# patterning

- a [[book club]]
  - [[go]] https://lorand.earth/patterning/
  - [[pull]] [[reading alexander]] [[christopher-alexander-reading-group]]
  - [[git]] https://github.com/JonathanLorand/patterning
  - [[stoa]] [[git]]
  - [[pull]] [[notes on the synthesis of form]] [[notsof]]
  - [[pull]] [[a pattern language]] [[apl]]
  - [[pull]] [[the timeless way of building]] [[ttwob]]
  - [[initial meeting]] in late [[february 2020]]
  - [[personal]] and [[group]] note taking
    - using [[hypothes.is]]
    - using [[etherpad]]
    - [[git stoa]]
  - [[dropbox]] https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5rf0aq0hky456nz/AAAZi2LtJBWxHr7t-pFmuk-Pa?dl=0
  
 ## [[2021-08-01]]
 - [[lorand]]
   - tension between writing something understandable for everyone and going deep
   - thing with the lightbulbs ended up attracting a lot of attention
     - aside
       - [[flancian]] it feels like a high dimensional celullar automata
     - [[systems theory]], kept wondering about whether people knew about it
   - the other "leg" is chapter 15, using feelings.
   - ultimately would love to have some text that has a couple of the ideas that were interesting, drilling down on those.
- [[simon]] 
  - interaction between the environment and people
  - there is something in the environment, in the object themselves, which encodes ways of behaviour
  - [[ezra klein podcast]] and the extended mind
  - you can divorce the form/pattern, reuse it in different ways
  - a pattern language is a collection of forms
  - extended mind -> a way of getting around the 'problem' of feeling
  - in architecture we're always looking at plans
    - you can take the form of a plan, take it into a different context and use it in a different way
  - [[lorand]] love the list of paradoxes
    - +1
- when you went back to the toy model, did you understand it better?
  - got incremental understanding
  - didn't go all the way into convincing myself with the actual mathematical proof
- [[flancian]] [[celullar automata]], [[game of life]]
- [[lorand]] [[entropy and diversity]]
- [[homeostasis]]
  - [[flancian]] key word
    - a failing proposition :)
  - aided by [[modular approach]]
  - [[simon]] top down and bottom up approaches, which seem to map to selfconscious and unselfconscious in [[notsof]]
- [[simon]] often work with planning laws, which interact with data variables (traffic, rate of light, etc.). 
  - there is also a decisive factor: the qualities you want in the building you are trying to build.
  - [[flancian]] how do you think about the time variable in architecture? aging in buildings, entropy :)
  - you begin a project with a long list of requirements that you have to meet -- but those are day one. unclear how they will evolve over the years.
- [[modularity aids upgradability]] in information theory
  - are building upgrades modular?
  - [[simon]] 60s-70s: yes. but that failed :) see capsule hotel, which remained unchanged because people liked it how it was.
  - but often it's the older building stock that is easiest to upgrade -- you can tear down walls and build new walls easily.
  - are there typical reasons that projects fail?
    - bad context: buildings placed in the wrong place/without the right support
    - buildings that are built with a very specific use, e.g. a fashion center when the fashion industry is moving away
    - hard to adapt office to residential and residential to office
  - are there any projects that are designed to have a short timespan, or need continuous updating?
    - classic project by [[alejandro aravena]]: https://www.archdaily.com/797779/half-a-house-builds-a-whole-community-elementals-controversial-social-housing 
    - it's hard to know the needs of the future, so he built half a house and left the other half up to the user
    - [[japanese]] architecture doesn't value longevity the same way
- [[requirements elicitation]]
- Q: would patterns of pattern connectivity be interesting?
  - seems like something to keep in mind but it would quickly get too abstract?
  - [[simon]] reminds me of the diagrams at the end of [[notsof]]

 ## [[2021-07-11]]
 - [[armengol]] [[lorand]] [[simon]] [[flancian]]
	 - [[flancian]] proposal: meet a few more times but perhaps more spaced out?
	 - [[simon]] sounds good. july works for me.
	 - [[lorand]] summer sounds more certain than fall; unclear what commitments will be like in fall.
	 - [[armengol]] uncertainty about august.
		 - interested in summarizing the experience, some meta.
	 - could explore:
		 - writing something together/individually