Buy new:
-26% $50.28
FREE delivery Friday, May 17
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$50.28 with 26 percent savings
List Price: $67.99

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
FREE Returns
FREE delivery Friday, May 17
Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 16
Only 5 left in stock (more on the way).
$$50.28 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$50.28
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day easy returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$43.48
FREE Returns
Some light fading to dust jacket, text is unmarked Some light fading to dust jacket, text is unmarked See less
FREE delivery May 23 - 29
Or fastest delivery May 21 - 24
$$50.28 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$50.28
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the authors

Christopher Alexander
+ Follow
Max Jacobson
+ Follow
See all
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series)

by Christopher Alexander (Author), Sara Ishikawa (Author), Murray Silverstein (Author),
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 904 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$50.28","priceAmount":50.28,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"50","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"28","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"WT8rcXUE5VX2etHGPxkC9d6x8%2Fh7LUhhOlFWGqUmGXYBKBqFlXRgUeyqiSuAGZcpMF9fCTDGZSzWbRzRZ1ATcvC%2Fp7fKkkz5vRJ%2BTeJ79Pm7Aa6GiZ1aKZWkT%2FzzywT%2FscXUYfKrP9A%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$43.48","priceAmount":43.48,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"43","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"48","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"WT8rcXUE5VX2etHGPxkC9d6x8%2Fh7LUhhP%2FO72GQrf%2B5hZUx2%2FyzZSyeq9mzs6E%2Bs24HgefV0lV4YoX4eUmnySjzSq2ogW2kPCsX%2FfUTS1UcQwJkjZ7BC%2FJDYlaDWhwcLPff3vRqCmAhv7j5CqMROfTjHX4pZ%2Fpr3RvJ%2BbN85lOqPFywuWa9UAQ%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction.

After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope replace existing ideas and practices entirely." The three books are The Timeless Way of Building, The Oregon Experiment, and this book, A Pattern Language.

At the core of these books is the idea that people should design for themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be radical (it implies a radical transformation of the architectural profession) but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people.

At the core of the books, too, is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a forma system which gives them coherence. This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment.

"Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (How high should a window sill be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution. As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seemly likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years as they are today.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. ISBN-10
    0195019199
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0195019193
  3. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1977
  5. Part of series
    Center for Environmental Structure
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    2 x 5.7 x 7.9 inches
  8. Print length
    1171 pages
  9. See all details
Next page
Amazon First Reads | Editors' picks at exclusive prices

Frequently bought together

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series)
$50.28
Get it as soon as Friday, May 17
Only 5 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Timeless Way of Building
$47.38
Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Oregon Experiment (Center for Environmental Structure Series)
$57.49
Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The second of three books published by the Center for Environmental Structure to provide a "working alternative to our present ideas about architecture, building, and planning," A Pattern Language offers a practical language for building and planning based on natural considerations. The reader is given an overview of some 250 patterns that are the units of this language, each consisting of a design problem, discussion, illustration, and solution. By understanding recurrent design problems in our environment, readers can identify extant patterns in their own design projects and use these patterns to create a language of their own. Extraordinarily thorough, coherent, and accessible, this book has become a bible for homebuilders, contractors, and developers who care about creating healthy, high-level design.

Review


"A wise old owl of a book, one to curl up with in an inglenook on a rainy day. Alexander may be the closest thing home design has to a Zen master."The New York Times


"A classic. A must read. "T. Colbert, University of Houston


"The design student's bible for relativistic environmental design. "Melinda La Garce, Southern Illinois University


"Brilliant, Here's how to design or redesign any space you're living or working infrom metropolis to room. Consider what you want to happen in the space, and then page through this book. Its radically conservative observations will spark, enhance, organize your best ideas, and a wondrous home, workplace, town will result."San Francisco Chronicle


"The most important book in architecture and planning for many decades, a landmark whose clarity and humanity give hope that our private and public spaces can yet be made gracefully habitable."The Next Whole Earth Catalog.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press (January 1, 1977)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 1171 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195019199
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195019193
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.07 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 2 x 5.7 x 7.9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 904 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Previous page
  1. Christopher Alexander

    Christopher Alexander

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    For nearly 50+ years Christopher Alexander has challenged the architectural establishment, sometimes uncomfortably, to pay more attention to the human beings at the center of design. To do so he has combined top-flight scientific training, award-winning architectural research, patient observation and testing throughout his building projects, and a radical but profoundly influential set of ideas that have extended far beyond the realm of architecture.

    In the process Alexander has authored a series of groundbreaking works, including A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction and The Timeless Way of Building. His most recent publication continues that ground-breaking work, the four-volume book set, The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe, incorporates more than 30 years of research, study, teaching and building. It was described by Laura Miller of the New York Times “the kind of book every serious reader should wrestle with once in a while: [a] fat, challenging, grandiose tract that encourages you to take apart the way you think and put it back together again.”

    Alexander was born in Vienna, Austria and raised in Oxford and Chichester, England. He was awarded the top open scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1954, in chemistry and physics, and went on to read mathematics at Cambridge. He took his doctorate in architecture at Harvard (the first Ph.D. in architecture ever awarded at Harvard), and was elected to the society of Fellows at Harvard University in 1961. During the same period he worked at MIT in transportation theory and in computer science, and at Harvard in cognitive science. His pioneering ideas from that time were known to be highly influential in those fields.

    Alexander became Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley in 1963, and taught there continuously for 38 years, becoming Professor Emeritus in 2001. He founded the Center for Environmental Structure in 1967, published hundreds of papers and several dozen books, and built more than 200 buildings around the world.

    Alexander is widely recognized as the father of the pattern language movement in computer science, which has led to important innovations such as Wiki, and new kinds of Object-Oriented Programming. He is the recipient of the first medal for research ever given by the American Institute of Architects, and he has been honoured repeatedly for his buildings in many parts of the world. He was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996 for his contributions to architecture, including his groundbreaking work on how the built environment affects the lives of people.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Max Jacobson

    Max Jacobson

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Max Jacobson (1941 - currently alive and well) was born in Houston, raised in Denver, and received his first degrees in engineering from Boulder and Berkeley. After a couple of years working as an engineer, he returned to Berkeley to study architecture, receiving a PhD in architecture in 1975. During this period he contributed as a co-author to the book "A Pattern Language", 1977.

    A licensed architect in California, he co-founded the Berkeley architectural firm JSWD in 1975 (jswdarch.com), and with his partners wrote "The Good House" (1990), and "Patterns of Home" (2005). His most recent book is "Invitation to Architecture", available in April, 2014, co-written with Shelley Brock.

    Married to Helen Degenhardt, practicing architecture for 35 years with his partners, co-authoring all his publications, learning from his architecture students in community college, he really does nothing on his own!

    See more on the author's page
  3. Sara Ishikawa

    Sara Ishikawa

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
  4. Murray Silverstein

    Murray Silverstein

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
Next page

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
904 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

JLJ
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Most Unique Books I've Ever Encountered
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2015
Verified Purchase
This book is insightful and fun to read. It is also a book that is easy to pick up and read a bit, and put it
down and come back later to pick up where you left off, because it is broken into many very short chapters,
each of which contain a key idea. It's hard to describe this book, because it is so unique in its approach
to telling the reader "how things ought to be" concerning everything from civil planning and city layout,
to floor-plans, to architectural design, to furnishing. The author is very opinionated and does not shy away
from boldly telling you what is wrong with the physical constructs of our urban, suburban, and rural areas,
and how all of that should be properly done in his imagined ideal world.

In some ways, this book is like reading the professional diary of your crazy uncle who is constantly ranting
about what's wrong with the world, and how he thinks it should be set right. However, after reading it for
a while, you get the impression that the author is not really crazy, so much as he is a brilliant eccentric
whose experience and understanding is based on an extremely broad appreciation of how human beings choose
to craft their surroundings, and how we get it right, and how we get it wrong, and why.

Be forewarned... you are not going to agree with everything the author says.
I don't agree, for example, with his outlandish claim that living in a home that is more than four stories
about the ground will eventually make you crazy, because I have loved living on the top floor of my
high-rise condo for the past ten years. I also don't agree with his idea that all kitchen cabinets should
be open shelves with no doors, because the doors just get in the way, hide what is contained therein,
and are essential useless. I must admit, however, that I love reading the author's insights on things
with which I disagree with him, and I have to admit that even on such issues... he's got good points!
Many times I find myself saying "Almost, thou persuadest me."

To be fair, I actually do agree with the author's views regarding the vast majority of his observations,
as they are all just good common-sense approaches, and I must admit they often leave me thinking
"Yes, that's such a beautifully simple truth... why don't we always build it that way, or do it that way?"

This book gives you the benefit of the sage wisdom of an author who is genuinely worth reading
and considering. Even though this book is decades-old, most of its observations are timeless.
It's so hard to classify the book. Is it a Western approach to Feng Shui ... without all the questionable
Eastern Spiritualism, and more of practical philosophy on how to best craft your environment?
Or is it better described as foundational reading for everyone from a City Planner, to an Architect,
to anyone building a house, to anyone one looking to make their home a more pleasant place?

However you choose to classify it... this book is a unique, delightful treatise on how things should
ideally be in order for human beings to be more comfortable, productive, and happy in their surroundings.
142 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Arduous Cynic
5.0 out of 5 stars If you live or work around buildings, read this book
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2012
Verified Purchase
The built environment impacts our lives every day in ways that range from uplifting to frustrating to down right numbing. The authors of this book have developed a language for exploring these impacts. It is insightful and easy to follow. The patterns can be easily identified in the world. The supporting research for each conclusion is simple yet often backed by empirical evidence. The authors have a casual style which helps to bring the complex interconnectedness of culture, technology, nature and space into terms and ideas that can be readily grasped by everyone from civil engineers to school children. And throughout the work, there is a healthy mix of professional certainty and humble "best guesses". Not every pattern is a bullseye, but understanding how patterns overlay buildings and space more than makes up for the places which the authors themselves see as gaps in the argument. As a construction professional for the last twenty years, I recommend this book for anyone who is impacting the built environment. Engineers, Architects, Developers, Planning Commissions, Zoning Commissions, Historic Preservationists, Contractors, Tradesmen, Property Owners, from the smallest to the largest. Read This Book.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
mr. p
5.0 out of 5 stars There's much wisdom in this book
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2024
Verified Purchase
If only its principles had been used to inform our current age instead of the Marxist menagerie of ugliness foisted upon us today, America and the world would be a more beautiful and humane place.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Bat-Radish
4.0 out of 5 stars A note on Christopher Alexander's context
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2017
Verified Purchase
Other reviews correctly address this book's wholesomeness and holistic approach to building good cities and buildings and other structural frames for full, good human lives in a healthy world. Alexander does have a few particular crotchets, however, which have a surprisingly deep effect on the structure of the language he lays out here. Watch for these, and be reminded (as Alexander also reminds you) that patterns are the product of the people who made them, and may disappear or change for different groups.

1. Swimming. He is intensely focused on swimming as a major factor in civic planning and personal recreation. It's a considerable contortion at multiple points.

2. Dancing, especially in the streets. Alexander was a great fan of the Peckham Clinic which focused on (guess what) swimming and dancing as exercise and recreation. It shows.

3. Many of his patterns make an uncomfortably dated misstep when they pertain to women--and another, subtler one when dealing with work concerns and issues of children while not mentioning women directly. Women working outside the home is not a gutiding concern or a base assumption for him; a base assumption IS that women prefer and want to care for children. It's a very important shaping concern for many other parts of life, so this blind spot, characteristic of its time and place and socioeconomic environment, is very significant.

4. Disabled people, other than mildly infirm and otherwise hale elderly people, do not exist. Another blind spot.

Bear these crotchets in mind as you consider these patterns, and how to find even better patterns for a wonderful world.
228 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
MISSCDN
5.0 out of 5 stars Must-Read if You're Building a Home
Reviewed in Canada on September 8, 2023
Verified Purchase
If you want your new home to be comfortable and welcoming (and who doesn't?) - this is a must-read. The focus is really how to make a house .... a home, starting with the big picture. While I don't necessarily agree with a few of the concepts (from a lens 50 years forward) the 'patterns' (or qualities) truly will make a difference. There is a deep understanding of human nature/behaviour and how the minutiae of our surroundings profoundly impacts us. One thing they suggest is to list all 253 of the patterns and then systematically go through the ones within your control (e.g. you typically can't control the build of a town or transportation infrastructure). I did this on a spreadsheet for our new build and, wow, does it make you really think through your build design and what you really want in the end. Yes, it does take quite a while but so worth it when you see how your home can embrace family and friends in such a complete way. I recently read that, 50 years later, this book still sells thousands of copies a year and I can understand why; it is such a human-oriented point of view. Highly recommend this book!
Report
Rui Tinoco Luz
5.0 out of 5 stars excelentehqed cover book binding and content
Reviewed in Spain on October 1, 2023
Verified Purchase
The haedcover book binding is of gigh quality, if feels sturdy in your hands, the ink seems if pigment type and dark enough, the paper is of good quality. The book itself is good as many other reviews have stated before. It covers the author's (there are several, not just Christopher Alexander, although he is the main author) views with his reasoning on why different approaches to building make us happier and bring calm and enjoyment to our lives. The author's use a confidece system where thow asterisks (**) mean they are highly confident in their suggestions, one (*) not highly and no asterisk means they believe that pattern to be true but thy lake empirical evidence. This book was highly influential in different areas such as computer science, where the pattern approach was used as a model to diffeten well known books. It was also an influence to game design books, which were inspired by its structure as shell's "a book of lenses". Nowadays it can be regarded as old, but it is still a classic and a gateway to understand the thinking process of Christopher Alexander.
Report
Yan
5.0 out of 5 stars une référence
Reviewed in France on June 27, 2019
Verified Purchase
une référence pour les architectes soucieux de la vocation de leur profession et une possibilité de compréhension et de rencontre entre le profane et le professionnel.
2 people found this helpful
 Report
Sriraam P
5.0 out of 5 stars It is an amazing book that architects must buy.
Reviewed in India on February 2, 2019
Verified Purchase
It is one of the most phenomenal piece of work. This book suggests an empirical approach to design problems. Much like engineering design, architectural design can be empirical too. This book is a first and fantastic effort at that.

I have referred to this book uncountable number of times while designing. Very very useful.
2 people found this helpful
 Report
MAtt BEamish
5.0 out of 5 stars Full of ideas
Reviewed in Australia on February 20, 2021
Verified Purchase
There are so many ways to read and interpret this book. It’s hugely thick but full of a multitude of ideas for more people-oriented communities and homes. It doesn’t need to be followed dogmatically but can give significant insight into how to build more “homely” homes. Print and image quality are more than good enough (but remember, it’s an older book). I’ve wanted it for years and finely have my own copy.
One person found this helpful
 Report