making buildings human
Christopher Alexander wasn’t a starchitect. He cared about how places made people feel — and he spent his life trying to articulate why some spaces feel good, and others don’t.
His most famous book, A Pattern Language (1977), is a collection of 253 design “patterns” — observations about buildings, streets, and cities that support human life.
Not overly theoretical. Just: here’s what works. Here’s what doesn’t. Here’s why. Nice short chapters with great illustrations and photo examples.
You don’t read it front to back. You flip to any page and land on something that hits. Something obvious, once you hear it — but rarely practiced in how we build.
People have told me my writing feels aligned with Alexander’s, which is a huge compliment. Had I been a slightly groovy architecture student at UC Berkely in the mid 1970's, I'd like to think we'd have hit it off.
If I ever wrote a book, it would be something like his: a series of small chapters each with meditations on different aspects of design.
Alexander is big on enclosure. On transitions. On buildings that don’t exist just to be looked at — but to shape community life. He strikes me as very much a humanist whose highest value is the interconnectedness of the village.
He's one of the primary influences on the New Urbanism movement of the 1980s/90s (think Andres Duany / Seaside, Florida) and it's desire to build on the human scale.
Seaside - via Counts Real Estate
Here are a few of his patterns from A Pattern Language that I wanted to share with you:
Positive Outdoor Space Design: Outdoor areas are designed the same way you design interiors — with purpose and shape. Not just leftover grass. Not just negative space around a “main event.” The outdoor space is as much of the event as the building itself.
Courtyards Which Live: A courtyard shouldn’t be a void. It should have multiple entry points, a defined edge, a place to sit with your back protected and a view out. It should feel like a living room — just without a roof.
Hierarchy of Open Space: Every good place to sit has two things: a back and a view. That’s it. A corner bench looking out over a larger area will always feel better than a wide-open expanse.
Entrance Transition: There should be a process to entering a home — a pause, a passage. Walking under trees. Up a few steps. Through a vestibule. Without that, Alexander says, the building fails to feel like an inner sanctum.
Buildings Which Connect: He hated setbacks. Thought they wasted space and killed community. His rule: connect buildings whenever possible. Create shared walls, shared courtyards, shared public edges.
Wings of Light: Wide buildings block light. Narrow wings — no more than 25 feet deep — bring natural light into every space. Good light = better rooms = better life.
Shopping Streets (for People, Not Cars): He was one of the first to articulate the failure of modern shopping strips. His fix? Place the road around the retail core, not through it. Let people walk, linger, and interact — without the constant presence of traffic.
Open Stairs to the Street: Second-story apartments are much more desirable if they have their own exterior stair. Not a shared stairwell. Not a common hall. Your own path, your own door. Makes the building more human, and more beautiful. Connect the second story to the street equally to the first.
If you like this these, you should probably buy the book. It's out of print but readily available online. There’s so much here, I am just skimming the surface, and most of it still feels like common sense that’s been forgotten.
Christopher Alexander wasn’t trying to impress other architects. He was trying to help people feel at home in the world again. He says:
“The ultimate object of architecture is not a building, but the creation of a place where people feel alive.”
something i saw this week
Often, the hardest working members of an excellent interior shoot are the floral arrangements and plants.
They add so much texture, color and visual interest. I recently came across Sydney-based Florist/Artist Lisa Cooper's very sophisticated arrangements and thought I'd share a few.
