A Pattern Language Bot

149 - Reception Welcomes You Have you ever walked into a public building and been processed by the receptionist as if you were a package?

148 - Small Work Groups ** When more than half a dozen people work in the same place, it is essential that they not be forced to work in one huge undifferentiated space, but that instead, they can divide their workspace up, and so form smaller groups.

144 - Bathing Room * "The motions we call bathing are mere ablutions which formerly preceded the bath. The place where they are performed, though adequate for the routine, does not deserve to be called a bathroom." -Bernard Rudofsky

18 - Network of Learning * In a society which emphasizes teaching, children and students - and adults - become passive and unable to think or act for themselves. Creative, active individuals can only grow up in a society which emphasizes learning instead of teaching.

111 - Half-Hidden Garden * If a garden is too close to the street, people won't use it because it isn't private enough. But if it is too far from the street, then it won't be used either, because it is too isolated.

91 - Travelers Inn * A man who stays the night in a strange place is still a member of the human community, and still needs company. There is no reason why he should creep into a hole, and watch TV alone, the way he does in a roadside motel.

139 - Farmhouse Kitchen ** The isolated kitchen, separate from the family and considered as an efficient but unpleasant factory for food is a hangover from the days of servants; and from the more recent days when women willingly took over the servants' role.

178 - Compost * Our current ways of getting rid of sewage poison the great bodies of natural water, and rob the land around our buildings of the nutrients they need.

222 - Low Sill One of a window's most important functions is to put you in touch with the outdoors. If the sill is too high, it cuts you off.

197 - Thick Walls ** Houses with smooth hard walls made of prefabricated panels, concrete, gypsum, steel, aluminum, or glass always stay impersonal and dead.

45 - Necklace of Community Projects The local town hall will not be an honest part of the community which lives around it, unIess it is itself surrounded by all kinds of small community activities and projects, generated by the people for themselves.

18 - Network of Learning * In a society which emphasizes teaching, children and students - and adults - become passive and unable to think or act for themselves. Creative, active individuals can only grow up in a society which emphasizes learning instead of teaching.

220 - Roof Vaults * What is the best shape for a roof?

151 - Small Meeting Rooms * The larger meetings are, the less people get out of them. But institutions often put their money and attention into large meeting rooms and lecture halls.

205 - Structure Follows Social Spaces ** No building ever feels right to the people in it unless the physical spaces (defined by columns, walls, and ceilings) are congruent with the social spaces (defined by activities and human groups).

216 - Box Columns ** In all the world's traditional and historic buildings, the columns are expressive, beautiful, and treasured elements. Only in modern buildings have they become ugly and meaningless.

11 - Local Transport Areas ** Cars give people wonderful freedom and increase their opportunities. But they also destroy the environment, to an extent so drastic that they kill all social life.

215 - Ground Floor Slab The slab is the easiest, cheapest, and most natural way to lay a ground floor.

46 - Market of Many Shops ** It is natural and convenient to want a market where all the different foods and household goods you need can be bought under a single roof. But when the market has a single management, like a supermarket, the foods are bland, and there is no joy in going there.

92 - Bus Stop * Bus stops must be easy to recognize, and pleasant, with enough activity around them to make people comfortable and safe.

98 - Circulation Realms * In many modern building complexes the problem of disorientation is acute. People have no idea where they are, and they experience considerable mental stress as a result.

224 - Low Doorway High doorways are simple and convenient. But a lower door is often more profound.

212 - Columns at the Corners ** We have already established the idea that the structural components of a building should be congruent with its social spaces.

133 - Staircase as a Stage A staircase is not just a way of getting from one floor to another. The stair is itself a space, a volume, a part of the building; and unless this space is made to live, it will be a dead spot, and work to disconnect the building and to tear its processes apart.

197 - Thick Walls ** Houses with smooth hard walls made of prefabricated panels, concrete, gypsum, steel, aluminum, or glass always stay impersonal and dead.

19 - Web of Shopping * Shops rarely place themselves in those positions which best serve the people's needs, and also guarantee their own stability.

226 - Column Place * Thin columns, spindly columns, columns which take their shape from structural arguments alone, will never make a comfortable environment.

145 - Bulk Storage In houses and workplaces there is always some need for bulk storage space; a place for things like suitcases, old furniture, old files, boxes - all those things which you are not ready to throw away, and yet not using everyday.

216 - Box Columns ** In all the world's traditional and historic buildings, the columns are expressive, beautiful, and treasured elements. Only in modern buildings have they become ugly and meaningless.

125 - Stair Seats * Wherever there is action in a place, the spots which are the most inviting, are those high enough to give people a vantage point, and low enough to put them in action.

205 - Structure Follows Social Spaces ** No building ever feels right to the people in it unless the physical spaces (defined by columns, walls, and ceilings) are congruent with the social spaces (defined by activities and human groups).

200 - Open Shelves * Cupboards that are too deep waste valuable space, and it always seems that what you want is behind something else.

121 - Path Shape * Streets should be for staying in, and not just for moving through, the way they are today.

101 - Building Thoroughfare When a public building complex cannot be completely served by outdoor pedestrian streets, a new form of indoor street, quite different from the conventional corridor, is needed.

167 - Six-Foot Balcony ** Balconies and porches which are less than six feet deep are hardly ever used.

53 - Main Gateways ** Any part of a town - large or small - which is to be identified by its inhabitants as a precinct of some kind, will be reinforced, helped in its distinctness, marked, and made more vivid, if the paths which enter it are marked by gateways where they cross the boundary.

228 - Stair Vault * Within a building technology which uses compressive materials as much as possible, and excludes the use of wood, it is natural to build stairs over a vaulted void, simply to save weight and materials.

10 - Magic of the City There are few people who do not enjoy the magic of a great city. But urban sprawl takes it away from everyone except the few who are lucky enough, or rich enough, to live close to the largest centers.

135 - Tapestry of Light and Dark * In a building with uniform light level, there are few "places" which function as effective settings for human events. This happens because, to a large extent, the places which make effective settings are defined by light.

215 - Ground Floor Slab The slab is the easiest, cheapest, and most natural way to lay a ground floor.

43 - University as Marketplace Concentrated, cloistered universities, with closed admission policies and rigid procedures which dictate who may teach a course, kill opportunities for learning.

127 - Intimacy Gradient ** Unless the spaces in a building are arranged in a sequence which corresponds to their degrees of privateness, the visits made by strangers, friends, guests, clients, family, will always be a little awkward.

167 - Six-Foot Balcony ** Balconies and porches which are less than six feet deep are hardly ever used.

98 - Circulation Realms * In many modern building complexes the problem of disorientation is acute. People have no idea where they are, and they experience considerable mental stress as a result.