The Must-Have Book For Home Renovators

Thinking about renovating? Then this “bible” of home improvement ideas belongs on your bookshelf.

WHAT THE PROS KNOW | A lot of what I know about how a house should work on the inside and mesh with the outside I learned from the bible. Not the authorized King James version but a book called A Pattern Language, a renovator’s bible that I return to repeatedly for inspiration and guidance.

First published decades ago, this tome consists of 1,170 tissue-thin pages of poetically written advice on how to make considered meaning-filled homes and communities. At its core are 253 simple patterns, each one an answer to a design problem, that can be used in any number of combinations to make a family home or a small commercial building—even layout an entire neighbourhood.

How To Use A Pattern Language

“There are two completely different ways to use the book,” Christopher Alexander, the most well known of the book’s six authors, once told me. “One is reflective, the other practical. Because it’s full of short bits, you can dip into it when you want to and not have to get heavy about it. When you use it this way, you will gradually begin to appreciate the content. It will change your awareness about what matters to you, but it will be a gradual process. The other way to use it is if you have an actual building project. You an draw specific material from it to put together a design for a house, a room a public space or part of a street.”

And while some of the patterns may feel out of sync with the way homes and interiors look in 2012, the accepted wisdom behind them remains sound—like the thinking behind one of my favourites, Pattern #159: Light On Two Sides Of A Room, which is illustrated above.

“When they have a choice,” it reads, “people will always gravitate to those rooms which have light on two sides and leave rooms which are only lit from one side unused or empty….This pattern, perhaps more than any other single pattern, determines the success or failure of a room.” —C.Rule

We found new copies of A Pattern Language on chapters.indigo.ca for $47.19, and on amazon.com for $38.42.

Photos: Interior, Martin Tessler; book jacket, Casey Phaisalakani