In Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language, he outlines various concepts in architecture that may be replicated to fit various contexts dependent on the inhabitants needs and behaviors. In more ways than one, these architectural patterns have persisted to the design of software. Rather than inhabiting spaces physically, digital users’ physical actions are responded to with feedback that may also become apparent to other users in the digital space, creating the illusion of co-habitance.
41: Work Community
Alexander describes work communities to comprise of small clusters of employees that conjoin at a public, open space. In doing so, work may be subdivided in a more manageable fashion to optimize intra- and inter-team communication, while also encouraging a designated space for general communion, much like modern-day corporate campuses such as Yahoo! or Google. In current day, employees are no longer required to be physically in-office to communicate with each other. Services such as Slack allow team members to reach each other via instant messages, increasing efficiency and availability of employees. Each workspace may be divided into channels to designate various digital spaces to certain teams, projects, or conversation topics.
Where Slack and Alexander’s work communities differ however, is that Slack does not exhibit a threshold between spaces. When we consider the physical movement from one room to the next, there must be a transitionary stage that signals the end of one room where another begins. Although a possible “threshold” on Slack may be the physical act of clicking between channels, the general interface of each are more or less the same, thus omitting the context differences present in physical spaces.
205: Structure Follows Social
Following the onset of COVID-19, employees have been directed to work from home as per shelter in place orders, leaving office buildings empty. Particularly for the homes of families living in smaller spaces, apartments have become the grounds for home schooling, working, and living for all family members, thanks to Zoom. Alexander describes experiments in which “people are able to use this pattern language to design buildings for themselves; and that the plans they create… [are] always finely tuned to the details of their lives and habits” (Alexander 204). There is evidently a fine line between a space that is too restrictive, or too flexible.
At the beginning of the pandemic, families were forced to adapt to the changing strucutres. Kitchens became classrooms, bedrooms became offices, and for those whose family members too far exceeded the number of rooms, many have been forced to seek shelter elsewhere. Here, we observe the intersection between the restricted buildings, and flexibility of technology. Apartment buildings were never intended to serve as many functions as they do now, if human adaptability is greater than building rigidity, technology has become a median between individuals whose distance exceeds plausible physical contact.
127: Intimacy Gradients
Alexander’s “intimacy gradient” describes the dichotomy of public and private spaces. For spaces on each end of the spectrum, certain people and actions may be performed within them that are deemed appropriate. The boundaries between spaces are defined by a pre-established level of intimacy with “outsiders” that enter the space. Alexander proposes that the layout of a building’s spaces should be established on a gradient, with the most public spaces allocated towards the entrance of a space, spaces become progressively more private as the visitor navigate through the building’s circulation. I have observed this gradient in my own home, as the most public areas are centralized in the house, while bedrooms and bathrooms are located in its extremities. In particular, the staircase that leads to the second story serves similarly to a central axis, leading to the most private spaces farthest from the entrance. In a way, this arrangement leads me to feel protected, as my most private space is far from possible intruders. Nevertheless, remote classes have invited my co-hort into my bedroom, blurring the boundaries between public and private space.
