METHOD

Pattern Language

Christopher Alexander - A Pattern Language

Wiki Contributor History

June 5, 2021	Jaskiran Gakhal, Participedia Team
May 9, 2019	Jaskiran Gakhal, Participedia Team
June 14, 2018	Lucy J Parry, Participedia Team
February 22, 2018	Scott Fletcher Bowlsby
April 30, 2016	Scott Fletcher Bowlsby

Method Data

Face-to-Face, Online, or Both?: Face-to-Face

General Type of Method: Collaborative approaches; Planning

Links: Group Works - What we mean by "pattern"; A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander

Open to All or Limited to Some?: Open to All

Facilitation: No

Decision Methods: Not Applicable

Scope of Implementation: Neighbourhood; City/Town

Level of Polarization This Method Can Handle: Moderate polarization

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This method involves groups of participants defining the key concepts about an issue and then organizing them into a shared language recognizable to the whole population, from lay person to politician to architect.

Problems and Purpose

This method, while originally designed for architectural planning, has been augmented to the democratic engagement process.

Origins and Development

How it Works

First used by British architect, Christopher Alexander, the general structure of the process is as follows:

"Usually the author of a pattern language or collection chooses a generic structure for all the patterns it contains, breaking each into generic sections like context, problem statement, solution etc.

When design is done by a team, pattern names will form a vocabulary they can share. This makes it necessary for pattern names to be easy to remember and highly descriptive. Some examples from Alexander's works are WINDOW PLACE (helps define where windows should go in a room) and A PLACE TO WAIT (helps define the characteristics of bus stops and hospital waiting rooms, for example)." [1]