a pattern language

A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein is a really helpful little book to have on hand. It lays out basic features of any house or space and tells you what the space is, helpful, commonsense things about the space, and some aspects that should be included in the space. It breaks things down into different categories and many of them can be used in this as well as future projects. Here are a few that can be incorporated into St. Mary's.




1. THE 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."


This section suggests that the private bedroom shouldn't necessarily be in the front of the house and so on. The level of privacy should start off open to the general public and should narrow down to public, semi-public, and then to private. 





2. 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."


This section talks about how access to common areas should not be at one end of the space or through the middle of the space but should be tangent to the space to be most successful. Common areas should not be hard to get to or to locate and should always be open and available for groups to gather.




3. THE FLOW THROUGH ROOMS
"The movement between rooms is as important as the rooms themselves; and its arrangement has as much effect on social interaction in the rooms, as the interiors of the rooms."


Here, the size of circulation space is discussed. If passageways are too small it makes people feel unhappy and uncomfortable. Generous passageways are favored and can sometimes include furniture and such. Also, "A hall or passage that is generously lit by the sun is almost always pleasant."