Specifically, these patterns aim to capture:
1. The goals we should keep in mind when designing buildings and other inhabited environments.
2. The fundamental problems we face in trying to achieve these goals.
3. Proven solutions and new ideas for how to address these problems and achieve these goals.
Successful design is rooted in a deep understanding of our goals and from observing and devising patterns for achieving those goals. While this understanding is often intuitive in nature, patterns provide a way to make some of that understanding explicit. In so doing, we create a
"language" that allows us to better think about, share and discuss these patterns.
The notion of pattern languages originated from Christopher Alexander and the book he co-authored in 1977, A Pattern Language. That book captured approximately 250 patterns that the authors observed in traditional architecture.
Architypes.net takes the notion of a pattern language a step further by creating a
collaborative repository for architectural patterns. Here, anyone can contribute ideas and observations, which are reviewed and built upon by others from around the world. The result is that rather than being relatively static, the pattern language is continuously refined and evolves organically.
It is important to recognize that patterns are not the be-all and end-all of successful architectural design. Just as knowledge of notes and scales gives a composor or songwriter a language to work with, think of patterns as the designer or architect's notes. In music, the real beauty comes from how the notes are combined. Likewise in architecture, the real beauty comes from how skillfully the right patterns and ideas are combined. When done well, the result is far more than just the sum of the patterns.
