A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction | Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein with Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King, Shlomo Angel
I did not read all of this book, but I relished the method I used to experience it. I fanned the pages like an instrument and let whatever form of bodily awkwardness (book falling from my hands, chocolate fingerprint stamping a page) choose the page. Where I landed elated me because it is the area of design I used to resist from and now love.
Lighting.
“The tapestry of light and dark” as pg. 644 titles a section. Light is part of our physiological rhythm, it facilitates movement, and in the built environment via natural and artificial light has the power to affect the health and wellbeing of a person. By its quantity or quality, lighting can heal as much as it can harm the body. In one section, the authors describe light on two sides of a room allows people to understand each other. Light gives opportunity for context, for noticing detail, and for understanding our environment where our brains gather the sense of day and night (including for folks who are blind, light is still distinguished).
Lighting facilitates creativity. Grateful for the clarity it brings and the shadows I can rest in.
[Book of Delights pg. 149 | No.54 Public Lying Down]