**Pattern Name:** Pattern Language
**Introduction:** Christopher Alexander defined the concept and created a catalogue of 253 patterns for the built environment.
> See An online version of A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander 
The concept and method has heavily influenced the world of computer programming and is being extended to all sorts of useful knowledge sharing. We are extending it to practical human flourishing in neighborhoods.
**Illustration:** Below is a diagram taken from A Pattern Language illustrating the patterns that support Pattern 118. Roof Gardens and the other patterns that are supported by pattern 118. It is the whole network of inter-supporting relationships that make a collection of patterns a language. It is much more than a list of patterns.
**CONTEXT:**
Over time, domains of human experience reveal useful knowledge (about outcomes, actions, designs, tools, methods, theories, and concepts). Domains of human interest become more manageable when our accumulated understanding (wisdom) is organized as a network diagram (directed graph) where the nodes are chunks of knowledge usefully formatted (the format is the pattern) and then linked to represent relationships among that knowledge that have been shown to be useful.
A Pattern Language is a set of patterns that can be combined very flexibly thus creating unique systems.
A pattern language is a method of describing good design practices or patterns of useful organization within a field of expertise. The term was coined by architect Christopher Alexander and popularized by his 1977 book A Pattern Language - wikipedia
**PROBLEM:** **Learning from trial and error is too slow and too uncertain for the increasing levels of complexity and for the existential threats to humanity we are experiencing.**
**THEREFORE (SOLUTION):** **We must work together to codify practical domain specific knowledge in interesting, understandable, actionable, vernacular language (media) and share this knowledge with everyone. We must do so in ways that the quality of the knowledge increases with experience.**
See Tips for Writing Pattern Languages by Ward Cunningham, 1994.
See Takashi Iba the advocate for Pattern Language 3.0, Pattern Languages for Social Change.
**Actions:**
- Write patterns in the FedWiki and share.
- Support pattern uses to improve on the patterns and to add patterns in their own FedWiki sites.
**Consequences:**
Accelerated improvement in local systems.
**Known Uses:**
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA.
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Below is are notes on Christopher Alexander, the original advocate for the development and use of Pattern Languages.
YOUTUBE VZHb9-Y9r_E Christopher Alexander on the personal origin of his Pattern Language.
Here is a link to Christopher Alexander's 15 Properties that are transformations of wholeness. These are about the structural characteristics of reality that resonate with humans which are also structured by reality. Brain
Here is a navigable version of A Pattern Language. Brain
Some of us are experiementing with a Federated Wiki version of Bohmian Dialogue and our first topic of focus is Christopher Alexander's "Structure Preserving Transformations", "Unfolding of Wholeness" or "Non-destructive Development". Non-Distructive Development
I wonder what we (Ward's friends) could say about the 15 Properties or transformations of wholness, as they relate to our current work together.
Robert created the content below here:
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A pattern language is a method of describing good design practices or patterns of useful organization within a field of expertise. The term was coined by architect Christopher Alexander and popularized by his 1977 book A Pattern Language - wikipedia
A pattern language can also be an attempt to express the deeper **wisdom of what brings aliveness** within a particular field of human endeavor, through a **set of interconnected patterns**. Aliveness is one placeholder term for "the quality that has no name": a sense of wholeness, spirit, or grace, that while of varying form, is precise and empirically verifiable. Some advocates of this design approach claim that ordinary people can use it to successfully solve very large, complex design problems...
See Also
Christopher Alexander’s original pattern language about community and architectural design (Site seems to be down.)
Informal Pattern Language a guide to Improvitecture Web .
According to Alexander "each pattern is a morphological law which establishes a set of relationships in space".
This process should link people’s microscopic needs and narratives to complex environmental and urban concerns.
Considering the design approach expressed in patterns and pattern languages, we recognize that patterns and their languages can enable or disable patterns at higher or lower system levels.
Speaking from systems science, we recognize that working with patterns and pattern languages as a design approach can absorb higher and lower systems levels' variety. Taking a recursive perspective is already a pattern on its own. There is no vaild reason to not considering higher order systems beyond buildings and towns. I believe that Christopher Alexander has shown to also support this way and has done significant work on it in his later work.
People cannot stay healthy in sick buildings or cities. Cities and neighborhoods cannot survive and cannot be sustainable in unsustainable countries or in an unsustainable planet. This is a consequence of thinking in patterns from a sustainability perspective.
TODO
Ask Ward Cunningham about learning and practicing pattern languages
Ask Ward if there are the associations between software patterns that form a pattern language. Ask if they could be organized in a Brain as I did with Alexanders 253 patterns. So that they form possible sentences.