Well-lit space |
If you've ever had the opportunity to wander through old European villages, you've experienced "the feeling." These villages, with their quaint cottages and lush gardens, exude a subtle but powerful feeling; indefinable in just one English word. "Cozy" might be a good start, or "comfortable" or "safe" or "inviting." Look a little further and you see that these towns draw people together, giving them natural places to meet and visit with one another. This feeling flows from the town center right into the homes. The spaces in European homes are smaller, more intimate and more in scale with the human form. In their homes you will find places to gather and places for privacy. These homes are places where people enjoy spending time.
What is it about the design of old European towns and homes that makes people feel so good? This is the question asked by architect Christopher Alexander several decades ago. Born in Vienna, Austria, Alexander became an Architect in England before moving to the United States in 1958.
Alexander grew up knowing the "indefinable feeling" and was struck by the lack of it in America's contemporary architecture. He decided to find out what specific design elements made homes feel good. He assembled a group of architects then set off for Europe to find out. Their simple but profound observations identified 253 architectural elements that give places "soul". They organized these elements into "patterns" and wrote what we think is one of the most important architecture books of all time; A Pattern Language.
What follows are just a few of our favorite patterns, given for example. If you'd like to read more, you might enjoy the book, A Pattern Language. The book is quite academic and is short on photographs but the insights are brilliant. Another book, Patterns of Home, written by several of the architects who worked with Alexander, has many large color photographs and goes into detail about several of the most important patterns for residental design. It's a good introduction to Alexander's work.
There is no way to incorporate every pattern into any one project (and you wouldn't want to), but as you become familiar with the patterns, some will certainly appeal to you. Here are some of our favorites:
Wings of Light (Light from two sides) |
: This pattern explains the benefits of having natural light coming into a home from many directions. A room that has light coming in from only one direction feels flat and dead. When you get sunlight into a room from 2 or more directions it gives the room dimension that triggers a positive emotional response. This is one of the most important design strategies for making a space feel good, in our opinion.
: Having a "graceful transition" between outside and inside gives a more tranquil feeling to a home. If your front door dumps guests directly into the living room, for example, the social interaction of receiving guests is too abrupt. Defining the entry from the outdoors and from inside feels much better.
: Some seating arrangements are sterile, others gather people naturally. The size of the room, height of the ceiling and distance between people are all considerations. This is the pattern that will give you a comfortable conversation area.
: A fire that you can view from a functional wood stove or fireplace lends a feeling to a room that isn't achieved any other way. For those who love or want the ambience of a fire, lava lamps just don't cut it and a good wood stove or fire place is a nice amenity.
We all probably know instinctively that these design elements feel good when we experience them. Alexander and his team identified these patterns, and many more, and put them into words... patterns. Once you know and understand the patterns you'll never look at architecture the same way again!
We are forever grateful to Christopher Alexander for his remarkable contribution to architecture.
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