Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant work but not the most useful book on design
Review: I first read this book over 6 years ago when I was doing a course on Permaculture. My lecturer had a whole heap of books that he was willing to borrow to his students while they where doing this course, this was one of the books that I borrowed from him. I found the book to be the second best book I have ever read on design. The reason why the book only rates second is due to its largely social outlook and its focus on human interactions instead of a wholistic approach integrating all the major sciences. "Permaculture, a designers manual" is the only book on the face of this planet that successfully does just that. Bill Mollison come up with a couple of books on design of human settlement called Permaculture one and Permaculture two just prior to the release of this book in 1977. Bill Mollisons seminal work is "Permaculture, a designers manual" which supersedes 1 and 2 and has whole chapters devoted to patterns, design methods and how to develop anthropicentric ecosystems in any climate. It is the worlds first book on design and I would highly recommend it as a companion to "A pattern language". As Matt Holberts reveiw so aptly points out the way this book links from macro subjects down to more minor and detailed subjects is quite often used as a model for deseingning navigation for websites. Permaculture a designers manual has a whole chapter devoted to such design concepts such as the above concept of a decision tree in the chapter "methods of design".If you are an urban or rural planner or a computer software designer wishing to learn the basic principles of good design, then I would highly recommend that you get "Permaculture, a designers manual" first and "A pattern language" afterwards. If you are just a website designer especially someone who builds virtual communities then I would recommend you get "A pattern language" first and "Permaculture, a designers manual" afterwards. Newsflash; "Permaculture, a designers manual" is no longer for sale on Yahoo as of August of 2001, this book can only be obtained over the web through its publishers "Tagari.com.au".
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Summary: Would like to add to my review below
Review: Of course this book is so much more than a guide for building houses. This is a very powerful and compelling book (in a quiet way). I think the reason people's reviews focus on houses is that it's the realm they have direct infuence over. But the book makes you think about life and society, and how much the structure of our surroundings affects our lives. I wish that every government official that has the power to infuence construction and land use read this book.
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Summary: Even the size of this volume is perfect!
Review: This book is a wonderful collection of design elements for architecture. Each pattern dissects a basic architectural element ranging from a metropolitan plan down to the design of the flow through an individual home. Each pattern is placed in the context of a problem or activity, and shows how that particular solution is realized via some architectural device. For example, the pattern for Levels of Intimacy describes the problem that each house must accommodate different levels of familiarity and intimacy. We need spaces in our home to allow guests to enter and yet not be admitted to our most personal spaces. The design of a home must therefore allow for different levels of intimacy begining with the least intimate/more formal at the home entryway, and becoming more casual and intimate as you proceeded into family living, eating, and sleeping spaces. This book also influenced software designers to produce analagous collections of design patterns for the software design field.
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Summary: Manifesto for a quiet revolution.
Review: What many of this volume's readers miss is its great range. The book begins with the general -- patterns for reshaping our society, our cities and towns -- and moves all the way down to particular details of construction. Its followers in software engineering, as well as in architecture, would do well to recall the liberatory implications of the first patterns. This is not just a manual for building good houses, though it certainly is that. It is a philosophy of liberation, a manifesto for social change.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read
Review: Another enthusiastic thumbs up. I'm actually a computer programmer who came accross this book as I was thinking of remodeling my house. While planning my remodeling project I came accross a book called Not So Big House. I was struck by the beautiful houses depicted in the book, but most of all I was instantly impressed with the beautiful language of the book. Well, it turns out that the author of Not So Big House, is an architect who was very influenced by A Pattern Language and was using it for her buildings and her book. The Pattern Language creates a beautiful language, that actually can and has been has been incorporated by other architects to create houses that really stand out. It was also amusing to realize that this is actually the book that was used as an inspiration for the Design Patterns in Computer Science. Can't say enough about this book. It's just a wonderful book. I'm so glad that I found it BEFORE my remodeling project rather than after.
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Summary: Think of it as a Utopian novel of sorts
Review: I'm not an architect or city planner, nor do I plan to be one. I approached (and greatly enjoyed) this book as a sort of Utopian SF novel. Granted, it has no characters or plot, but in many novels of the genre those are the weakest points anyway, and "A Pattern Language" makes up for it with an unusual enough structure to give any Julio Cortazar or Samuel Delany fan goosebumps -- the whole thing is a hypertext, a heavily linked hierarchy of design patterns starting larger than cities and moving down into homes and rooms. It's not truly fractal (you don't find yourself reading Alexander's opinions on the proper arrangement of orbitals in carbon atoms!) but it forms a huge sustained zoom down into an Ideal World, a kaleidoscope of scenes of landscapes, cities, neighborhoods and houses that provoke a visceral sense of *rightness*. Later experimentation has shown that a lot of the stuff in here doesn't work directly as given, but Alexander and company are clearly groping in the right direction, one that respects the patterns developed slowly in "traditional" cultures without ever falling into a kneejerk rejection of modernity. I haven't heard of any actual SF novel set in a world informed by this pattern language, but it would be wonderful to read one.
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Summary: The Best
Review: I'm a "big developer" who believes in letting people alone to build what they think they want. Nonetheless I intervene a bit- I buy every client, and every friend who is thinking about building, a copy of this book to raise their sights- to get them thinking about what it is they really want.
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Summary: wealth of positive design concepts
Review: Do take the time to peruse all reader reviews. This is a valuable book. It is a bit enormous, though, and there is no index. This means that if the reader has to hunt for some little reference or fact, he or she is in for a long trek through these pages. Although it is designed with many short chapters, each devoted to a design element, the sheer amount of data is somewhat daunting. Alexander does write clearly, and in an informal, second or first-person manner. But there is little summarizing. Probably an excellent book to read cover-to-cover as part of a large study project. So read this book and know it well BEFORE you talk to your architect, contractor, designer... don't do as I did and start speed reading it when the architect hands over the blue prints. Note: Whereas feng shui is a little more mystical, Alexander's suggested design tactics make practical sense. (I gently encourage any reader trying to choose between feng shui and this book to go with the latter). Very useful concepts for anyone who wants to make the most of their living space.
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Summary: Not Architecture ... Computer Science!
Review: :) I can't believe noone has mentioned that this book was the inspiration for the latest fashion in computer science: "Patterns" The idea is to look at what kind of solutions work, and then when you have a problem to solve, you think what kind of pattern this is like. Then you have the benefit of collective wisdom as you go about crafting your solution. At any rate, this book is more than Architecture.
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Summary: This IS a book about architecture...!
Review: In California, mall developers finally used a different floor plan. They built an outside mall with a porch-like cafe, looking out over a meandering shopping area below. A reporter interviewed a dozen people, all of whom said they found themselves spending all day at the mall. "Why", he asked,"is it the shops? The stuff? And why this mall?" "We just like hanging out especially over there on the porch", they said - pointing to the porch-like cafe, where there were no shops. Yeah, 'hippie-type' architecture, like the Romans built a couple thousand years ago! A 'touchy-feely' book about architecture, about spaces that people gravitate to. Alexander points out that there are places that humans naturally gravitate towards, and designs based on these places are repeated in many cultures and many eras. When we try to ignore our feelings and live in an economical box shell, we start to wonder why all our knickknacks don't make us feel at home. When they try to make an antiseptic mall- or city- that way, developers wonder why no one hangs out there. Read this before you move into a mistake that no "feng shwee" mirror can fix!
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