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

• [[flancian]] https://twitter.com/flancian/status/1433917167968399363 pull