Plenary @richsick #purplsoc Pursuit of Pattern Languages for Societal Change http://www.purplsoc.org/conference2017/
Mag. arch. Richard Sickinger, Danube University Krems – University for Continuing Education, Faculty of Education, Arts and Architecture
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What is a pattern?
- A pattern can have a template
- Can be geometric
3 attributes
1. A solution to a problem
- 2. A way to do something, describes a need, an action
- The core of a solution which can be applied in many different ways
Examples: in a farm in Austria
- Dry milk can: milk in the bottom stinks, so knock the can over
- Properly cut tree: cut the tree for uphill, so the sap can flow out
2. A quality without a name
- A quality of being in balance, free of inner contradictions, one with itself — whole
- A quality of being in tune, fully intense, true to its own inner forces — alive
- A quality of being original — free
Of Alexander 6, picked three: whole, alive, free
3. A society which is alive and whole
- Alive: will not be able to become alive, unless they are made by all the people in society
- Understanding: By enabling simple access to key problems and answers
- Participation: By enabling an active implementation of the one best solution in many different ways
- Identification: By entitling people to actively build society through their work
Laying bricks, putting up a wall, or building a cathedral?
Whole: like a seed, is a genetic system which gives our millions of small acts the power to form a whole
- Supportive
- Coherent: each part enables and supports the whole
A Pattern is an entity with three dimensions
- a universal solution
- …
- affirming whole
Grappling with destructive forces
- Old patterns are losing validity and relevance
- New patterns are needed and in demand
We need a new approach, pattern language approach of Christopher Alexander serves this
What is a pattern:
- Solution, problem, context
- What, how, why
- Capra: I definine meaning as the experience of context
- Embedded in universal, reaches for quality, wants to support and enable the whole … in a network of pattern
Pattern 140
Example: Business models, Tiina Gruber-Muecke, 55 patterns
The building blocks of societal change.
In brief. David Ing. 