permaculture

["Felicity Wright" <flickwright@ozemail.com.au>]

Was wondering if anyone else was going to post references to recent
publications by Taunton Press (USA) on the theme of building 'small' and
recognising patterns.

Sarah Susanka published the 'The Not So Big House' in 1997 (or 98) and
followed it with 'Creating the Not So Big House' (2000?). She acknowledges
'A Pattern Language' in the introduction and in her books have a way of
making some of Alexander et al' patterns and ideas real and contemporary
(through gloriously illustrated examples). She has also published a more
humble book called 'Not So Big Solutions' that gives some great problems
solving ideas to domestic flow. Her emphasis is taking care with design and
valuing artisanry - rather than seeking to design buildings that are
ostentatious yet frequently dysfunctional and completely inefficient:
ergonomically and environmentally.

More recently Taunton have published 'Patterns of Home' where two of the
three authors of PoH were co-authors of the original 'A Pattern Language'.
Personally I found this last book included a number of houses that are
grandiose and some are even a bit silly. But nevertheless we found the
discussion about the ten key patterns that they (and their clients) have
identified for domestic dwellings in their architectural practice over the
last twenty five years were really valuable to think about.

Our research into Zone 0 has taken us to many references. The above books
have all been very helpful and well worth perusing at the library.
*Interestingly, the examples of dwellings in the books all work well
environmentally but virtually none have productive gardens.... let alone the
compost heap that Alexander et al suggest.

We have retrofitted one house and have designed another that we are
currently building and we have done much thinking about patterns. It's been
a fascinating journey that virtually started with 'A Pattern Language' - the
orginal reference to which we found in Australia's (wonderful) Owner Builder
Magazine. We have lent out our copy of 'A Pattern Language' to numerous
people and have had fantastic feedback - not least that it demystifies
architecture.

We bought 'The Timeless Way of Building' but never read very closely, but
your posts have encouraged us to have another go.

cheers
flick

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Schinnerer" <john@eco-living.net>
To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2003 7:07 AM
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Recommended reading: The Timeless Way of
Building byChristopher W. Alexander


> Aloha,
>
> > This would be a good companion to the above book:
> >
> > The Timeless Way of Building
> > by Christopher Alexander
>
> I can second that, it's excellent, and much more readable as an entity
> than "A Pattern Language."
>
> "A Pattern Language" is often recommended as a primary built environment
> design reference, but "Timeless Way of Building" is actually the primary
> work and "Pattern Language" is a sort of follow-on "companion" volume
> giving a big batch of examples of what is developed in "Timeless Way".  I
> have both and that's how they work for me.
>
> John S.
>
>
> John Schinnerer, MA
> -------------------------
> - Eco-Living -
> Cultural & Ecological Designing
> People - Place - Learning - Integration
> john@eco-living.net
> http://eco-living.net
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