor street, quite different from the conventional corridor, is needed.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

167 - Six-Foot Balcony ** Balconies and porches which are less than six feet deep are hardly ever used.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

53 - Main Gateways ** Any part of a town - large or small - which is to be identified by its inhabitants as a precinct of some kind, will be reinforced, helped in its distinctness, marked, and made more vivid, if the paths which enter it are marked by gateways where they cross the boundary.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

228 - Stair Vault * Within a building technology which uses compressive materials as much as possible, and excludes the use of wood, it is natural to build stairs over a vaulted void, simply to save weight and materials.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

10 - Magic of the City There are few people who do not enjoy the magic of a great city. But urban sprawl takes it away from everyone except the few who are lucky enough, or rich enough, to live close to the largest centers.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

135 - Tapestry of Light and Dark * In a building with uniform light level, there are few "places" which function as effective settings for human events. This happens because, to a large extent, the places which make effective settings are defined by light.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

215 - Ground Floor Slab The slab is the easiest, cheapest, and most natural way to lay a ground floor.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

43 - University as Marketplace Concentrated, cloistered universities, with closed admission policies and rigid procedures which dictate who may teach a course, kill opportunities for learning.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

127 - Intimacy Gradient ** Unless the spaces in a building are arranged in a sequence which corresponds to their degrees of privateness, the visits made by strangers, friends, guests, clients, family, will always be a little awkward.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

167 - Six-Foot Balcony ** Balconies and porches which are less than six feet deep are hardly ever used.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

98 - Circulation Realms * In many modern building complexes the problem of disorientation is acute. People have no idea where they are, and they experience considerable mental stress as a result.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

16 - Web of Public Transportation * The system of public transportation - the entire web of airplanes, helicopters, hovercraft, trains, boats, ferries, buses, taxis, mini-trains, carts, ski-lifts, moving sidewalks - can only work if all the parts are well connected. But they usually aren't,

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

39 - Housing Hill Every town has places in it which are so central and desirable that at least 30-50 households per acre will be living there. But the apartment houses which reach this density are almost all impersonal.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

22 - Nine per Cent Parking ** Very simply when the area devoted to parking is too great, it destroys the land.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

116 - Cascade of Roofs * Few buildings will be structurally and socially intact, unless the floors step down toward the ends of wings, and unless the roof, accordingly, forms a cascade.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

36 - Degrees of Publicness ** People are different, and the way they want to place their houses in a neighborhood is one of the most basic kinds of difference.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

69 - Public Outdoor Room ** There are very few spots along the streets of modern towns and neighborhoods where people can hang out, comfortably, for hours at a time.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

211 - Thickening the Outer Walls * We have established in Thick Walls (197), how important it is for the walls of a building to have "depth" and "volume," so that character accumulates, in them, with time. But when it comes to laying out a building and constructing it, this turns out to be quite

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

85 - Shopfront Schools Around the age of 6 or 7, children develop a great need to learn by doing, to make their mark on a community outside the home. If the setting is right, these needs lead children directly to basic skills and habits of learning.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

3 - City Country Fingers ** Continuous sprawling urbanization destroys life, and makes cities unbearable. But the sheer size of cities is also valuable and potent.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

63 - Dancing in the Streets * Why is it that people don't dance in the streets today?

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

215 - Ground Floor Slab The slab is the easiest, cheapest, and most natural way to lay a ground floor.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

68 - Connected Play * If children don't play enough with other children during the first five years of life, there is a great chance that they will have some kind of mental illness later in their lives.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

234 - Lapped Outside Walls The main function of a building's outside wall is to keep weather out. It can only do this if the materials are joined in such a way that they cooperate to make impervious joints.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

133 - Staircase as a Stage A staircase is not just a way of getting from one floor to another. The stair is itself a space, a volume, a part of the building; and unless this space is made to live, it will be a dead spot, and work to disconnect the building and to tear its processes apart.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

82 - Office Connections * If two parts of an office are too far apart, people will not move between them as often as they need to; and if they are more than one floor apart, there will be almost no communication between the two.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

139 - Farmhouse Kitchen ** The isolated kitchen, separate from the family and considered as an efficient but unpleasant factory for food is a hangover from the days of servants; and from the more recent days when women willingly took over the servants' role.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

32 - Shopping Street * Shopping centers depend on access: they need locations near major traffic arteries. However, the shoppers themselves don't benefit from traffic: they need quiet, comfort, and convenience, and access from the pedestrian paths in the surrounding area.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

128 - Indoor Sunlight * If the right rooms are facing south, a house is bright and sunny and cheerful; if the wrong rooms are facing south, the house is dark and gloomy.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

253 - Things from your Life * "Decor" and the conception of "interior design" have spread so widely, that very often people forget their instinct for the things they really want to keep around them.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

150 - A Place to Wait * The process of waiting has inherent conflicts in it.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

198 - Closets Between Rooms * The provision of storage and closets usually comes as an afterthought.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

154 - Teenager's cottage * If a teenager's place in the home does not reflect his need for a measure of independence, he will be locked in conflict with his family.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

202 - Built-in Seats * Built-in seats are great. Everybody loves them. They make a building feel comfortable and luxurious. But most often they do not actually work. They are placed wrong, or too narrow, or the back does not slope, or the view is wrong, or the seat is too hard. This pattern tells

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

199 - Sunny Counter * Dark gloomy kitchens are depressing. The kitchen needs the sun more than the other rooms, not less.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

246 - Climbing Plants A building finally becomes a part of its surroundings when the plants grow over parts of it as freely as they grow along the ground.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

141 - A Room of One No one can be close to others, without also having frequent opportunities to be alone.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

222 - Low Sill One of a window's most important functions is to put you in touch with the outdoors. If the sill is too high, it cuts you off.

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A Pattern Language Bot @aplbot.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

170 - Fruit Trees * In the climates where fruit trees grow, the orchards give the land an almost magical identity: think of the orange groves of Southern California, the cherry trees of Japan, the olive trees of Greece. But the growth of cities seems always to destroy these trees and the quality

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