Christopher alexander - A pattern language

202

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Use this pattern as it is for low densities, up to about 15 houses per acre 5 at higher densities, modify the cluster with the additional structure given by row houses (38) or housing hill (39). Always provide common land between the houses— common land (67) and a shared common workshop—home workshop (157). Arrange paths clearly—circulation realms (98)—and lay these paths out in such a way that they create busier paths and backwaters, even within the cluster—degrees of publicness (36); keep parking in small parking lots (103), and make the houses in the cluster suit the households which will live there—the family (75), house for a small family (76), HOUSE for a couple (77), house for one PERSON (78), YOUR OWN HOME (79). • . .

38 ROW HOUSES*

204

. . . in certain parts of a community, the detached homes and gardens of a house cluster (37) will not work, because they are not dense enough to generate the denser parts of density rings (29) and degrees of publicness (36). To help create these larger patterns, it is necessary to build row houses instead.

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Above 1 5 houses per acre, it is almost impossible to make houses freestanding without destroying the open space around them; the open space which is left gets reduced to nothing more than shallow rings around the houses. And apartments do not solve the problem of higher densities; they keep people off the ground and they have no private gardens.

Row houses solve these problems. But row houses, in their conventional form, have problems of their own. Conventional row houses all conform, approximately, to the following diagram. The houses have a short frontage and a long depth, and share the party wall along their long side.

Typical raw house pattern.

Because of the long party walls, many of the rooms are poorly lit. The houses lack privacy—there is nowhere in th'e houses or their yards that is very far from a party wall. The small yards are made even worse by the fact that they are at the short ends of the house, so that only a small part of the indoor space can be

205

SUMMARY OF THE LANGUAGE

93. FOOD STANDS

94. SLEEPING IN PUBLIC

This completes the global patterns which define a town or a community. We now start that part of the language which gives shape to groups of buildings , and individual buildings , on the land yin three dimensions. These are the patterns which can be “designed” or “built”—the patterns which define the individual buildings and the space between buildings; where we are dealing for the first time with patterns that are under the control of individuals or small groups of individuals , who are able to build the patterns all at once.

The first group of patterns helps to lay out the overall arrangement of a group of buildings: the height and number of these buildings, the entrances to the site, main parking areas, and lines of movement through the complex;

95. BUILDING COMPLEX

96. NUMBER OF STORIES

97. SHIELDED PARKING

98. CIRCULATION REALMS

99. MAIN BUILDING

100. PEDESTRIAN STREET

101. BUILDING THOROUGHFARE

102. FAMILY OF ENTRANCES

103. SMALL PARKING LOTS

XXV

adjacent to the garden. And there is almost no scope for individual variation in the houses, with the result that terraces of row houses are often rather sterile.

These four problems of row houses can easily be solved by making the houses long and thin, along the paths, like cottages. In this case, there is plenty of room for subtle variations from house to house—each plan can be quite different; and it is easy to arrange the plan to let the light in.

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Houses long and thin along the falh.

This kind of house has 30 per cent of its perimeter fixed and 70 per cent free for individual variations. A house in a conventional terrace of row houses has 70 per cent of its perimeter fixed and only 30 per cent open to individual variations. So the house can take on a variety of shapes, with a guarantee of a reasonable amount of privacy for its garden and for most of the house, an increase in the amount of light into the house, and an increase in the amount of indoor space that can be next to outdoor areas.

These advantages of the long thin row house are so obvious, it is natural to wonder why they aren’t used more often. The reason is, of course, that roads do not permit it. So long as houses front directly onto roads, i.t is imperative that they have

38 ROW HOUSES

the shortest frontage possible, so as to save the cost of roads and services—the cost of roads is a large part of any housing budget. But in the pattern we propose, we have been able to avoid this difficulty altogether, by making the houses front only onto paths —which don’t cost much—and it is then these paths which connect to the roads, at right angles, in the way prescribed by

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NETWORK OF PATHS AND CARS (52).

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Roads away from houses.

Finally, a word on density. As we see from the sketch below, it is possible to build a two-story house of 1200 square feet on an area 30 x 20, using a total area (path, house, garden) of about 1300 square feet, and it is even possible to manage with an absolute minimum of 1000 square feet.

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1300 square feet of land -per house.

It is therefore possible to build row houses at a density of 30 per net acre. Without parking, or with less parking, this figure could conceivably be even higher.

Therefore:

TOWNS

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Make the individual houses and cottages as long and thin along the paths as possible—long thin house (109)} vary the houses according to the different household types—the family (75), HOUSE FOR A SMALL FAMILY (76), HOUSE FOR A COUPLE (77), house for one person (78); build roads across the paths, at right angles to them—parallel roads (23), network of paths and cars (52), with small parking lots off the roads—small parking lots (103). In other respects build row houses in clusters—house cluster (37), building complex (95). . . .