Your project language
Choose the patterns that fit your project, arrange them into a sequence from large to small – and download them as a recipe for your project at the end.
- 1Collect. Browse the patterns or describe your project under “Find patterns” – and drop the fitting ones here.
- 2Apply. For each pattern, note how you’ll realize it in your project.
- 3Take it along. Download your project language as a PDF – a recipe that guides your design.
No patterns chosen yet.
Browse the patterns or describe your project under “Find patterns” – then tap “+ to project language” on a pattern that fits.
Curious what that looks like? Load a finished example:
What is a project language?
Christopher Alexander suggests assembling a small language of your own for every project – not all 253 patterns, but the few that truly matter for yours. Usually a dozen or two is enough.
You start with a pattern that describes the overall size of the project, read it, and follow its links downward to the smaller patterns that complete it. You tick the ones that fit – step by step, from the large to the small.
The order is not accidental: large patterns set the frame, small ones fill it in. That is why this page arranges your selection by pattern number automatically – the book itself is built from large to small.
In the end there is no rigid plan but a kind of story: each pattern is applied to your concrete project (“a raised platform on the south side”), and together they form a coherent whole. For Alexander, this is exactly what makes a place feel alive.