SKU: 41978373671

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction

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A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, ConstructionYou 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

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.


Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 08/25/1977
ISBN: 9780195019193
Pages: 1216
Weight: 2.13lbs
Size: 8.03h x 5.65w x 1.82d

Review Citations: Newsweek 03/24/2008 pg. 16
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SKU: 41978373671

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Marie
Houston, US
★★★★★ 5
Lovely Slate Gray Jewelry Box
I just received this Slate Gray jewelry box. It's really quite lovely and just the right size for my granddaughter's vanity. I'm really excited about giving it to her, for her 12th Birthday, to hold her better jewelry. It's so nice I'm going to order another one for my other Granddaughter's Birthday.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2025
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Cathy D.
Pawtucket, US
★★★★★ 5
Songmics Slate Gray Travel Jewelry Box
I purchased the slate gray Songmics jewelry box for travel purposes. We take long vacations and have an upcoming 20 day cruise. I wanted a jewelry box that was compact enough to put in my carry-on bag, but still had room to hold a months worth of jewelry, especially to keep my necklaces for tangling. When this arrived, I was pleasantly surprised and the packaging was great, shipped in a sturdy box. so no damage to the jewelry box. The color is a rich gray and the 2 tier box, while small, holds a lot of jewelry. I wanted to purchase the ink black but could not justify paying twice the price of the gray one just to get it in black. It is small enough that it will fit in most any hotel/ship safe so I won't be sitting out in the room anyway. It has a strong magnetic snap that keeps the box from opening while in transit. The one negative for me is that the pierced earring card is so thick that my earrings barely go through to have enough room on the back side the slip the backs on. I may separate the double thick card, realizing it will not look as nice but will be more functional. The bottom half of the box will hold bracelets up to 1 1/4" wide. There is enough room under the earrings card to place pendants, additional earrings, etc. The necklace holder is designed to hold 5 necklaces, but I added one more by going across the top, end to end, to prevent tangling. I also placed smaller hoop earrings in the ring holder which holds them securely. This box held 7 bracelets, 2 of which were wide, 5 rings, 9 necklaces (I placed 3 in the bottom of the box, and had room for 23 pair of earrings (some placed in the ring holder and in the bottom of the bo)! I would buy this again in a heartbeat.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2025
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Stephanie
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 4
Nice jewelry box
The jewelry box is nicer than expected! Just wish it was a little bigger, but ok for traveling.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2025
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Peggy
Omaha, US
★★★★★ 5
Great product
Great little jewelry box better than I thought and holds so much also came with an earring holder will buy again.!
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Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2025
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Joy
Los Angeles, US
★★★★★ 5
I like it
Good box
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Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2026

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