Pattern language: a timeless way of building

Beyond Edge-bound Comprehension and Modal Impotence: combining q-holes through a pattern language (Part #3)

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1. Q-analysis provides us with a remarkable tool for analysis. It has not yet been developed to the point where we can use it for building new social structures. It lacks, perhaps necessarily, the essential art of design or synthesis. For this reason it is useful to consider another remarkable development of recent years, namely the elaboration of a pattern language (6, 7, 8 ). Ironically, both Q-analysis and this pattern language have been applied to the design-type problems of two complex universities, Essex and Oregon (3,9). The complementarity of the

2. The main contribution of the pattern language is perhaps an understanding of how constraints can be creatively handled to enhance the quality of life as experienced by those functioning in a complex institutional setting. It focuses on the democratization of the design process. To date the concern has been primarily with the impact on the physical design (buildings, towns, regions), but many social and organizational questions are necessarily considered in a new way.

3. Despite its practicality, the essential charm from a development perspective is its emphasis on maximizing expression of what is termed the "quality without a name" - it being nameless because of the recognized limitations of each label so freely bandied about in social policy making. And it is precisely in the caution with which patterns are developed to "contain" this subtle, many facetted, quality that much of value could be derived for human and social development in a wider sense.

4. The major achievement lies in the detection and extensive description of 253 patterns which can be combined in different ways by the user (group) to form the unique language significant to that user. It requires little imagination to see the challenge of elaborating a similar set of psycho-social patterns with which a user (group) could elaborate a language to design alternative institutions and lifestyles.

5. A significant feature of the presentation of the pattern language is its success as a form of presentation -despite its practicality and its foundation on well-argued theoretical grounds. It is no exaggeration to note that the "nameless quality" which the initiative aims to maximize is present in the presentation itself, as the following chapter abstracts may illustrate: (see Insert 1).

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