Black & white and red all over

I couldn't resist the play on words with the riddle that children take such delight in. Even though the answer is traditionally 'newspaper', it also could apply to many books...any certainly to those I'd like to write about today, which even have red covers.

The books in question are part of a series conceived by Christopher Alexander and his team at the Center for Environmental Structure in Berkley, California. If I could take only one book to a deserted island, it would have to be the second volume in the series, A Pattern Language (and it is the book I have given most often as a gift). A passage I wrote for The Piazzas of Florence gives a little background on the patterns:

My introduction to Alexander came when I was earning my architecture degree, but [A Pattern Language] is much more than a book about architecture: facets of sociology, psychology and culture that comprise built form have been taken into consideration to create two hundred and fifty-three patterns, resulting in a specific ‘language’—a language of building and, even more significantly, a language for living.

It begins with the larger patterns that define a community, such as FOUR STORY LIMIT, which allows people to have a sense of connection to the rest of the world even when they are in their homes and offices, a connection that tends to disappear with high rises; NINE PERCENT PARKING, which limits parking to no more than nine per cent of a given area, as it destroys human scale and contact in cities; SMALL PUBLIC SQUARES, which highlights the importance of public outdoor rooms, and reminds us to consider the number of people who will use them so they won’t be too big—and therefore go unused; and HIGH PLACES, which emphasizes our need for landmarks—and a chance to get perspective on our world.

Next Alexander moves onto patterns that should characterize individual buildings, and then comes a section on finishing the details of the building and its outdoor space. As I read through the patterns, even the names of many of them evoke appealing images, of the kinds of places where you want to curl up with your thoughts, a good book, have a nap, chat with friends, eat a celebratory meal.

The series of patterns concludes with THINGS FROM YOUR LIFE—a reminder to surround ourselves with things we love, that tell our story. Of course, following a list of patterns does not ensure good design—in the first volume of the series, A Timeless Way of Building, Alexander spends over five hundred pages trying to define the elusive ‘quality without a name’ that makes for good architecture—but it’s a starting point. I recognize that one reason why I so enjoy living in Florence is for its PUBLIC OUTDOOR ROOMS, INDIVIDUALLY OWNED SHOPS, STREET CAFÉS and CORNER GROCERIES, to name a few; they all add up to a congenial and fulfilling environment. Some day I would like to count how many of the patterns are part of my life here.

 

Well, I still haven't formally enumerated every pattern that I encounter in my daily life in Florence, but I have been spending more time exploring the patterns; they are part of my ongoing '12x12' project (which I will reveal more of this year). Many of the patterns are common sense—things that may seem very simple—but they are often overlooked in architecture and urban planning. As Alexander points out, we seem to have 'forgotten' this intuitive language of building. I'd like to focus on at least one pattern each month of 2013—something that's relevant to the time of year/what's going on around me.

For January I've chosen pattern 252: POOLS OF LIGHT. I love even the imagery conjured up by the phrase 'pools of light'...it makes me think of a small pond of deep, perfectly still water reflecting the sky in the clearing of a thickly wooded area...or the metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel, drawing us closer. Found nearly at the end of the book (among the most 'intimately'-scaled patterns), this one feels especially important during these months of short days and minimal sunshine.

'POOLS OF LIGHT' examines the appeal and role of individual, concentrated light sources (as opposed to a stark, uniform light source), and explains how they can concentrate individual activities as well as define social groups. For example, in the social context, uniform illumination may discourage people from forming groups that would tend to occur more naturally within boundaries marked out by a 'pool of light'. Alexander also cites a study showing that concentrated lighting allows work to be more focused (I know I find this to be true). I love some of the illustrations, for example how a lamp suspended over dining table "seems almost to act like a glue for all of the people sitting round the table."

The pattern concludes with these instructions:

Place the lights low, and apart, to form individual pools of light which encompass chairs and tables like bubbles to reinforce the social character of the spaces which they form. Remember that you can't have pools of light without the darker places in between.

Studies, experiments and rationalizations aside, I know I find few things more inviting than a desk lit by a lamp—or an armchair sitting in a cozy pool of light, enticing me to curl up with a book. Likewise, as the light changes each season, I reorganize the most important activities to be in the sunniest part of the room (though of course there are times when it's so hot that cool darkness is more appealing). For me, light defines, encourages, and can even inspire, my daily activities.

I don't seem to be very successful with nighttime photography, but last night I tried to capture the studio table lit by only the desk lamp. This is the kind of thing that makes me want to keep working late into the night...

On my original blog I wrote an entry that gives more details about the premise for the patterns found in volume one of the series, The Timeless Way of Building, and have just re-posted it here for those of you who might like to read it. 

While Alexander may take several hundred pages to define the 'quality with no name'—a fact that some readers have taken issue with—after trying to convey the essence of POOLS OF LIGHT, I will say that I'm beginning to understand how describing such a simple concept can be so complicated! Though perhaps, as Einstein said, "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." Hmm. I will keep working on it...

Here are a few photos of some of Alexander & Co's books, taken in scant moments of cold winter sunshine—a sort of Day Three of the 'black & white' photo challenge...

{Just another reminder that I'm still collecting names for the one-year-on-Blogger drawing. In case you didn't see the original mention of it...anyone who leaves a comment or emails me by the end of January will be eligible to win the item of their choice from my shop. Thanks again for your patience on the long wait until the drawing takes place...I am hoping that a new collection—the embossed maps—will be in the shop by then...}