Points of View | |||||||||||||
REVIEW: Patterns
of Home: The Ten Essentials of Enduring Design by Max Jacobson, AIA; Murray Silverstein, AIA; and Barbara Winslow, AIA, (Taunton Press, 2002) |
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reviewed by Stephanie Stubbs, Assoc. AIA Managing Editor |
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Back in school, we were absolutely awed by Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language; so much so that we spent days traipsing around our converted warehouse of a school and its surround searching for evidence of "patterns." With more than 200 patterns at our disposal, even we students had no trouble finding them. The reason for the immense appeal is that the patterns were Truththey were architecture theory in the flesh for us. They also offered a way to crack the code, to pull single threads out of the complicated tapestry of what we were trying so hard to figure out: how you design firm, commodious, and delightful buildings. It is perhaps even more difficult to convey the interwoven complexity of design to clients than to architecture students. Three architectsMax Jacobson, AIA; Murray Silverstein, AIA; and Barbara Winslow, AIAhave given us a useful tool to help convey the magic: it's a book called Patterns of Home: The Ten Essentials of Enduring Design. The authors, two of whom worked on the original pattern language with Alexander at the Center for Environmental Architecture in Berkeley, and all of whom are principals at JSW Architects, offer 10 "patterns of home," complex rules that designers employoften intuitivelyto design great houses. Following the intent of the original Pattern Language, the patterns of home allow clients and interested laypeople to understand (and articulate!) what resonates in a residence for them. Ten
essential patterns Well-crafted,
details and whole The authors fortify the building case studies with boxed discussions of "Patterns in Context," which explains how several of the patterns are used in that particular building, and tips of "Working with the Pattern." Tips presented under "Working with the Pattern" of "Parts in Proportion" advise us to "organize the house along lines of movement and growth" and "let the overall form of the house grow naturally out of the forms of its various parts, rather than being superimposed from outside. In this sense, the form of the house equals the form of its parts." When a pattern is in evidence in a chapter other than its own (e.g., when "Light" shows up in the "Flow-through Rooms" chapter), it is called out in the text in a highlighted font. The integration of the patterns becomes apparent. Patterns of Home would offer a fascinating introduction to clients on how design integration creates residential magic that just "feels right" in a home. They could begin to understand what they are liking and why they are liking it. Anyone who looks at this book, however, will not be able to discount its tremendous appeal for designers and architects. It's integrated work and fundo you see a pattern here? Copyright 2002 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved. |
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