Christopher alexander - A pattern language

Of course, some deep water is essential for swimming; but the edge of the deep water must not be directly accessible. Instead, the edge around the deep end needs to be protected by a wall or a fence; and islands can be built there, for people to swim to, and to dive from.

There fore:

In every neighborhood, provide some still water—a pond, a pool—for swimming. Keep the pool open to the public at all times, but make the entrance to the pool only from the shallow side of the pool, and make the pool deepen gradually, starting from one or two inches deep.

	gradual edge
T

If possible, arrange the pool as part of a system of natural running water, so that it purifies itself, and does not have to be chlorinated— pools and streams(64). Make sure the pool has southern exposure —south facing outdoors(105). If possible, embellish the edge of the pool with a small outdoor room or trellis, where people can sit and watch— public outdoor room(69) , TRELLISED WALK (I 74) , SITTING WALL(243) . . . .

72 LOCAL SPORTS*

. . . all the areas where people live and work—especially the work communities (41) and the areas looked after by the preventive programs of the health center (47)—need to be completed by provisions for sports and exercise. This pattern defines the nature and distribution of this exercise.

**•

In agricultural society, people use their bodies every day in many different ways. In urban society, most people use their minds, but not their bodies; or they use their bodies only in a routine way. This is devastating. There is ample empirical evidence that physical health depends on daily physical activity.

Perhaps the most striking evidence for the unbalance in our way of life comes from a comparison of the death rates between groups that have been able to live lives that include daily physical activity with those that have not. For example, in the age group 60 to 64, I per cent of the men in the heavy exercise category died during the follow-up year, whereas 5 per cent of those in the no-exercise group died. (See P. B. Johnson et al., Physical Education , A Problem Solving Aff roach to Health and Fitness y University of Toledo, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966.)

There are very few modern societies where these facts are taken seriously. China and Cuba come to mind. In these societies, people work both with their hands and with their minds. Workdays embrace both kinds of skills. Doctors are as apt to be building houses as practicing medicine; and builders are often sitting in administrative sessions.

In any society which has reached this stage, the gross physical atrophy of human bodies will not occur. But in any society which has not learned this wisdom, it is necessary, as a kind of interim solution, to scatter opportunities for physical activity, so that they are close at hand, indeed next door, to every house and place of work. Small fields, swimming pools, gyms, game courts, must be as frequent as corner groceries and restaurants. Ideally,

72 LOCAL SPORTS
age

You will probably live longer if you exercise regularly. (Graph adapted from E. G. Hammond,

"Some Preliminary Findings on Physical Complaints from a Prospective Study of / ,064,004 Men and Women,’’ American journal of Public Health,

54:11, 1964).

local sports would form a natural part of every neighborhood and work community. We imagine these facilities as nonprofit centers, supported by the people who use them, perhaps coordinated with a program of health prevention like the swimming and dancing at the Pioneer Health Center in Peckham—see health center (47)*

Sports also have a special life of their own, which cannot be duplicated. Throwing the ball around, shouting out, winning a crushing victory, losing a long drawn out match, getting a wild ball back on the net somehow, anyhow—these arc moments that cannot be captured by a job of work. They are entirely different; perhaps they cater especially to what E. Hart calls the psycho-emotional component of muscular activity. (“The Need for Physical Activity,” in S. Maltz, ed., Health Readings , Wm. Brown Book Company, Iowa, 1968, p. 240.) In any case, it is a kind of vitality that cannot be replaced.

There fore:

THE POETRY OF THE LANGUAGE

Finally, a note of caution. This language, like English, can be a medium for prose, or a medium for poetry. The difference between prose and poetry is not that different languages are used, but that the same language is used, differently. In an ordinary English sentence, each word has one meaning, and the sentence too, has one simple meaning. In a poem, the meaning is far more dense. Each word carries several meanings 3 and the sentence as a whole carries an enormous density of interlocking meanings, which together illuminate the whole.

The same is true for pattern languages. It is possible to make buildings by stringing together patterns, in a rather loose way. A building made like this, is an assembly of patterns. It is not dense. It is not profound. But it is also possible to put patterns together in such a way that many many patterns overlap in the same physical space: the building is very dense; it has many meanings captured in a small space; and through this density, it becomes profound.

In a poem, this kind of density, creates illumination, by making identities between words, and meanings, whose identity we have not understood before. In “O Rose thou art sick,” the rose is identified with many

xli

scattered locations

Treat the sports places as a special class of recognizable simple buildings, which are open, easy to get into, with changing rooms and showers—building complex (95), bathing room (144); combine them with community swimming pools, where they exist —still water (71) ; keep them open to people passing—building THOROUGHFARE (iOl), OPENINC TO THE STREET ( I 6 5) , and provide places where people can stop and watch—seat spots (241), SITTING WALL (243) . . . .

366

73 ADVENTURE PLAYGROUND