book of the day
Jul. 23rd, 2002 11:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eubWe software people sure have dumbed down this idea of "patterns" we took from architects. Alexander et al.'s A Pattern Language is a massive freewheeling speculative sort of book, well worth arguing with at the very least. Random subset of notes:
379
One way to spur the growth of voluntary families: When someone turns over or sells their home or room or apartment, they first tell everyone living around them -- their neighbors. These neighbors then have the right to find friends of theirs to take the place -- and thus to extend their "family". [...] If the people immediately around the place cannot make the sale in a few months, then it reverts to the normal marketplace.
[but what about price? give friends right of first refusal?]
509
Buildings must always be built on those parts of the land which are in the worst condition, not the best.
958
It is possible to use a whole range of ultra-lightweight concretes which have a density and compressive strength very similar to that of wood. They are easy to work with, can be nailed with ordinary nails, cut with a saw, drilled with wood-working tools, easily repaired.
1078
It turns out that people are most comfortable when they receive radiant heat at a slightly higher temperature than the temperature of the air around them. The two most primitive examples of this situation are: (1) Outdoors, on a spring day when the air is not too hot but the sun is shining. (2) Around an open fire, on a cool evening.
1148
In order to understand the function of ornament, we must begin by understanding the function of space in general. Space, when properly formed, is whole.
[...]
A thing is whole only when it is itself entire and also joined to its outside to form a larger entity. But this cas only happen when the boundary between the two is so thick, so fleshy, so ambiguous, that the two are not sharply separated, but can function either as separate entities or as one larger whole which has no inner cleavage in it.
[two panels side by side, vs. two panels with heart carved half in each]
In the left-hand diagram where there is a cleavage that is sharp, the thing and its outside are distinct entities -- they function individually as whole -- but they do not function together as a larger whole. In this case the world is split. In the right-hand diagram where there is ambiguous space between them, the two entities are individually entire, as before, but they are also entire together as a larger whole. In this case the world is whole.
[...]
Extreme examples of this principle at work in manmade objects are in the endless surfaces of objects from the so-called "dark ages" and in the carpets and tilework of Turkey and Persia. Leaving aside the profound nature of the "ornaments," it is a fact that they function mainly by creating surfaces in which each part is simultaneously figure and boundary and in which the design acts as a boundary and figure at several different levels simultaneously.
379
One way to spur the growth of voluntary families: When someone turns over or sells their home or room or apartment, they first tell everyone living around them -- their neighbors. These neighbors then have the right to find friends of theirs to take the place -- and thus to extend their "family". [...] If the people immediately around the place cannot make the sale in a few months, then it reverts to the normal marketplace.
[but what about price? give friends right of first refusal?]
509
Buildings must always be built on those parts of the land which are in the worst condition, not the best.
958
It is possible to use a whole range of ultra-lightweight concretes which have a density and compressive strength very similar to that of wood. They are easy to work with, can be nailed with ordinary nails, cut with a saw, drilled with wood-working tools, easily repaired.
1078
It turns out that people are most comfortable when they receive radiant heat at a slightly higher temperature than the temperature of the air around them. The two most primitive examples of this situation are: (1) Outdoors, on a spring day when the air is not too hot but the sun is shining. (2) Around an open fire, on a cool evening.
1148
In order to understand the function of ornament, we must begin by understanding the function of space in general. Space, when properly formed, is whole.
[...]
A thing is whole only when it is itself entire and also joined to its outside to form a larger entity. But this cas only happen when the boundary between the two is so thick, so fleshy, so ambiguous, that the two are not sharply separated, but can function either as separate entities or as one larger whole which has no inner cleavage in it.
[two panels side by side, vs. two panels with heart carved half in each]
In the left-hand diagram where there is a cleavage that is sharp, the thing and its outside are distinct entities -- they function individually as whole -- but they do not function together as a larger whole. In this case the world is split. In the right-hand diagram where there is ambiguous space between them, the two entities are individually entire, as before, but they are also entire together as a larger whole. In this case the world is whole.
[...]
Extreme examples of this principle at work in manmade objects are in the endless surfaces of objects from the so-called "dark ages" and in the carpets and tilework of Turkey and Persia. Leaving aside the profound nature of the "ornaments," it is a fact that they function mainly by creating surfaces in which each part is simultaneously figure and boundary and in which the design acts as a boundary and figure at several different levels simultaneously.
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no subject
Date: 2002-07-25 04:46 am (UTC)Have you ever read The Fountainhead? It's a standard Rand book (300 pages of book, 300 pages of ideology desperately in need of an editor), but part of the plot focuses on a brilliant architect who designs remarkably livable but untraditional buildings. People who have the cash to buy buildings want traditional, not livable. The architect is not too successful in his business.