Design Patterns for Enduring Places
100 design patterns for places that last
Grounded in the forces that don't change — climate, light, gravity, and human need for shelter and community.
Three Scales of Design
From neighborhood planning to construction details
Where to Start
What are you working on?
All 100 Patterns
Pattern Explorer
The Fifteen-Minute Neighborhood
When daily needs — groceries, school, a park, a café, a doctor — require a car to reach, people spend hours each week in...
The Third Place Network
When homes are only for sleeping and workplaces are only for working, and there is no informal public life between them,...
Dark Sky Neighborhood
When outdoor lighting is unshielded, excessive, or always on, the night sky disappears, human circadian rhythms are disr...
The Mobility Hub
When each mode of transportation — bus, bike, scooter, car-share, ride-hail — operates as a separate system with its own...
The Home Office Threshold
When people work from home without a physical transition between workspace and living space, neither work nor rest is fu...
The Fifteen-Minute Shed
In cold climates, the psychological and physical separation between a home-based workspace and living space must be dram...
The Zoom Room
When video calls happen in living spaces, the household loses its privacy, the caller is anxious about what's visible in...
The Screen-Free Hearth
When every room contains a screen, there is no place in the dwelling where the family is actually together — present, un...
About Language A
A pattern language for our time
Inspired by Christopher Alexander's original work, Language A addresses contemporary challenges: remote work, climate adaptation, housing affordability, aging in place, and the recovery of community life after decades of car-centric sprawl.
Each pattern names a problem, presents evidence, and proposes a solution — connected to patterns above it (which give it context) and patterns below it (which give it form). Together, they form a network of mutually reinforcing design decisions.