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11/3/15, 7:04 PMA Theory of Arch itec tu re Part 1: Patter n Lang uage vs. Form Language | Arc hDai ly

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A Theory of Architecture Part 1: Pattern Languagevs. Form Language

As you may have seen, ArchDaily has been publishing UNIFIED ARCHITECTURAL

THEORY, by the urbanist and controversial theorist Nikos A. Salingaros, in serial form.

However, in order to explain certain concepts in greater detail, we have decided to pause

this serialization and publish three excerpts from another of Salingaros books: A THEORY

OF ARCHITECTURE. The following excerpt, the first, explains the terms Pattern

Language (as well asantipatterns") and Form Language.

Design in architecture and urbanism is guided by two distinct complementary languages: a

pattern language, and a form language.

The pattern language contains rules for how human beings interact with built forms a

pattern language codifies practical solutions developed over millennia, which are

appropriate to local customs, society, and climate.

A form language, on the other hand, consists of geometrical rules for putting mattertogether. It is visual and tectonic, traditionally arising from available materials and their

Galleria di Diana in Venaria Royal Palace, an example of Classical architecture. The

Classical Language is an example of an "extremely successful form language". Image

Courtesy of shutterstock.com

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human uses rather than from images. Different form languages correspond to different

architectural traditions, or styles. The problem is that not all form languages are adaptive to

human sensibilities. Those that are not adaptive can never connect to a pattern language.

Every adaptive design method combines a pattern language with a viable form language,

otherwise it inevitably creates alien environments.

Architectural design is a highly complex undertaking. Heretofore, the processes at its base

have not been made clear. There have been many attempts to clarify the design process,

yet we still dont have a design method that can be used by students and novices to achieve

practical, meaningful, nourishing, human results.

In the absence of a design method and accompanying criteria for judging a design, things

have become very subjective, and therefore what is built today appears to be influenced

largely by fashion, forced tastes, and an individuals desire to garner attention through novel

and sometimes shocking expressions.

This Chapter puts forward a theory of architecture and urbanism based on two distinct

languages: the pattern language, and the form language.

The pattern language codifies the interaction of human beings with their environment, and

determines how and where we naturally prefer to walk, sit, sleep, enter and move through abuilding, enjoy a room or open space, and feel at ease or not in our garden. The pattern

language is a set of inherited tried-and-true solutions that optimize how the built

environment promotes human life and sense of wellbeing. It combines geometry and social

behavior patterns into a set of useful relationships, summarizing how built form can

accommodate human activities.

The importance of a pattern language for architecture was originally proposed by

Christopher Alexander and his associates. A fairly general pattern language was discovered

and presented by Alexander, who emphasized that, while many if not most of the patterns in

his pattern language are indeed universal, there actually exist an infinite number of

individual patterns that can be included in a pattern language. Each pattern language

reflects different modes of life, customs, and behavior, and is appropriate to specific

climates, geographies, cultures, and traditions. It is up to the designer/architect to extract

specific non-universal patterns as needed, by examining the ways of life and tradition in a

particular setting, and then to apply them to that situation.

Living architecture is highly dependent on patterns, which shape buildings and spaces

accordingly. A pattern is a set of relationships, which can be realized using different

materials and geometries. Architects, however, confuse patterns with their representation,

i.e., what an arrangement looks like. Patterns are not material, though we experience them

with our senses. It is far more difficult to understand them intellectually, and almost

impossible to grasp patterns from within a world-view that focuses exclusively on materials.

A pattern language for work environments can be put together by examining the

components of successful emotionally-comfortable work environments from different

cultures and periods around the world. A software developer today has many requirements

in common with a distant ancestor looking for a comfortable place to sit and carve a bone or

paint a piece of pottery. Being able to work in an emotionally-supportive environment boosts

morale and productivity, and cuts down on workplace errors.

For several decades, however, architects and interior designers have insisted on applying

formal design rules to office environments. Such rules tend to give a standard compromise

that satisfies almost none of the fundamental requirements for a good working environment.

Their occupants usually characterize them as ranging from sterile to oppressive. Here is a

fundamental disconnect between what architects imagine office space should look like, and

the characteristics of the kind of space that users actually require to be productive in.

In the theory of pattern languages actually developed more extensively in computer

architecture than in buildings architecture the concept of antipattern plays a central role.

An antipattern shows how to do the opposite of the required solution. An ineffective solution

is often repeated because the same forces that gave rise to it in the first place recur in other

similar situations. Assuming that the futility and counterproductive nature of such a solution

is evident (which is not always the case), its occurrence can be studied to see what went

wrong.

Antipatterns do not comprise a pattern language, just as a collection of mistakes do not

comprise a coherent body of knowledge. It is therefore not appropriate to talk of a language

of antipatterns, but simply a collection of antipatterns. Nevertheless, antipatterns could (and

often do) substitute for, and displace a genuine pattern language, with very negativeconsequences.

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Cite:

Nikos Salingaros. "A Theory of Architecture Part 1: Pattern Language vs. Form Language" 23 Mar 2014.

ArchDaily. Accessed 3 Nov 2015.

Documenting an antipattern can save future designs from the same mistakes by identifying

a problematic solution before it is adopted. However, knowing the antipattern does not

automatically indicate the pattern, since the solution space is not one-dimensional. Doing

the opposite of the antipattern will not give the pattern, precisely because there can be

many different opposites going out in many different directions in the solution space.

Pattern languages have evolved, and, as with all evolved systems, they have developed an

extraordinary degree of organized complexity. It is not possible to understand all this

complexity, let alone replace it by a design method based on deliberately simplified rules.

And yet, that has been the basic assumption of twentieth-century architects: that we can

simply replace all the evolved architectural solutions of the past with a few rules that

someone has made up (and which dont even have the benefit of experimental verification).

The form language, on the other hand, is strictly geometrical. It is defined by the elements of

form as constituted by the floors, the walls, the ceiling, the partitions, and all the

architectural components or articulations, which together represent a particular form and

style of building. A form language is a repertoire of forms and surface elements that can be

combined to build any building, and so it represents more than just a superficial style.

The form language depends on an inherited vocabulary of all the components used in the

assembly of a building; rules for how they can be combined; and how different levels of

scale can arise from the smaller components. It is a particular and practical conception of

tectonic and surface geometry. One extremely successful form language, the Classical

Language, relies on a wide range of variations of the Classical style of building based on

Greco-Roman ancestry.

After centuries of Classical buildings, even with varied and successful adaptations to local

climates, conditions, and uses, the Classical form language remains intact. Every traditional

architecture has its own form language. It has evolved from many different influences of

lifestyle, traditions, and practical concerns acting together to define the geometry that

structures take as the most natural visual expressions of a particular culture. A form

language is a set of evolved geometries on many different scales (i.e., ornamental, building,

urban) that people of a particular culture identify with, and are comfortable with. It is highly

dependent on traditional and local materials at least that was the case before the global

introduction of nonspecific industrial materials.

My present aim is to be able to discern whether a pattern language is genuine, so that it can

be connected to a form language and thus define an adaptive design method. It is

imperative not to be fooled by a collection of antipatterns, otherwise our resulting design

process will be non-adaptive, even though this may not be known at the beginning of the

process. We will eventually see it in the non-adaptivity of the results, at which time it will be

too late to do anything about it (i.e., after an unnatural city such as EUR, Milton Keynes, or

la Dfense has been built).

Nikos A. Salingaros, A Theory of Architecture (see this books Wikipedia entry) is now

available in an international edition HEREwith shipping to anywhere in the world. Readers

in the US can choose between the new printing with Index HEREand the original printing,

which is selling at half price HERE. Translation into Chinese HERE, and Persian .

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