Pattern Language

According to Peter Alexander's Pattern Language:

1.  the spaces defined by patterns dealing with social and psychological needs are critical
2. a building will seem alien unless it gives to its users a direct and intuitive sense of its structure - how it is put together; buildings where the structure is hidden leave yet another gap in people's understanding of their environment.
3. when the social space incorporates the fabric of the load-bearing structure supporting that space, "...then the forces of gravity are integrated with the social forces, and one feels the resolution of all the forces which are acting in this one space. " This experience is restful and whole, like sitting under an oak tree
4. the building will only be at rest psychologically if the corners of its rooms are clearly marked and coincide with the most solid elements

In this community, provide public open land where people can relax, and renew themselves using the following patterns:

• Accessible green - green open spaces that are no more than 3 minutes walk away
• High places - the instinct to climb up to some high point, from which you can look down and survey your world, seems to be a fundamental human instinct (one which I can relate to!)
• Pools and streams - connect with the nearby estuary, add water feature to the existing internal courtyard. Running water is important. Perhaps incorporate rain gutters somehow.
• Holy ground - a church, chapel, temple, place for meditation, prayer; the place will include a form of series of nested precincts, each marked by a gateway, each one progressively more private and more sacred than the last - the innermost sanctum can only be reached by passing through all the outer ones

Then drilling down a little further, provide:

• Public outdoor room
• Still water
• Local sports
• Adventure playground
• Animals
• Street cafe

Then patterns that relate to the buildings themselves:

• Wings of light, Long thin house
• Light on two sides of every room
• Cascade of roofs, Building fronts
• Family of entrances
• Entrance transition, Entrance room, 
• Circulation realms
• Pedestrian street & density, Activity pockets
• Stair seats, Staircase as a stage
• Staircase volume
• Shape of indoor space, Ceiling height variety
• Intimacy gradient
• The flow, through rooms, Short passages
• Alcoves
• Secret place
• Corner doors
• Thick walls
•  Closets between rooms
• Window places, Windows overlooking life
• Indoor sunlight, Tapestry of light and dark
• Sunny counter
• Common areas at the heart
• The fire
• Sequence of sitting spaces, Sitting cycle
• Zen view
• Half open wall, Interior windows
• Built in seats
• Sleeping to the east, Bed cluster, A room of one's own
• Farmhouse kitchen, 
• Eating atmosphere
• Cooking layout, Open shelves, Waist high shelf

• Private terrace on the street, Street window, Opening to the street
• Six foot balcony
• Connection to the earth

For the downstairs areas:

• Communal eating
• Small work groups
• Reception welcomes you
• Settled work

Outdoors:

• North facing outdoors
• Positive outdoor space - shape the outdoor green spaces so that they form one or more positive room-like spaces and surround these with trees, or walls or buildings (but not roads)
• Half-hidden garden
• Hierarchy of open space, Courtyards which live
• Roof garden
• Arcades, Gallery surround
• Paths and goals
• Outdoor room, Garden seat
• Fruit trees, Vegetable garden
• Tree places - pay attention to old trees, look after them
• Garden wall, Trellised walk
• Garden growing wild
• Greenhouse