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The Pattern That Connects:
Practicing Sustainability At Many Scales
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David M. Foley
Holland & Foley Building Design, LLC
Northport, Maine
Dedicated To
Christopher Alexander
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Architect
Builder
Author
Teacher
Alexander’s Thesis:
• The world isn’t made of things, it’s generated from
relationships.
• Relationships that repeat are called “Patterns”. A “Pattern” is
a set of relationships that solves a recurring problem.
• Patterns are like seeds. A flower isn’t manufactured; it’s
generated from a seed. Our built world isn’t manufactured;
it’s generated by processes that reflect the Patterns in our
minds.
• Individual Patterns can be combined to form Pattern
Languages. Consciously or not, we use Pattern Languages
to create our world.
• The quality and sustainability of our civilization depend on the
quality and sustainability of our processes and Pattern
Languages.
“Wow • That’s Abstract! Why
Does It Matter?”
• If you’re interested in sustainability:
– Pattern Languages give you a “vocabulary” to share
with others;
– Pattern Languages help you link your efforts with
others;
– Pattern Languages could form a “genetic code” of
sustainability;
– Pattern Languages can be discussed, criticized,
improved. They’re “open source.” They improve with
use and sharing.
Perhaps Most Important:
• We can discover Patterns for any scale, from
household to bioregion.
• Patterns at different scales can be linked and
coordinated.
• Using Pattern Languages, sustainability
efforts at different scales, and in different
disciplines, can aid & give rise to one another.
Sustainability and The Difficult
Question of Scale:
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“How, after all, can anybody…heal a
planet?…The large problems occur
because all of us are living either
partly wrong or almost entirely
wrong…Our problems, as they are
suffered in our lives, our households
and our communities, have
attracted very little intelligence…Our
understandable wish to preserve the
planet must somehow be reduced to
the scale of our competence - that
is, the wish to preserve all of its
humble households and
neighborhoods.”
• Wendell Berry
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“Can we move nations and people
in the direction of sustainability?
Such a move would be a
modification of society comparable
in scale to…the Agricultural
Revolution…and the Industrial
Revolution…Those revolutions were
gradual, spontaneous and largely
unconscious. This one will have to
be a fully conscious operation…If
we actually do it, the undertaking
will be absolutely unique in
humanity’s stay on Earth.”
• William D. Ruckelshaus
“Thought Traps” To Avoid:
• “It’s hopeless - the sheer size and scope of global problems
means we’re doomed.”
• “Our problems are the sum of individual choices - change your
lifestyle and everything will be fine.”
• “It’s all the fault of big government and corporations - rein them
in!”
• “Environmental problems come from misguided attempts to
regulate markets - let the ‘magic of the marketplace’ work.”
• “Environmental problems are caused by too many poor people
breeding.”
• “Environmental problems are caused by too many rich people
consuming.”
Environmental problems have multiple causes across multiple
scales. So do the solutions.
“Ecosystem” As A Metaphor
For Sustainability Efforts
(Thanks To Judy Berk)
• Not like a “Monoculture”: one species occupying all the
space, doing one thing. Monocultures fail spectacularly.
• Not like a “Zoo”: a few of each species, in artificial
habitats, with no connections. Zoos preserve
individuals, not populations.
• Like an “Ecosystem”: many species, niches and scales;
sharing energy, materials & information; co-evolving;
increasing the system’s ability to support all members.
“Unintended Consequences”
Across Scales:
Large to Small:
Small to Large:
• Maine Turnpike Authority
decides to widen turnpike to
alleviate congestion;
• Wider turnpike encourages
more traffic;
• Traffic congestion increases,
spills onto secondary roads;
• State & towns contemplate
widening secondary roads.
• Each farmer wants to earn
more;
• Each farmer buys more
inputs and grows more
crops;
• Price of inputs rises & price
of crops falls;
• Each farmer, to break even,
buys more inputs and grows
more crops.
• Multi-billion dollar Federal
crop support & offset
programs.
Multiple Benefits Across Scales:
• Energy Conservation:
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Saves money;
Creates jobs;
Reduces pollution;
Increases security;
Frees capital;
Promotes equity.
• 3rd World Micro Credit:
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Creates opportunity;
Reduces poverty;
Empowers women;
Reduces child mortality;
Lowers population growth.
Effects across scales are called “cascades.” We
need to create “beneficial cascades”. Pattern
Languages can help us do this.
Essential Reading
• A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander & Colleagues
• The Timeless Way of Building, by Christopher Alexander
For Further Study:
• The Nature of Order, by Christopher Alexander
A Pattern:
• Describes a problem that recurs in the environment;
• Describes the core of a solution, in a way that allows
it to be created repeatedly without ever being exactly
the same;
• Describes the Patterns that come before it, and the
Patterns that spring from it.
Pattern: “City-Country Fingers”
• Problem: sprawl & lack of green space - but cities need to be
dense;
• Solution: interlocking open space & urban land, in “fingers” about
1 mile wide each;
• Linked to “Agricultural Valleys”, “Mosaic of Subcultures” &
“Web of Public Transportation”.
Source: “A Pattern Language”, pp 21-25.
Pattern: “Pools and Streams”
• Problem: We need access to water for health & spirit, but in
cities, water is often out of reach.
• Solution: preserve natural pools & streams in cities; make paths
& bridges for people to walk along them;
• Linked to “Neighborhood Boundary”, “Quiet Backs” &
“Pedestrian Street”.
Source: “A Pattern Language”, pp 322-327.
Pattern: “Entry Transition”
• Problem: an abrupt entry doesn’t allow mental transition from
“public” to “private”;
• Solution: change of light, sound, surface as one leaves street and
reaches door;
• Linked to “Zen View”, “Garden Wall”, “Trellised Walk” &
“Entrance Room”.
Source: “A Pattern Language”, pp 548-552.
Pattern: “Wildlife Corridor”
Ecotrust:
(Portland, Oregon)
“Patterns of A
Conservation
Economy”
www.ConservationEconomy.net
• Problem: Natural habitat as isolated “islands” too fragmented
to protect biodiversity;
• Solution: Undeveloped “corridors” connecting core reserves
help reverse habitat fragmentation;
• Could be linked to “City-Country Fingers”.
Pattern: “Watershed Services”
Ecotrust:
“A Conservation
Economy • What Does
A Sustainable Society
Look Like?”
www.ConservationEconomy.net
• Problem: Watersheds often degraded by development, losing
critical natural services;
• Solution: Restore watersheds with full complement of native
plants & animals;
• Could be linked to “Pools & Streams”.
Pattern (?): “Dooryard Garden”
• Problem: Food production is remote from cities; “lawns” are
often wasteful and environmentally destructive;
• Solution: Use small spaces in cities for gardens & orchards;
• Could be linked to “Entry Transition”.
Summary: Pattern Languages
& Scale
• Our world isn’t made of things; • Pattern Languages can be
it’s generated from Patterns.
shared, discussed and improved.
• Patterns are rules that describe • Pattern Languages are a
a problem and give a tangible
common ground for people
solution that can be locally
working in different disciplines
adapted.
and at different scales.
• Patterns are linked, from large • That’s why Pattern Languages
to small, to form Pattern
are vital for sustainability efforts.
Languages.
A Pattern Is An Instruction
• Each Pattern follows these rules:
– It has a name that describes its essence;
– Its essence can be illustrated with a photo or drawing;
– It describes a problem, giving clear evidence from
empirical observation or scientific reasoning;
– It proposes a solution as wholesome relationships
that you can create in the world, adapted to your
circumstances.
A Pattern doesn’t just describe a solution - it
teaches you how to generate the solution,
concretely, in the world.
Generating Versus Describing
What is it?
How do I
create it?
Genes don’t carry descriptions, they carry instructions.
Generating Versus Describing
Here’s the result...
Here’s what to do…
Describing the result isn’t the same as giving instructions.
Generating Versus Describing
Architecture describing end result.
Architecture showing how to
generate a result.
A Pattern helps you understand what to do.
Not a Pattern: “Green Business”
Source: www.conservationeconomy.net
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Current business practices often
harm ecosystems & human
communities.
Green businesses use
resources efficiently &
emphasize broader community
benefit for a “Triple Bottom
Line”.
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A lovely sentiment, but not yet a
Pattern.
Describes a worthwhile end, but
doesn’t contain instructions.
A “Green Business Rating” might
be a Pattern.
A Pattern: “Activity Nodes”
• Problem: Community facilities scattered individually through the city do
nothing for each other or for the life of the city;
• Solution: Create “nodes” of activity, about 300 yards apart - locate
existing places of “action”; modify paths & roads to lead to “nodes”;
create a small public square at each “node”. Source: A Pattern Language pp. 163-167.
Not a Pattern: “Beauty and Play”
Source: www.conservationeconomy.net
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We need opportunities for deep
relaxation, for beauty, and to
simply play.
Celebrate beauty, wholeness
and play as central features of
life.
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Who’d disagree?
We aren’t directly empowered to
create something by this.
A description of a lovely
outcome, but not generative
instructions - not a Pattern.
A Pattern: ”Accessible Green”
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Problem: People need green open places to go, but if the greens are
more than 3 minutes away, the distance overwhelms the need.
Solution: Build one open public green within 3 minutes’ walk - about
750 feet - of every house and workplace. Make the greens at least 150
feet across, and at least 60,000 square feet. Source: A Pattern Language, pp. 304309
Summary: Patterns Are Instructions
• A Pattern describes a
problem, the system of
forces usually present in the
problem, and a solution that
resolves those forces.
• A Pattern is an instruction
showing you how the
solution can be used
repeatedly to solve the
problem.
• A Pattern is a solution
presented as something
tangible and desirable that
can be created.
• A Pattern doesn’t just describe
a desirable outcome - it
contains instructions for
generating the outcome.
• A Pattern is like a seed or
gene.
A Pattern Allows Adaptation
• A Pattern doesn’t
describe a specific thing
to be copied.
• It describes the general
field of relationships
that solves a recurring
problem in the world.
• Specific relationships
govern a Pattern, not
specific parts.
• A Pattern is specific
about how things must
work and relate to solve
a problem.
• But a Pattern can be
adapted to local
circumstances, made of
local materials, modified
where local culture and
customs require.
Pattern: “Cascade of Roofs”
• Problem: Few buildings are structurally or socially sound unless
roofs step down at ends;
• Solution: Visualize building as system of roofs, highest over
main spaces, with lower and buttressing roofs cascading down.
Source: A Pattern Language, pp. 565-568.
The same Pattern expressed in different cultures, contexts and materials.
Pattern: “Traffic Calming”
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Problem: Excessive vehicle speed in dense neighborhoods is dangerous,
but we rely on vehicles.
Solution: Use change of surface, narrowing of road, curves, or a
combination to slow down vehicles.
Speed Table
Roundabout
Cobblestones
Half Circle
A Pattern Is A Process, Not A Thing
The process generates
the same relationships,
but adapts them to a
particular setting.
Pictures courtesy of Samuel Zschokke
Same Process, Adapted Results
The same
process
generates
endless
variety.
What Makes It The “Nose”?
What Tells You It’s A “Door”?
Summary: A Pattern Allows
Adaptation
• A Pattern helps you create a specific field of
relationships. The relationships and the problem they
solve are constant in a Pattern.
• When you create one particular instance of a Pattern,
you need to adapt it to local cultures, climates, customs,
& materials.
• An idea that can’t be adapted to different settings is
unlikely to be a Pattern.
“Discovering” Patterns
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Observe & interact with the world around you;
Focus on a problem you observe;
Articulate why you think it’s a problem;
In a particular place, how would you repair the problem?
What relationships must you improve to repair the
problem?
• Would your repair extend and enhance wholeness and
health in the environment? Does it create something you
really want?
• Could you teach someone how to make the repair
somewhere else, and why it’s a good idea?
• Can you explain the context in which your repair makes
sense?
Observe, Focus, Articulate
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The same water, essential to life, cycling billions of years;
Watersheds connecting households to regions to planet;
Water purified through biology and hydrology;
“Waste” in water is “food” for a biological process;
We must treat water the way Nature does.
Observe, Focus, Articulate
“The Problem Is The Solution”
• Biological nutrients can be a resource, not “waste”;
• Biological & hydrological processes can purify water, if we let them
work;
• Certain chemicals must be isolated from water cycles.
Pattern (Perhaps): Compost
• Stockpile organic matter
& allow it to compost to
humus;
• Use compost to
increase soil organic
matter;
• Substitute compost for
chemical fertilizers
when possible.
Pattern (Perhaps): “Living Machine”
• Construct “artificial
wetlands” to allow plants
& microbes to purify
“wastewater”;
• Where appropriate, use
“wastewater” to grow
useful plants by
hydroponics.
Pattern (Perhaps): “Flowform”
• Construct “flowforms”:
shapes that mimic natural
turbulence, oxygenating
effect of pools & streams;
• Combine “flowforms” with
“living machines” to combine
hydrological & biological
processes.
Pattern (Perhaps): “Riparian Buffer”
• Maintain multi-species
vegetated buffers along
stream banks;
• Build check dams, weirs,
retention ponds, to mimic
natural hydrologic
processes.
Pattern (Perhaps): “Just-In-Time
Chemicals”
• “Biomimicry”: Venomous
snakes make tiny amounts of
toxin just before striking;
• Re-engineer manufacturing
processes to make small
amounts of feedstock chemical
just before use.
One Fundamental Process of Creation
and Repair
In Nature, the same process grows and heals organisms.
•
“One of the beauties of biology
is that its facts can become our
metaphors. These underlying
codes may also serve as
inspiring parables for how as
human beings we might
organize a more just, humane
and authentically sustainable
society.”
- Kenny Ausubel
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“This is a fundamental view of
the world. It says that when you
build a thing you cannot build
that thing in isolation, but must
also repair the world around it,
and within it, so that the larger
world at that one place
becomes more coherent, and
more whole; and the thing you
make takes its place in the web
of nature, as you make it.”
- Christopher Alexander
Improving Patterns By Sharing
• If you can’t explain a Pattern, it still needs
work;
• Patterns aren’t much use unless they’re
shared;
• A Pattern, like a scientific hypothesis, is
tested and improved through peer review;
• Sharing your Patterns keeps you honest: your
“Principles” may be personal dogma.
Summary: “Discovering” Patterns
• Observe carefully;
• Focus on a problem;
• Articulate why it’s a
problem;
• Look for problem’s cause in
failed relationships;
• Look for healthy,
functioning relationships as
an alternative - envision
what you really want;
• Propose repairs to the
relationships;
• Describe the repairs as an
instruction, so someone
else can do it too;
• Describe the context in
which your Pattern makes
sense;
• Share the Pattern, and let it
be improved by experience
and feedback.
Linking Patterns To Form Pattern
Languages
• Patterns aren’t isolated - they arise from larger Patterns
and lead to smaller ones.
• Each Pattern lies within a network. The Patterns and
their linkages together form a Pattern Language.
• Different Patterns apply to different scales.
• Using Patterns in a sequence, from larger to smaller,
keeps a problem manageable.
• At a given scale, the number of Patterns should be
small: about 7, give or take 2.
Patterns Are Linked
• Patterns in these villages:
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“Degrees of Publicness”
“House Cluster”
“Main Gateways”
“Quiet Backs”
“Small Public Squares”
“Holy Ground”
“Public Outdoor Room”
These Patterns combine to form part of the Pattern
Language of these villages.
Patterns Are Linked
• Patterns in these streets:
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“Network of Paths & Cars”
“Individually Owned Shops”
“Pedestrian Street”
“Building Fronts”
“Opening To The Street”
If you produce these Patterns, one by one,
eventually you’ll create streets like these.
Using Patterns In Sequence
• To site a building - this sequence works:
– “Site Repair” tells you to build on the worst land, not the best;
– “South Facing Outdoors” tells you to place outdoor spaces in the
sun;
– “Positive Outdoor Space” tells you to make the outdoor spaces
have a definite shape;
– “Main Entrance” tells you to place the entry so it can be seen
from the main approach;
– “Entrance Transition” tells you to articulate the garden & path
along the building approach;
– “Car Connection” tells you to park the car near the Main Entry, at
the beginning of the Entry Transition.
NOT Using Patterns In Sequence
• These Patterns, to design a house, out of sequence, won’t
work:
– “Short Passages” tells you to keep corridors short, as much like
rooms as possible;
– “Alcoves” tells you to place small alcoves within larger rooms;
– “Building Edge” tells you to treat the edge of the building as a thick
“place” where people can be ;
– “Children’s Realm” tells you to make a special place in the house
for children;
– “Farmhouse Kitchen” tells you to place the family and cooking
areas in one big room, with a counter separating them;
– “Intimacy Gradient” tells you to arrange the spaces according to
degree of privacy.
From Wholeness To Details
• Work from wholes to
details;
• At each step, preserve
the wholeness that
came before;
• Add details at finer and
finer scales.
The Magical Number Seven,
Plus Or Minus Two
• We’re not good at complexity - the human mind can
grasp about 5 to 9 ideas at once.
• To be useful, Pattern Languages need to recognize
this.
• A Pattern Language presents most of its Patterns in
“clusters” of between 5 and 9.
• If you have more than 9 Patterns addressing one
issue, then:
– Your Patterns may not be well formed;
– It may be time to work at a different scale.
• Taking one Pattern at a time, you can still create
detailed richness.
Summary: Linking Patterns To Form
Pattern Languages
• Patterns and their
linkages together form
Pattern Languages.
• Patterns have different
scales. Smaller scale
Patterns are born from
larger scale ones.
• Use Patterns in
sequence to keep
things manageable.
• At a given scale, the
ideal number of
Patterns is between 5
and 9.
The Geometry of Pattern Languages
• Pattern Languages shape space with
geometry that:
– Is made of larger and smaller “centers”;
– Creates profound, articulated boundaries;
– Like Nature, is fractal.
What’s A “Center”?
• A “Center” is an organized zone of space perceived
as “whole”. It’s a “Gestalt”.
• “Centers” are recursive - they’re “made” out of
smaller “Centers” and they help create larger
“Centers”.
Examples of “Centers”
Orchids
Butterfly & Flowers
Paris Door
Agate Crystal
Gothic Cathedral
Mosque
Examples of “Centers”
Tibetan Mandala
African Village
Indian Stupa
Isfahan Rug
Bramante’s Church Plan
Japanese Garden
“Centers” In Alexander’s Work
Arcade at Eishin
Great Hall at Eishin
Terrazo Floor
Julian St. Homeless Shelter
Farmhouse Kitchen
Plan for Oregon Campus
Patterns Focus On Boundaries
• Patterns are fields of relationships - which
happen across boundaries;
• Patterns make boundaries into profound
places - not just “lines”;
• In Nature, boundaries are complex, rich
places to exchange energy, nutrients,
information;
• Sustainability is often about protecting and
enriching boundaries.
Pattern: “City Country Fingers”
• “Sprawl” partly caused
by people seeking edge
between city & country;
• This Pattern creates
lots of “edge” in a
compact area.
Boundaries in Nature
Intestinal Wall
River Delta
Estuary
Sun’s Corona
Cerebellum
Cell Membranes
Boundaries Lacking
Compare
this…
to this,
This…
to this,
or
this.
or this.
Pattern Languages Create “FractalLike” Geometry
• Like Fractals, Pattern
Languages:
– Are “made” of repeating
“Centers”;
– Create ever-richer detail
at finer & finer scales;
– Preserve existing
wholeness as they
develop;
– Generate complexity by
repeating simple
processes.
(Source: Nikos Salingaros)
What’s A Fractal?
• Like a Pattern, it’s not a
thing, it’s a relationship.
• A fractal is the repetition of
a process, governed by
simple rules, at finer and
finer scales.
Fractals Generate Rich Forms
“Queen
Anne’s
Lace”
“Snowflake”
“Fern”
Strong “Centers” and Profound Boundaries
“Tree”
Fractals Are Everywhere
Leaf Surface
Bronchial Tubes
Lightning
Real Tree
Bacteria Colony
Real Fern
Fractals In Human Culture
Indian Stupa
Venetian Floor
Mosaic
Plan of African
Village
Chartres Rose
Window
Khotan Rug
Eiffel Tower
Fractals & Centers Resonate In Our
Psyches
Compare this…
This…
To this.
To this.
Summary: Pattern Language Geometry
• Patterns create geometry that:
– Is made of multiple “centers”, each “center” helping form
other “centers”;
– Forms profound boundaries that are places in and of
themselves;
– Is “fractal”, with repeating patterns in space across
multiple scales;
– Is akin to the geometry of Nature.
Pattern Languages & “Regenerative
Design”
• Pattern Languages teach
that sustainability
requires us to repair and
enrich relationships
across multiple scales.
• They ask us to
reintegrate our civilization
with Nature.
• “Regenerative design
requires that we participate
with nature in a mutually
beneficial
relationship…(and) an
awareness of what gives
health to a place… so that
the systems (human and
natural) have an opportunity
to organize in self-healing
relationships.”
- William Reed & David Eisenberg
A Different Sense of Place
• 3 central facts of civilization are
water, soil and climate.
• Where you live, understand &
interact with:
– Your watershed;
– The soil beneath your feet;
– The natural energy flows around
you.
• Know the Pattern Language of
your region. If you don’t like
the one you find, make another.
A New Opportunity
• The Internet allows us to
share and transmit ideas
worldwide.
• Sustainable Pattern
Languages, shared
through the Internet, could
amplify and multiply our
efforts.
• Could we create and
share a “genetic code” of
sustainability?
Map of the Internet
(Source: The Opte Project)
A New Opportunity
• Metcalfe’s Law: The value of a communication system grows
(approximately) as the square of the number of users.
• Reed’s Law: The utility of networks, especially social networks,
can scale exponentially with their size.
• “Wiki”: Collaborative authoring using a simple editing language
and a web browser; originated in “Object-Oriented Design”
community of computer programmers, directly inspired by Chris
Alexander & colleagues. For example, see www.wikipedia.com.
• Could we build on the work of Alexander & the EcoTrust to create
an open-source Pattern Language of Sustainability - a template for
a different world?
An Invitation
• Let’s share what we know.
• Let’s develop a common language.
• Let’s get to work creating a sustainable
civilization.
• This could be fun!