Brooklyn Brainery

Not to be too overly serious or anything, but A Pattern Language is legitimately my favorite book in the world. I love it so much I got a tattoo about it. 

What it is:

Though it's kinda impossible to summarize quickly, measuring an astoundingly long 1,167 pages, A Pattern Language is a handbook for the planning of physical space, from large scale regional planning to amazingly specific recommendations for interior design. In between, there are musings on everything from where corner stores should be placed and how to create magic in a city to the importance of getting light on two sides of every room. It's big, sweeping, and awesome.

The point is that space matters, and that certain types of space function better than others, and that by following certain (almost) universal patterns, you can advocate for and achieve these well functioning spaces. All of which leads to creating better communities. 

Why it's the best:

1) You don't have to read it in order. Yep, it's like a choose your own adventure book. Each (super short) chapter ends with related chapters, organized by number, that you can hop over to in order to continue reading about a subject. For example, the chapter on parallel roads leads you to the other chapters on roads and transport, to things like green streets, T junctions, and looped local roads.

2) They bold the important stuff: it's like buying a used book in college from that really smart person who always did all of their reading. 

3) The sketches rule. All the important concepts are also illustrated by fun little sketches that get the point across with a few quick lines. Not nearly enough of them are on the internet. 

4) The ideas make sense. Though far from perfect, it's full of solid, sometimes small, ideas about what makes a liveable neighborhood (or city, or house). It's good to keep in mind that A Pattern Language was published in 1977, while lots of these ideas were still lost in the modernists' push for superblocks and simplcity, even though now much of the book seems like common sense. 

By far, my favorite chapter is the Four Story Limit. Alexander argues that that buildings generally shouldn't rise more than this because skyscrapers disconnect residents from the actions on the street below. You don't need to completely buy that to realize the larger point: collections of smaller buildings create comfortable streetscapes that don't alienate either the people in the buildings or overwhelm those on the street below. This helps create a sense of place and facilitates more of the small, casual interactions that create bonds between strangers. 

And that's kinda what makes A Pattern Language so awesome--that a very specific recommendation about something like building height can have real, observable effects on a place and end up saying a lot about what makes society work.