You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction. After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope replace existing ideas and practices entirely." The three books are The Timeless Way of Building, The Oregon Experiment, and this book, A Pattern Language. At the core of these books is the idea that people should design for themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be radical (it implies a radical transformation of the architectural profession) but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people. At the core of the books, too, is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a forma system which gives them coherence. This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment. "Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (How high should a window sill be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution. As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seemly likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years as they are today.

Recently, the field of pattern language has been developing in various domains. Patterns are usually expressed in sentences, along with a visual expression. One of these expressions is called a "pattern illustration" because it expresses the essence of the pattern, includes characters that express human movements and feelings, and symbolically represents a pattern that does not connect multiple scenes with arrows. Pattern illustration describes the pattern's primary content, and this helps readers understand and memorize the pattern and also motivates them to use it. But our question here is "How can we draw these pattern illustrations?" In this book, Pattern Illustrating Patterns, we have collected 28 patterns on how and what to draw and what aspects must be considered when creating pattern illustrations. We hope this book will stimulate further understanding about including pattern illustration as an approach to visual aid by those considering or creating pattern languages.

The 1977 book "A Pattern Language" was a landmark in the design world, introducing a methodology that has since become remarkably widespread and effective across many fields. Among them is software, where "design patterns" have since become an industry standard. Important spinoffs include peer-to-peer collaboration technologies like wiki - the basis of Wikipedia and related innovations - as well as Agile Methodology. Yet curiously, the one field where pattern methodology has lagged most conspicuously is the one where it began, the built environment. In part, the popular appeal of the 1977 book served to "freeze" the initial set of patterns, greatly slowing further peer-to-peer development in environmental design - contrary to the original authors' stated aims. As one remedy, we present here - in one of many more hoped-for future companion volumes to the original classic book - a new collection of 80 patterns for a new era of urban challenges, including rapid urbanization, slum upgrading, sustainable urbanism, [CUT: "new"] urban technologies, and new tools and strategies to meet these and other challenges. This new collection comes as a contribution to a five-year collaboration with UN-Habitat on implementation of the "New Urban Agenda," a framework document adopted by consensus by all 193 countries of the United Nations. However, there remains an urgent need to implement its humane aspirations, using tools and strategies grounded in research evidence, but also subject to revision, addition and refinement with new findings from new collaborators. This volume aims to meet that need - together with the launch of an online companion pattern "repository", available at npl.wiki. Both initiatives were developed in collaboration with Ward Cunningham, wiki inventor, and pioneer of pattern languages of programming as well as Agile Methodology. Both are meant to expand the capacity of pattern languages in support of a hopeful new era of open-source, human-centered, life-enriching technology.

Focusing on a plan for an extension to the University of Oregon, this book shows how any community the size of a university or small town might go about designing its own future environment with all members of the community participating personally or by representation. It is a brilliant companion volume to A Pattern Language. --Publisher description.

A Creative Collaboration creates new values that can change the world. In a Creative Collaboration, an emergent vigor is produced where team members motivate each other and grow together. This new vigor cannot be attributed to any one team member but to the team as a whole. How can such a Creative Collaboration be achieved? The secrets are scribed in this book. Collaboration Patterns presents 34 distinct patterns that show tips, methods, and views for a successful collaboration. The Collaboration Patterns are written as a pattern language that summarizes the design knowledge that develops from a person's experience into the form of a pattern. It pairs a problem that occurs in a certain context of a design with its solution and gives it a name. Along with discovering ways to practice effective teamwork, we hope you can also imagine the possibilities pattern languages offer.

A Creative Presentation uses the knowledge and experience of the audience to inspire the realization of something new. Such a presentation can encourage the audience to realize and take action towards the future. However, as a presentation has limited words, how is such innovation possible? The secrets are scribed in this book. Presentation Patterns presents 34 distinct patterns that show tips, methods, and views for a Creative Presentation. The Presentation Patterns are written as a pattern language that summarizes the design knowledge that develops from a person's experience into the form of a pattern. It pairs a problem that occurs in a certain context of a design with its solution and gives it a name. Along with discovering methods to give an effective presentation, we hope you can also imagine the possibilities that pattern languages offer.

In Creative Learning, learner creates opportunities for learning by himself/herself by launching and implementing his/her own project, and learn through actively creating with others. How can such a Creative Learning be achieved? The secrets are scribed in this book. Learning Patterns presents 40 distinct patterns that show tips, methods, and views for a Creative Learning. The Learning Patterns are written as a pattern language that summarizes the design knowledge that develops from a person's experience into the form of a pattern. It pairs a problem that occurs in a certain context of a design with its solution and gives it a name. Read through the pages and use any or all of the Learning Patterns to make your learning more creative!