@aplbot.bsky.social
Posting one pattern name and problem from Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language every day.
226 - Column Place *
Thin columns, spindly columns, columns which take their shape from structural arguments alone, will never make a comfortable environment.
161 - Sunny Place **
The area immediately outside the building, to the south - that angle between its walls and the earth where the sun falls - must be developed and made into a place which lets people bask in it.
their property and move because they cannot afford the upkeep of so big a place.
10.10.2025 04:42 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0153 - Rooms to Rent
Very simply, when a family or a workgroup shrinks because one or two people leave, the space which becomes empty should be able to find a use. Otherwise, the people who stay behind will rattle around in a hollow shell which is too big for them. They may even be forced to sell
45 - Necklace of Community Projects
The local town hall will not be an honest part of the community which lives around it, unIess it is itself surrounded by all kinds of small community activities and projects, generated by the people for themselves.
230 - Radiant Heat *
This pattern is a biologically precise formulation of the intuition that sunlight and a hot blazing fire are the best kinds of heat.
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.
231 - Dormer Windows *
We know from our discussion of Sheltering Roof (117) that the top story of the building should be right inside the roof, surrounded by it.
190 - Ceiling Height Variety **
A building in which the ceiling heights are all the same is virtually incapable of making people comfortable.
130 - Entrance Room **
Arriving in a building, or leaving it, you need a room to pass through, both inside the building and outside it. This is the entrance room.
life, he once again steps through the church.
03.10.2025 04:42 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 066 - Holy Ground *
What is a church or temple? It is a place of worship, spirit, contemplation, of course. But above all, from a human point of view, it is a gateway. A person comes into the world through the church. He leaves it through the church. And, at each of the important thresholds of his
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.
129 - Common Areas at the Heart **
No social group - whether a family, a work group, or a school group - can survive without constant informal contact among its members.
146 - Flexible Office Space
Is it possible to create a kind of space which is specifically tuned to the needs of people working, and yet capable of an infinite number of various arrangements and combinations within it?
62 - High Places *
The instinct to climb up to some high place, from which you can look down and survey your world, seems to be a fundamental human instinct.
213 - Final Column Distribution **
How should the spacing of the secondary columns which stiffen the walls, vary with ceiling height, number of stories and the size of rooms?
233 - Floor Surface **
We want the floor to be comfortable, warm to the touch, inviting. But we also want it to be hard enough to resist wear, and easy to clean.
240 - Half-Inch Trim **
Totalitarian, machine buildings do not require trim because they are precise enough to do without. But they buy their precision at a dreadful price: by killing the possibility of freedom in the building plan.
174 - Trellised Walk **
Trellised walks have their own special beauty. They are so unique, so different from other ways of shaping a path, that they are almost archetypal.
58 - Carnival
Just as an individual person dreams fantastic happenings to release the inner forces which cannot be encompassed by ordinary events, so too a city needs its dreams.
215 - Ground Floor Slab
The slab is the easiest, cheapest, and most natural way to lay a ground floor.
180 - Window Place **
Everybody loves window seats, bay windows, and big windows with low sills and comfortable chairs drawn up to them.
188 - Bed Alcove **
Bedrooms make no sense.
134 - Zen View *
The archetypal zen view occurs in a famous Japanese house, which gives this pattern its name.
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.
hard conventional materials.
18.09.2025 04:42 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0244 - Canvas Roofs *
There is a very special beauty about tents and canvas awnings. The canvas has a softness, a suppleness, which is in harmony with wind and light and sun. A house or any building built with some canvas will touch all the elements more nearly than it can when it is made only with
92 - Bus Stop *
Bus stops must be easy to recognize, and pleasant, with enough activity around them to make people comfortable and safe.
223 - Deep Reveals
Windows with a sharp edge where the frame meets the wall create harsh, blinding glare, and make the rooms they serve uncomfortable.
