Patterns of Home: The Ten Essentials of Enduring Design

Am really enjoying this take on "A Pattern Language" principles. It is so much easier to understand than the original, heavy text (especially since I was trying to read it myself, not taking a college course). Patterns of Home, in contrast, is distilled--one doesn't have to figure EVERYthing out, just the key principles that have filtered to the top over time and use. And it is well explained with illustrations to support. I'm a visual learner, so the original's predominance of long wordy paragraphs of explanation were quite cumbersome for me. Patterns of Home is written for architects, and particularly for residential buildings, but I am quite to translate the ideas to landscape design, which is what I do. I feel like the world of "A Pattern Language" has been re-opened to me, and I'm eating it up! I've gone back to the original and am using that now, more, again too.Just so you understand where I'm coming from: I'm a landscape designer by trade, I do tend to pick up spacial design principles quickly, and I'm a bit of a design nerd.But I do think this "ten essentials" would be helpful to any lay person contemplating the design of their own home. Maybe even their landscape as well. The same principles really do apply. That's the great beauty of these timeless ideas.

I am a huge fan of Christopher Alexander's The Timeless Way of Building and I ordered this book without knowing that it was written by several of his disciples. It was a pleasant surprise when I discovered that this book brings to life Alexander's fundamental premise that living spaces can be created when positive patterns are repeated. Admittedly, I'm often sucked in by many books with great pictures and I never really get down to reading the text from cover to cover. This book is different. Not only is there wonderful visual reference, but the copy does a thorough job of explaining the reasoning behind the architectural decisions. I love this book.

Beautiful coffee table book.Provides an interesting view of signature homes!

I'm a graduate student in Building Science and this is a required text for one of my drafting courses. My presumption had been that this, like most books chosen for class room teaching, would be less than exciting. I'm glad to say I was very wrong. I haven't read it all the way through yet, but will before this semester ends and I look forward to it.If you're an experienced designer, this book may not have much to offer, but if you're a student just starting designing, you should be very inspired by it. This early in the semester, I've only read the first 4 chapters but have gained a lot of insight and have already been able to incorporate most of it into the few designs I've had to do for class so far, especially in terms of the importance of outdoor spaces - too often completely overlooked in home designs! I can hardly wait to get through "Flow Through Rooms" and "Places in Between".I have a good friend who has been designing "green" house for the past several years and he told me he re-reads "Patterns of Home" on a regular basis because it's so inspiring. You won't be disappointed.

A must read covering the main essential design concepts too make any room and home function well. This was a huge help to us and the many friends we've recommended it to. Everyone of us found that our Architects missed a key thing or two, and we're easily able to add them and make the end result much better!

As a builder wanting to build my family a nice home, I still desired (needed) tips from well trained architects. This book provided that and more. Easily worthy the price (I did buy a used version) as I now have a hard copy that I loan to friends wanting to build their best home the first time they build. Even if you have a home design in mind, have a read through this book to find out why you design is or isn't that good. The pictures and diagrams explain the concepts very well. Once you get your copy you will know why this book is worth 5 stars.

I liked this book agreat deal. It provides a vocabulary to describe the elements that make a good design. It is well organized and the concepts are easy to understand. I can now go into houses I like and don't like and identify why, as well as what I want to incorporate into our remodel. I followed this book up with Home by Design by Susanka. While organized differently, the latter uses many of the same concepts, and is a good companion volume. On the basis of reviews here, I bought "A Pattern Language". I think it is best appreciated after having looked at one of the two described above.

this is an excellent update suitable for the lay person when considering what factors attribute long lasting effect in designing and building a new home.. I was super excited to find this as I used Pattern Language, written by some of the same architect authors 40 years ago when I built my dream home- and this update distilled the 200 plus patterns described in that tome down to a very manageable ten!!! Now I am using this Patterns of Home book to build my 'age in place' retirement home. Kudos!!

Good deal

I learned a few important insights from this book, which I then successfully implemented in my self-designed lakeside home. It was a worthwhile addition to my library.

Great