A Pattern Language graphic

I discovered this via the Are.na newsletter. It’s a kind of social bookmarking and discovery service that strongly influenced some of the early iterations of MoodleNet (RIP).

Anyway, A Pattern Language has been referenced in multiple places I’ve paid attention to over the years, but the book is usually expensive. That’s why I’m pleased that there’s now this interactive version, which links the ideas it contains to one another, as a hypertext.

A Pattern Language is the second in a series of books which describe an entirely new attitude to architecture and planning. The books are intended to provide a complete working alternative to our present ideas about architecture, building, and planning—an alternative which will, we hope, gradually replace current ideas and practices.

My friends and I have long been fans of this book, and attempt to use its patterns in our own homes and spaces. The book is 1,200 pages long, with countless intertextual connections. It always seemed ripe for mapping and distilling the patterns together more interactively. All text, except this section, is excerpted from the book.

Source: A Pattern Language