| dc.description.abstract | “Pattern Language” is a term popularized by Christopher Alexander and his coauthors
of the book A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, Sara
Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein in the late 1970Â’s. Though intended to enable every
citizen to design and construct their own home, pattern language never quite caught up
with those in the field of architecture, mostly because of its lack of flexibility. The core
idea of AlexanderÂ’s pattern language was to arm architects, designers, and the common
people with a tool that would empower them to make informed decisions related to
designing places that would comply with their needs and wants.
What architecture needs the most today is the ability to heal and invigorate. I
believe that contemporary architecture lacks such places that enable occupants to
connect and communicate with what is within and what is without. A number of studies
have proven that universally sacred (a majority of which are religious in function) places
are charged with energies that could contribute towards this process. The energies, also
referred to as “patterns,” are the energies unique to a place that make it special and
sacred (not just in the religious context but also in the secular context). This thesis is an
attempt to derive a new pattern language for the creation of sacred “secular” places like
our homes and work places which draw from the pattern lists that have been proposed in
four separate instances by authors including Christopher Alexander and Phillip Tabb.
This new pattern list is aimed at providing architects and designers with a tool for
creating secular places with an element of sacrality without having to taking on a
religious meaning. | en |
