Christopher alexander - A pattern language

Obviously, if there is habitable space inside the roof, it must have some kind of windows; skylights are not satisfactory as windows—except in studios or workshops—because they do not create a connection between the inside and the outside world—windows OVERLOOKING LIFE (192).

It is therefore natural to pierce the roof with windows; in short, to build dormer windows. This simple, fundamental fact would hardly need mentioning if it were not for the fact that dormer windows have come to seem archaic and romantic. It is important to emphasize how sensible and ordinary they are— simply because people may not build them if they believe that they are old fashioned and out of date.

Dormers make the roof livable. Aside from bringing in light and air and the connection to the outside, they relieve the low ceilings along the edge of the roofs and create alcoves and window places.

How should the dormers be constructed? Within the roof vault we have described, the basket which forms the vault can simply be continued to form the roof of the dormer, over a frame of columns and perimeter beams which form the opening.

The other ways of building dormer windows depend on the construction system you are using. Whatever you are using for lintels, columns, and walls, can simply be modified and used in combination to build the dormer.

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231 DORMER WINDOWS

Therefore;

Frame them like alcoves (179) and window place (180)with GRADUAL STIFFENING (208), COLUMNS AT THE CORNERS (212), BOX COLUMNS (2l6), PERIMETER BEAMS (217), WALL MEMBRANES ( 2 I 8) ?FLOOR-CEILING VAULTS (219), ROOF VAULTS (220) and FRAMES AS THICKENED EDGES (225).Put windows which open wide (236) in them, and make SMALL PANES (239) . . . ,

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232 ROOF CAPS

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. . . and this pattern finishes the roof cardens ( i i 8) or the roof vaults (220). Assume that you have built the roof vaults —or at least that you have started to build up the splines which will support the cloth which forms the vault. Or assume that you have begun to build a roof garden, and have begun to fence it or surround it. In either case—how shall the roof be finished?

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The pediments on Greek buildings; the caps on the trulli of Alberobello; the top of Japanese shrines; the venting caps on barns. In each of these examples there seems to be some issue of the building system that needs resolution, and the builder takes the opportunity to make a “cap.”

We suspect there is a reason for this which should be taken seriously. The roof cap helps to finish the building; it tops the building with a human touch. Yet, the power of the cap, its overall effect on the feeling of the building, is of much greater proportions than one would expect. Look at these sketches of a building, with and without a roof cap. They look like .different buildings. The difference is enormous.

With and without a roof cap.

Why is it that these caps are so important and have such a powerful effect on the building as a whole?

Here are some possible reasons.

1. They crown the roof. They give the roof the status that it deserves. The roof is important, and the caps emphasize this fact.

2. They add detail. They make the roof less homogeneous, and

build up these larger city patterns from the grass roots )through action essentially controlled by two levels of self-governing communities }which exist as physically identifiable places;

12. COMMUNITY OF 7OOO

13. SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY

14. IDENTIFIABLE NEIGHBORHOOD

15. NEIGHBORHOOD BOUNDARY

CONSTRUCTION

they relieve the roof from being a single uninterrupted thing. The walls get this relief from windows, doors, balconies, which add scale and character; when a roof has many dormers, it seems to need the caps less.

3. The caps provide a connection to the sky, in a way that might have had religious overtones at one time. Just as the building needs a sense of connection to the earth—see connection to the earth (168)—perhaps the roof needs a connection to the sky.

In the building system we propose, the roof caps are weights we use at the ridge of the roof to make the slight curve in the pitched sides of the roof. They happen at regular intervals, at the ridges of the scallops. They need not be large—a small bag of sand or a stone will do, plastered with concrete and shaped so the bulge is obvious. It may be nice to paint them a different color from the roof.

Of course, there are hundreds of other possible kinds of roof caps. They can be brick chimneys, statues, vents, structural details, the pinnacles on a gothic buttress, weather vanes, or even windmills.

Therefore:

Choose a natural way to cap the roof—some way which is in keeping with the kind of construction, and the meaning of the building. The caps may be structural; but their main function is decorative—they mark the top—they mark the place where the roof penetrates the sky.

connection to the sky

A

Finish the roof caps any way you want, but don’t forget them—ornament (249). . . .

fut in the surfaces and the indoor details;

233. FLOOR SURFACE

234. LAPPED OUTSIDE WALLS

235. SOFT INSIDE WALLS

236. WINDOWS WHICH OPEN WIDE

237. SOLID DOORS WITH GLASS

238. FILTERED LIGHT

239. SMALL PANES

240. HALF-INCH TRIM

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233 FLOOR surface**

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. . . this pattern tells you how to put the surface on the floors, to finish the ground floor slab (215) and floor-ceiling vaults (219). When properly made, the floor surfaces will also help intensify the gradient of intimacy in the building—

INTIMACY GRADIENT (127).

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When we think of floors, we think of wood floors. We hope, if we can afford it, to have a wooden floor. Even in hot countries, where tiles are beautiful, many people want hardwood floors whenever they can afford them. But the wood floor, though it seems so beautiful, does little to solve the fundamental problem of floors. The fact is that a room in which there is a bare wood floor, seems rather barren, forbidding, makes the room sound hollow and unfurnished. To make the wooden floor nice, we put down carpets. But then it is not really a wood floor at all. This confusion makes it clear that the fundamental problem of “the floor” has not been properly stated.