Hal O'Brien's Reviews > A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction

I was reading John Brunner's "The Shockwave Rider" in college, and it makes some architectural references. Trying to dig up what they were, I stumbled on this, mostly because Alexander was early in the card catalog, and at 1200 pages I felt sure it'd have what I was looking for.

I was wrong, of course, but only in the limited-to-the-task-at-hand way.

Alexander's main idea is that architecture is like a language. With a finite set of elements he calls patterns (not unlike words), you can put them together in a near infinite set of possible buildings (not unlike sentences). Having told you this in the first 10 pages or so, and referring you to his book "The Timeless Way of Building" if you want more on the theory, he then spends the thick remainder giving you 250+ patterns to play with.

It's because of Alexander that I yearn to teach kids pi through showing them the trees in the park. It's because of Alexander that when I'm in a room, I look to see if it has light on two sides.