A Pattern Language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction is a 1977 book on architecture. It was authored by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein of the Center for Environmental Structure of Berkeley, California, with writing credits also to Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King and Shlomo Angel. It is reputed to be the best-selling treatise on architecture of all time[1]; more than 10,000 copies a year are still sold 25 years after its first publication.
The book is a substantive, illustrated discussion of a pattern language derived from traditional architecture, with about 250 unitary patterns such as Main Gateways given a treatment over several pages.
The book is part of a series with The Timeless Way of Building and The Oregon Experiment.
