History of Contemporary Urban Design Essay

Aleksander Tadeusz Świątek,, MSc in Architecture , I sem, Cracov University of Technology

“Pattern Language – design method”

Architects, engineers, urbanists, and pretty much every designer all have one thing in common
- a workflow – a certain loop of doing things in their particular field of design which is usually based on one
or more design methods. Numerous academics and the abovementioned practitioners have tried to capture the
essence of this complex process and describe it with all its intricacies since ancient times. The first piece of writing
of this type known to humanity is the famous “De Architectura Libri Decem” 1 of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio written
between 20 and 10 B. C. in ancient Rome and rediscovered only in 1415, in the library of the monastery
in St. Gallen in Switzerland. It is a comprehensive compendium of Ancient Greek and Roman architecture,
as well as rules of locating and designing castra, ancient towns, buildings of different types, and even machinery
of everyday use and of military purpose. Vitruvius, as the author is commonly referred to, was a military engineer
and architect who was working during the reign of the Gaius Julius Caesar and Gaius Octavius which means that
he held his position also during the early Pax Romana – the golden Age of Roman Empire. His work later inspired
the Renaissance architects among which Leon Battista Alberti wrote “De re aedificatoria” 2 which was the first
printed book on architecture in 1485. Next came Andrea Palladio with his “I quattro libri dell’architettura” 3 which
was first published in four books in 1570 in Venice. It included a set of rules for design and, separately, for
construction and over 200 illustrations. Much earlier, during the Middle Ages, however, most of the knowledge
about building and architecture was passed on in the form of transcripts, word of mouth, and in master’s lodges.
Unfortunately, very few examples of these works were written down as the focus of the scribes was on theology
rather than construction during that time. There is Abbot Suger’s “Liber de rebus in administratione sua gestis” 4
which describes the development of the basilica, history of the monastery, and the contents of treasury all
connected with Gothic architecture. Another important piece of that time is Villard de Honnecourt’s “Album de
dessins et Croquis” 5 from 1230s which is now available for everyone on the internet. Relatively unknown,
nevertheless worth mentioning is the Chinese, Song Dynasty architectural treatise “Yingzao Fashi” 6 by Li Jie,

1
“Ten Books on Architecture”
2
“On the Art of Building”
3
“The Four books of Architecture”
4
“A book about the management of their deeds”
5
“Album of drawings and sketches”, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10509412z/f68.item.r=villard%20de%20honnecourt
[accessed on 05.06.2021]
6
“Treatise on Architectural Methods or State Building Standards”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yingzao_Fashi [accessed on 05.06.2021]
published as early as 1103. It codifies the elements of Chinese architecture and, what is quite unusual for that time,
mentions the building standards as well as many precise drawings of woodworking joints and other architectural
details. Next came the Era of Enlightenment when many architectural theorists emerged, namely Abbé Marc-
Antoine Laugier, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Robert Adam, or Georg Friedrich Hegel. All coming from Europe,
which due to 18th-century plentiful archaeological findings, fell in love again with Classical art and architecture.
What is worth stressing out is the significant advancement in mathematics and optical research which both have
led to studies of perspective and projective geometry. This can be very well seen in Piranesi’s etchings in his
spectacular “Le antichita Romane” or “Le Carceri” just to name these two out of the plethora of his works.
The 19th century, on one hand, reflected the earlier themes of classicism, primitivism, and a “return to nature”
on the other hand rejection of the old style buildings has started to appear. A forceful reaction against neoclassical
architecture was apparent in John Ruskin’s 1840s work as well as Horatio Greenough’s essay “American
Architecture” from 1843 which has de facto foreseen functionalism movement in modern architecture. Last but not
least, among many others, there was rich thought of Gottfried Semper that was internationally recognized and
built around architectural realism. In the 20th century the modern movement has grown from the seeds planted
by Louis Sullivan in his “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered” from 1896 where he forges the famous
maxim “form follows function”, Otto Wagner in his “Moderne Architektur” 7 from 1988 and finally Adolf Loos
first in his lecture at Akademischer Verband für Literatur und Musik in Vienna, in 1910 and then published
in 1913 in Les Cahiers d’aujourd’hui as “Ornament et Crime”. The last of which was later central to the Bauhaus
which founder Walter Gropius together with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and le Corbusier in their numerous
works produced a strong foundation of the International Style. On the other side of the Atlantic was Frank Lloyd
Wright with his ideas for new American architecture, art, and society. He viewed the International style as too rigid
and normative while being himself a propagator of Organic Modernism which involved his particular view of man
and nature. Important post-modern theory of architecture can be found in many texts but one should not miss
Robert Venturi’s “Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture” and also, written together with his wife Denise
Scott Brown, “Learning from Las Vegas”. In the contemporary discourse about architecture more space is being
dedicated to philosophy and cultural studies, which is apparent in the case of Peter Eisenman, Bernard Tschumi,
and others, but also to phenomenology in the case of Christian Norberg-Schulz, or more recently, Juhani Pallasmaa
in his famous “The Eyes of the Skin” from 2005. Curiously, most of the works of the post-modern
and contemporary architects are not architectural guidebooks anymore contrary to their aforementioned
predecessors. One might think: Has everything been already written down in the broad field of architectural design?.
Surely not for Christopher Alexander - a British-American architect, design theorist, and professor from Berkley
in California who is focused on human-centered design, perhaps best known for his 1977 book “A Pattern
Language”, a permanent worldwide seller after over four decades since its publication.

The Pattern Language design method was presented and described in three books of the Center for
Environmental Structure series at the University of California, in Berkley. The series was written and directed
by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein in the 1970s. The authors claim that the creative

7
Precisely: “Moderne Architektur: seinen Schülern ein Führer auf diesem Kunstgebiete” ( Modern Architecture: A Guidebook for students
in this field of art)
process of the Pattern Language formulation derived from over 8 years of their professional experience.
Amusingly, the publishing dates of the books are in reverse chronological order to the line of the volumes proposed
by the authors. The first volume – “The timeless way of building” published in 1979, focuses exclusively on the
method of application of the Language of Patterns in architectural and urban design, second volume –
“A Pattern Language” published in 1977 describes the vast ‘vocabulary’ of the Language along with some basic
rules of its use, and the third volume - “The Oregon Experiment” published in 1975 describes the planning and
construction of the Oregon University Campus based on the method. In the introduction to the Pattern Language
the author mentions that “This book is the sourcebook of the timeless way; the other is its practice and its origin. The two
books have evolved very much in parallel.” 8 and further he adds: “… but in fact, they form an indivisible whole.” 9

referring to the two volumes. Despite, the practical reasons behind publishing two books instead of one,
“A Pattern Language” shows a holistic approach and a systematic way of thinking that is deeply rooted in the way
the book was structured and written. It is not a book with a story, a novel, or a documentary. It can be described
as diligent research on how do we, humans, should shape the built environment based on the knowledge and
experiences of the authors who have undertaken an overwhelming challenge to research, evaluate, group, and make
a precisely outlined network of all the elements of the urban and rural environments starting from a region and
finishing on a chair. What is more, within this vast system of interconnected relations they also added design
recipes for each pattern usually backed up by references to the scientific research and numerical methods (Fig. 1)
which is not an very popular feature of books about architecture despite being central to the good design.
“A Pattern Language” itself is divided into three main parts: towns, buildings, and construction.
The 44-page long introduction to the book summarizes the Language, shows how to choose a language for your
project, and finally elaborates on the ‘poetry’ of the design language with many parallels to the double or hidden
meaning of words (here: patterns) in our everyday speech as well as in belles lettres. The first part “Towns” is related
to the global patterns defining a town or a community. It starts with pattern number 1 – “Independent Regions”
and ends with pattern 94 – “Sleeping in Public”. The second part “Buildings” is the biggest out of three and
highlighted by the authors as the one which gives shape to the groups of buildings and individual buildings, and
one which actually can be designed in contrary to the first group patterns which only can manifest themselves
in a properly designed neighborhood, city or a region. It covers patterns from 95 – “Building complex”
to 204 – “Secret place” and begins with a 13-step sequence of how to build these patterns into your design.
The third part “Construction” is focused on how to build your design in detail and includes patterns starting with
number 205 – “Structure follows social spaces” and finishing with pattern number 253 “Things from your life”.
These 253 patterns are sorted out in a hierarchy which constitutes the existence of each pattern by a simultaneous
presence of other, often “smaller” pattern or patterns that are placed lower in the aforementioned hierarchy.
For instance, the pattern 115 “Courtyards which live” can function properly only when the design considers
the pattern 106 “Positive Outdoor Space” and 114 “Hierarchy of Open Space” but can function and functions
in some buildings around us without them or with some other patterns, just not in a “perfect World scenario”
imagined by the authors (Fig. 2). This rule assures that Pattern Language is a flexible method of co-dependent
relations rather than a strict sequence of norms that have to be followed in one and the only right way. Further
authors encourage the reader to use the information in both books to use the patterns in the language of their

8
Alexander Ch., Ishikawa S., Silverstein M., A Pattern Language, Oxford Press, New York, 1977, p. IX
9
Ibidem
project and thereby create their own version of the Pattern Language. This is a very interesting feature as it gives
an almost unlimited space for interpretation which is always a nice treat for the reader and potential future user of
the new design method. The student of the method can choose the patterns that he or she desires to include in
the project and the only rule that he has to obey is to also include the other patterns that the chosen one comprises.
The presumed target group of the series is, quite frankly, highly educated, middle and upper-middle class
architects, engineers, and designers around the Globe. Nevertheless, lack of popularity in other countries than
the United States of America does not have to reflect any particular ignorance or snobbish attitude, which is not
something that one would expect from the authors themselves anyway, but rather reflects lack
of acknowledgment of this series by many scholars around the World and thus realistically absence
of need for new translations and editions. Another significant reason may be a relatively high focus
on the American cities which developed more rapidly than most European cities and therefore a visible difference
in the occurring problems, in the urban environments, and their scale was present at the time of publishing of the
series. Astonishingly, it just might have gotten more up-to-date in Europe and other places now than circa 40 years
ago! This might bring us to a thought that perhaps, even though the series has been reviewed by some critics
in pretty oily words: “A classic. A must read!” 10 or ”A wise old owl of a book, one to curl up with in an inglenook
on a rainy day.... Alexander may be the closest thing home design has to a Zen master.” 11, it is only perceived as
such by a narrow group of specific people that have a real, mostly professional, interest in reading it, not the general
worldwide public or even most scholars. And this might just be absolutely fine, especially that a series that
is a little short of having 2000 pages in total is not something one usually reads in one weekend but rather an in-
depth study to be reread and looked back into repeatedly. It is not a novel type of book or a retrospective diary
of an architect but rather a manual and a sourcebook of ideas, inspirations, and pure knowledge about Architecture
and the built environment per se.
Concluding, we have to bear in mind that the book “A Pattern Language” by Christopher Alexander was
written 44 years ago which is ample time for technology, people’s lifestyle, and habits to change.
Therefore, while evaluating it we need to make certain adjustments. Currently, both “A Pattern Language”
and “The timeless way of building” are among the books that every architect should read according to many online
articles 12, 13. Apparently, the very books written by Christopher Alexander were an inspiration for the software
developers in Silicon Valley, the first online wiki – the technology behind Wikipedia – derived directly from
Alexander’s work according to its creator Ward Cunningham 14. Surprisingly, the book itself mentions very little
about the use of the design software or computers as such. What is the most important thing about the Alexander
and his peers’ work is the very way of thinking about the structure of the World and a quite witty concept
of a hierarchy that sorts its elements in a network of different patterns. The very central problem in the task
of describing the practice is that the practice is an ever-evolving phenomenon, most probably right in this moment
as I am writing this text someone has just came up with a new design software workflow or significant improvement
in a certain area of building construction, etc. Nevertheless, it is a paradox to try to describe something that

10
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-pattern-language-9780195019193?cc=us&lang=en&#
[accessed on 04.06.2021], A review by T. Colbert, University of Houston
11
Ibidem [accessed on 04.06.2021], A review by New York Times
12
https://www.archdaily.com/901525/116-best-architecture-books-for-architects-and-students [accessed on 06.06.2021]
13
https://architizer.com/blog/practice/tools/essential-books-architecture-students/ [accessed on 06.06.2021]
14
http://wiki.c2.com/?HistoryOfPatterns [accessed on 06.06.2021]
is being constantly developed, we do it all the time. We have this urge to describe the world around us to tidy
our thoughts, make the reality more understandable, and perhaps above all to write a testimony to generations
yet to come in order for them to extract what is essential and on top of it build their own, new knowledge
in the everlasting relay race of generations that life seems to be. If that was the idea behind the creation
of the Pattern Language design method then I think it has been achieved and I would certainly recommend anyone
interested in architecture, engineering, and design to give it a chance. It is important to acknowledge that
the method is quite specific in a sense that it provides the pool of design options to choose from but not limited
to, at the same time sharing, the focus on the design process rather than on the final result of the design, with
other, much more recent and commonly used methods in the architectural profession like the Integrated Design
Process 15 or the Selective Environment 16. The Pattern Language is a toolbox that according to the authors everyone
who wants to create timeless architecture should possess and learn but that is not the final goal.
The book “The Timeless Way of Building”, which should be read together with “A Pattern Language” as a whole,
is the ultimate architectural design manual where the author himself recapitulates the very idea behind the Pattern
Language design philosophy in these words: “It is the gate which leads you to the state of mind, in which you live so close
to your own heart that you no longer need a language. … There is no skill required. It is only a question of whether
you will allow yourself to be ordinary, and to do what comes naturally to you, and what seems most sensible, to your heart,
always to your heart, not to the images which false learning has coated on your mind. This is the final lesson of the timeless
way.” 17

Figure 1: Special crossings graph in Alexander Ch., Ishikawa S.,

Silverstein M., A Pattern Language, Oxford University Press, New
Figure 2 : Courtyards which live scheme in Alexander Ch., Ishikawa S.,
York, 1977, p. 283
Silverstein M., A Pattern Language, Oxford University Press, New York, 1977,
p. 564

15
Tine Ring Hansen H., Knudstrup M., The Integrated Design Process (IDP) – a more holistic approach to sustainable architecture, The 2005
World Sustainable Building Conference, Tokyo, 27-29 September 2005
16
Hawkes D., The Selective Environment: Environmental Design and Cultural Identity, University of Cambridge, UK

17
Alexander Ch., Ishikawa S., Silverstein M., The Timeless Way of Building, Oxford Press, New York, 1979, p. 547
Bibliography and Webography:

1. Alexander Ch., Ishikawa S., Silverstein M., A Pattern Language, Oxford University Press, New York,
1977.
2. Alexander Ch., A Timeless way of Building, Oxford University Press, New York, 1979.
3. Alexander Ch., Silverstein M, Angel S., Ishikawa S., Abrams D., The Oregon Experiment, Oxford
University Press, New York, 1975.
4. Pollio M. V., On Architecture, Penguin Books, New York, 2009.
5. Lynch K., The Image of the City, Archivolta, Kraków, 2011.
6. Different authors, Architectural Volumes 1/2010, Exemplum, Poland, 2010
7. Lloyd Wright F., Modern Architecture: Being the Kahn lectures for 1930, Karakter, Kraków, 2016
8. Kuki S., The Structure of Iki, Karakter, Kraków, 2017.
9. Sudjic D., B is for Bauhaus, Karakter, Kraków, 2014.
10. Worre Foged I. and Frier Hvejsel M., Reader: Tectonics in Architecture, Aalborg University Press, Aalborg,
2018.
11. Tine Ring Hansen H. and Knudstrup M., The Integrated Design Process (IDP) – a more holistic approach to
sustainable architecture, The 2005 World Sustainable Building Conference, Tokyo, 27-29 September 2005
12. Hawkes D., The Selective Environment: Environmental Design and Cultural Identity, University of
Cambridge, UK
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_theory [accessed on 6.06.2021]
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_language [accessed on 6.06.2021]
15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Alexander [accessed on 6.06.2021]
16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pattern_Language [accessed on 6.06.2021]
17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Berkeley [accessed on 6.06.2021]