A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction

‘A Pattern Language. Towns, Buildings, Construction’ is the second of three books published by the Center for Environmental Structure to provide a “working alternative to our present ideas about architecture, building, and planning,”

The book offers a practical language for building and planning based on natural considerations. The reader is given an overview of some 250 patterns that are the units of this language, each consisting of a design problem, discussion, illustration, and solution. By understanding recurrent design problems in our environment, readers can identify extant patterns in their own design projects and use these patterns to create a language of their own.

Extraordinarily thorough, coherent, and accessible, this book has become a bible for homebuilders, contractors, and developers who care about creating healthy, high-level design.