Top:Society and Culture:Intentional Communities:Seven Generations Farm:Our Pattern Language:Format

This pattern language is partially based (in both content and format) upon A Pattern Language by Alexcander, et al and The Timeless Way of Building by Alexander. However, it is our pattern language that we have written in order assist us in building our community.

A pattern language is a method for planning and building something using top-down design and bottom-up execution. You describe the problems and the solutions beginning with a large scale and gradually break the problems and solutions down into smaller and smaller pieces, or patterns. Each pattern may used as part of multiple larger patterns. Larger patterns may use multiple smaller patterns. Not all patterns are necessarily used.

Each pattern has a descriptive name, as well as the pattern's size. The level helps the reader rapidly determine whether the pattern is large or small. A large pattern includes smaller patterns, which in turn include still smaller patters, and so on.

As most patterns include more than one smaller pattern, a very large pattern could ultimately include dozens of other patterns. The first pattern, Beyond, potentially includes all of the other patterns in the language, making it the largest pattern we use. Small patterns might only include a handful of other still-smaller patterns, with the very smallest patterns not including any other patterns at all. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the larger the pattern, the smaller the number representing the size of the pattern. The largest pattern size is zero (the Beyond pattern), while the smallest pattern size is yet to be determined. It may be helpful to think of pattern sizes as levels in a hierarchy (think of a corporate table of organization).

The format for this pattern language is as follows:

(Pattern size) Pattern name

A picture illustrating the pattern

Followed by a sentence or two describing how the pattern fits into larger patterns, and which patterns those are.

Followed by a sentence or two stating the problem this pattern seeks to solve.

Followed by a quantity of text describing the details of both the problem and the solution proposed by the pattern. This is the longest section of the pattern.

Followed by a sentence or two summarizing the solution.

A diagram showing the solution, with labels to indicate it main components.

Followed by a sentence or two describing how smaller patterns fit into this pattern, and which patterns those are.

Created July 27, 1997.
Updated March 17, 2003 at 14:37.

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