In a World Where Buildings are Alive Architects are More Like Gardeners
LIVINGFUTURE
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ARIEL STEUERTOM KUBALA
THE KUBALA WASHATKO ARCHITECTSC E D A R B U R G , W I S C O N S I N
1. See how pattern writing can bring a new kind of accuracy to your work.
2. See how the process of Pattern Writing can be Creative in its own right.
3. Consider a New Definition of Beauty and Inspiration.
4. Recognize how Pattern Writing can bring Beauty and Inspiration into a central role in the making of buildings.
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Targets of Understanding1
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Chapter One: On Undividedness and Beauty
Chapter Two: Can a Building be Alive enough to Smile?
Chapter Three: Reduced to Tears
Chapter Four: The Dance that is a Pattern
Chapter Five: The Beauty of Becoming
Chapter Six: Patterns’ Unfolding Potential
Chapter Seven: To Beautify the Gaze
Thoughts & Questions
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1 On Undividedness and Beauty
“It is shown that both in relativity theory and quantum theory, notions implying the undivided wholeness of the universe would provide a much more orderly way of considering the general nature of reality.”
David Joseph Bohm
We presume that the world is undivided,
whole and meaningful, that a Unity of Creation Exists and it is Beautiful.
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“Wholeness is grounded in that which is fundamentally conducive to life.”
Stuart Cowan
Minnesota Tall Grass Prairie
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“Wholeness is grounded in that which is fundamentally conducive to life.”
Stuart Cowan
1 Undivided =
Whole =
Healthy =
Beautiful =
Alive
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2 Can a Building be Alive enough to Smile?
“People are not perfect (except when they smile).”
Author Unknown
“All the statistics in the world can’t measure the warmth of a smile.”
Chris Hart
Can a Building be Alive?
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2 First things first…
What is it that makes a Building Alive?
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2 If so…
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How can I recognize one?
If a building can be alive…
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2 As architects, it eventually comes to this…
How can I make one?
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What’s stopping me?
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3 Reduced to Tears
“Our times are driven by the inestimable energies of the mechanical mind…”
John O’Donohue
Reductionism’s Henchmen1
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3The theory that every complex phenomenon, especially in biology or psychology, can be explained by analyzing the simplest, most basic physical mechanisms that are in operation during the phenomenon.
STYLISTIC THINKING MECHANISTIC THINKING“It deals in pure and simple shapes, often at the expense of problem solving.”
Robert A.M. Stern
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Surrounded
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“the first effect of the lines is the only effect they will ever have, no amount of pondering will make them glow”
Robert C. Morgan
Beauty vs. Glamour
April 2014
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“There is an unseemly coarseness to our times which robs the grace from our textures of language, feeling and presence.”
John O’Donohue
Surrounded Professionally
May 2014
Surrounded by Reductionism1
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What was a fully alive ecosystem becomes… Leveled parcels of zoned uses connected to customers and services by a vehicle conveyance system.
Stylistic Thinking1
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concepts are usually fashionably avant-garde & architect-centric
A Style driven process star ts with a concept
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Functions are made to fit the concept
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virtually ignoring the complex richness of Culture & Place
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1. forces designers to stop listening.
2. is not easily shared.
3. must over-simplify complexity.
4. is deaf to ecological needs.
5. lacks long term value.
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Stylistic Thinking
Mechanistic Thinking
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Descartes held that non-human animals could be reductively explained as automata.
De homine, 1662
The digesting Duck of Vaucanson • 1738
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Mechanistically driven process
‘Rooms’ are often considered the real parts of a building
3Programmed Space
Programmed Space
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Programmed SpaceProgrammed Space
Programmed Space
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Programmed Space
Programmed Space
Programmed Space
Programmed Space
Programmed Space
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Programmed Space
Programmed Space
Circulation
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reduced to the measurement of its Energy Utilization Intensity
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“High Performance” buildings are often conceived as energy machines
1. fragments a larger continuity.
2. discounts Feeling & Emotions.
3. marginalizes Art & Beauty by definition.
4. is often imposed on Nature.
5. artificially separates Form from Function.
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Mechanistic Thinking
So, what way of thinking has a better chance at producing a building
that is alive?
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The Dance that is a Pattern
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“…when we find ourselves in a place of great beauty, clarity, recognition and excitement awaken in us. ”
John O’Donohue
Eddy1
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What isn’t a Pattern
A Pattern is a recognizable dance between human activity and the built and/or natural
environment.
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Eddy as PART1
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Thinking about how the world is organized.
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Eddy as a differentiation of the whole
Slater’s Hammer: a dense nesting of patterns1
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What isn’t a Pattern
A Pattern is whole, in that it excludes nothing and is
connected to everything.
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What isn’t a Pattern
A Pattern can be archetypal, crossing cultures and history.
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What isn’t a Pattern
When a building is alive, Patterns occur at all levels of scale, nested in a continuous,
unbroken field.
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What isn’t a Pattern
Do Patterns represent the Authentic Parts of the
Built and Natural World?
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2 ways of seeing the PARTS of the world
AssemblyDifferentiation
Apply a TheoryBegin with the Whole
Spectator ConsciousnessConscious Participation
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Discovering Patterns
1. Observe everything, without abstraction.
2. Hold what you observe in your mind.
3. Feel where discontinuities and features occur.
4. Name the discontinuities and features.
5. Discover the reasons for their appearance.
6. Propose a solution that resolves these forces.
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Center to Area Connection 1. The Land Ethic 2. Thread to a Pre-Settlement Ecology 3. Portals to the Legacy 4. Home Base 5. Local Materials, Ways and Means 6. Window to the Sun 7. Rain is Treasure 8. Wall of Noise 9. Fresh Air Naturally 10. No Such Thing as Waste
31. Working Home 32. Personal Home-Base 33. The Exec’s Parlor 34. Intern Niches 35. Kitchen in the Middle 36. Copy Cell Construction Process 37. Small Machines 38. Strike While Dormant 39. A Healthy Fear of Landfills 40. Scrap Bank 41. Posting a Scrounge List Details 42. Rough Trim Daily Work 43. Working at Low Power 44. Connected Through Record Keeping 45. From Tree to Stove
Building to Land Connection 11. Park and Hide 12. Electric Roof 13. Positive Outdoor Space 14. Building Cluster 15. Forward Garden 16. Welcome Garden 17. Sheltered Edges
18. Gathering Under a Tree 19. Seed Gathering Hall 20. Dialogue House 21. Inside-Out House 22. Leopold Memorial Trailhead Building Internal 23. Comfort Gradient 24. Acoustic Variation 25. Don’t Turn on that Light! 26. Never too Far from Outdoors 27. Mudroom In-Between 28. Leopold Reading Room 29. Archival Core 30. Deep in Dialogue
Organized by scale, not importance
Aldo Leopold Legacy Center1
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Center to Area Connection 1. The Land Ethic 2. Thread to a Pre-Settlement Ecology 3. Portals to the Legacy 4. Home Base 5. Local Materials, Ways and Means 6. Window to the Sun 7. Rain is Treasure 8. Wall of Noise 9. Fresh Air Naturally 10. No Such Thing as Waste
31. Working Home 32. Personal Home-Base 33. The Exec’s Parlor 34. Intern Niches 35. Kitchen in the Middle 36. Copy Cell Construction Process 37. Small Machines 38. Strike While Dormant 39. A Healthy Fear of Landfills 40. Scrap Bank 41. Posting a Scrounge List Details 42. Rough Trim Daily Work 43. Working at Low Power 44. Connected Through Record Keeping 45. From Tree to Stove
Building to Land Connection 11. Park and Hide 12. Electric Roof 13. Positive Outdoor Space 14. Building Cluster 15. Forward Garden 16. Welcome Garden 17. Sheltered Edges
18. Gathering Under a Tree 19. Seed Gathering Hall 20. Dialogue House 21. Inside-Out House 22. Leopold Memorial Trailhead Building Internal 23. Comfort Gradient 24. Acoustic Variation 25. Don’t Turn on that Light! 26. Never too Far from Outdoors 27. Mudroom In-Between 28. Leopold Reading Room 29. Archival Core 30. Deep in Dialogue
Sustainability issues are solved along with all other issues
Aldo Leopold Legacy Center
16. Gathering Together 17. Staff Hearth 18. Privacy Gradient 19. Education Hall 20. Gradient of Classroom Sizes 21. Musical Suite 22. Coming of Age 23. Information is Like Food 24. Sounds Like a Green Room 25. Kitchen Party 26. Home Away from Homelessness 27. Small Child Care 28. Written Word 29. Archive
1. National Treasure 2. Bike, Bus & Walk 3. Parking Pockets 4. Shuttle System 5. Auto Underground 6. The Dance of Delivery 7. Open Green 8. Building Shape 9. New Front Door 10. Family of Entrances 11. Universal Access 12. Trust in God, but Tie your Camel 13. Conference Capable 14. Family of Venues 15. The Community Crossing
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16. Gathering Together 17. Staff Hearth 18. Privacy Gradient 19. Education Hall 20. Gradient of Classroom Sizes 21. Musical Suite 22. Coming of Age 23. Information is Like Food 24. Sounds Like a Green Room 25. Kitchen Party 26. Home Away from Homelessness 27. Small Child Care 28. Written Word 29. Archive
1. National Treasure 2. Bike, Bus & Walk 3. Parking Pockets 4. Shuttle System 5. Auto Underground 6. The Dance of Delivery 7. Open Green 8. Building Shape
10. Family of Entrances 11. Universal Access 12. Trust in God, but Tie your Camel 13. Conference Capable 14. Family of Venues
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9. New Front Door
15. The Community Crossing
9New Front Door
The bottleneck at the current front door and lobby cannot be repaired without either reducing the number of people utilizing that entrance, or by greatly increasing the size of the lobby, thereby altering forever its original character and presence.
Problem Statement
Solution Statement Create a new prime door and lobby sized appropriately to handle anticipated population levels. Give the door clear markings as to its function and importance. Locate the new front door within visual proximity of the historic entrance.
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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5The Community Crossing
With the contemplated addition of 15-20,000 sf of new facilities, it will be a challenge to insure that the campus feels like a single entity with various parts, not the other way around.
Problem Statement
Solution Statement
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
Establish a place where all paths cross. Make this place adjacent to the new front door. Give it a distinctive character, a strong place on everyone’s cognitive map.
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Patterns as Poetry. The Creative Power of
Metaphor.
The hearer participates! Meaning is not imposed or
predetermined.
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“…a process must occur for the metaphor to work effectively…”
John Hatcher
tenor vehicle
“Landscape Visits the Writer”
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A pattern title for an in-progress design of a Writers’ Retreat Center in Wisconsin.
Offered by the team’s Landscape Architect: Nancy Aten
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The Beauty of Becoming“Architects are much too concerned with the design of the world, and not yet concerned enough with the generative processes that create the world.”
Christopher Alexander
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Nature models a living process: Morphogenisis
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from the Greek morphê: shape and genesis: creation, literally, beginning of the shape
The process controls the organized spatial distribution of cells during the embryonic development of an organism.
even our understanding of this is evolving
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Gene expression vs. Genetic blueprintintra-genome complexity gene-centric view
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Patterns’ Unfolding Potential“…the beautiful offers us an invitation to order, coherence and unity.”
John O’Donohue
1. Discover ALL the forces at play.
2. Identify recurring conflicts, diagnosis.
3. Write patterns, gain consensus.
4. Produce pattern resolution map.
5. Obtain feedback.
6. Unfold Permutations.
7. Narrow the Choices.
8. Choose a Direction.
It is roughly similar for every one of our projects
Pattern Writing is a par t of our overall design process 1
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Order is not only helpful, its crucial, promoting smooth unfolding
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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1. National Treasure 2. Bike, Bus & Walk 3. Parking Pockets 4. Shuttle System 5. Auto Underground 6. The Dance of Delivery 7. Open Green 8. Building Shape 9. New Front Door 10. Family of Entrances 11. Universal Access 12. Trust in God, but Tie your Camel 13. Conference Capable 14. Family of Venues 15. The Community Crossing
16. Gathering Together 17. Staff Hearth 18. Privacy Gradient 19. Education Hall 20. Gradient of Classroom Sizes 21. Musical Suite 22. Coming of Age 23. Information is Like Food 24. Sounds Like a Green Room 25. Kitchen Party 26. Home Away from Homelessness 27. Small Child Care 28. Written Word 29. Archive
Organized by scale, not importance
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Unfolding… Site Constraints & Conditions
Setbacks
Protected Views
Sacred Ground
Untouchability Gradient
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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Unfolding… Probable Locations for the proposed Addition
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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Geometry meets Pattern
9. New Front Door
Create a new prime door and lobby sized
appropriately to handle anticipated
population levels. Give the door clear markings as to its
function and importance. Locate the new front door
within visual proximity of the
historic entrance.
Unfolding…
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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60˚
New Auditorium
Geometry meets PatternUnfolding…
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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HS
SELECT.
dn
1R
up 4R
up 2R
up 1R
FIREPLACE
UP
UPUP
UP UP
DN
BA
LCO
NY
TERRACE
dow
n
dow
n
17R
do
wn
do
wn
B3
Open Office
B1
Classroom
B4
Corridor
A16
West Living RoomA17
Loggia
A18
Corridor A7
Conference
B5
Corridor
D35
Coats
D36
Vestibule
Elevator 1ThyssenKruppSeville 35Oildraulic
D33
Upper Crossing South
Stair 1
D31
Link
D34
Balcony
Stair 3
dn
1R
up 1R
up 4R
ExistingSkylightExistingSkylight
Line Of Roof
ExistingSkylightExistingSkylight
Dn
Stair 2
up 2R
up 1R
A8
Open Office
A9
Office
A10
Office
A11
Office
A12
Office
B2
Toilet
3’-5”
D32
Upper CrossingNorth
1’-9”
1’-10”
2’-0”
2’-1”
2’-1”
2’-1”
1’-9”
Upper Level Plan
New Front Door
Historic Entrance
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
Geometry meets PatternUnfolding…1
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D15.1
Plenum
D12.1
Storage
D13.1
Storage
D14.1
Storage
B8
Corridor
ST
Cart
File
File
File
Fla
t
File
(5) New Adjustable
Shelves For Artifacts
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15
17 18 19
21 22 23
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20
New
up
New Ramp
New
Ram
p
HS
SELECT.
HC
C
D
HC
D
D
C
HC
R/F
R/F
up 4
R@
6”
ram
pu
p
up
up
do
wn
up
up17R
up
up18R
B14B13
B11
Archives
B9
MHNS Office
B18
RE Storage
B6.1
Toilet
B16.1
RE Storage
B15.1
RE Storage
B19
B Mech.
B6
Classroom
B10
Classroom
B12
MHNS Storage
B15
Classroom B17
Electrical
B16
Classroom
C5
Classroom
C7
Classroom
C9
Classroom
C11
Classroom
C12
West Court Yard
D2
MHNS Storage
East Court Yard
D1
RE Storage
D4
Mech. North
D21
Kitchen
D11
Ramp
D10
Custodial
D26
Table/ChairStorage
D12
Classroom
D13
Classroom
D14
Classroom
D15
Mech. South
D17
Women
Stair 1
D25
Cry Room
D27
MusicStorage
D30
Music Rehearsal
D29
Music OfficeD28
Music Office
D23
Lower Crossing South
D16
Men
D5
Education Hall
B6.3
Storage
B10.1
RE Storage
D6
Lower Crossing North
D24
Auditorium
B20
Corridor
up
D8
Women
D9
Men
D22
Library
Unexcavated
UP
A Mech. 1A Mech. 2
Unexcavated
Existing RaisedPlanter
ELEC. HD
Elec.
do
wn
C13
Corridor
D6.1
Corridor
B20.1
Kit
chen
ette
Elev 1
D7
Coats
D19
Elev.Equip.
D18
AV/ITRoom
D20
Pantry
D3
Ramp
Stair 2
Stair 4
Stair 3
Rolling
Cart
Lower Level Plan
Geometry meets PatternUnfolding…
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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Completed Project
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First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
Completed Project1
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First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
Completed Project1
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Completed Project
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Completed Project
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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Completed Project
First Unitarian Society Meeting House Addition
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To Beautify the Gaze
“Ultimately beauty is a profound illumination of presence, a stirring of the invisible in visible form and in order to receive this, we need to cultivate a new style of approaching the world.”
John O’Donohue
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Writing Patterns requires a new kind of education, one
steeped in the ability to recognize wholeness when it
occurs.
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“Both the gaze that sees and the object that is seen construct themselves simultaneously in the one act of vision.”
John O’Donohue
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“You are asked to record your own inner feeling, your own inner wholeness - and this is used then as the measure of the degree of life in some system you are observing.”
Christopher Alexander
from ‘The Nature of Order’
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8 Thoughts & Questions
“What Beauty is can never be finally said.”
John O’Donohue
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Pattern Writing is a way forward. The making of Living Buildings demands
a Design Process that is Alive.
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1. allows the subtlest kinds of information to migrate, untrammeled, into the design/construction process.
2. organizes design intent.
3. builds consensus amongst design team, client group and stake holders.
4. educates client who becomes a quality design critic.
5. stimulates visualization.
Pattern Writing
Within it’s outlook are ways to resolve many of the significant problems of our time.
Operates in the everyday practical realm of doing and making.
Its general approach is one of affirming life. Healing the built environment while healing oneself.
Its conclusions are being drawn from a wide diversity of sources. It is general enough for artistic and scientific problems to merge.
Relies on scientific rigor and a thirst for objective knowledge.
Relies on PROCESS. This Architecture unfolds through the operation of a fundamental process similar to natural organic growth and maintenance dynamics.
Because of its focus on a shareable language, the discussion of matters normally considered ‘subjective’ becomes possible. Everyone can contribute.
The maturation of one’s spiritual self is both a requirement and a benefit of Living-Based Building. It offers a clear way of seeing the world.
Requires acquiring the fundamental skill of unveiled, objective choosing. A skill basic to learning anything well.
Healthy:
Pragmatic:
Optimistic:
Robust:
Disciplined:
Dynamic:
Cooperative:
Fulfilling:
Educational:
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…and Further Hints at a “World Where Buildings are Alive…”
LIVINGFUTURET H A N K Y O U [email protected]