Obama Pattern Language Primer

I first read Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction" in the late seventies. Having grown up in the sixties, and after my early experiements in community, College and Graduate School, I wanted something real with new age sensibility. Rather than join a commune, I wanted to build one along with others of like mind. We bought 110 acres of beutiful Texas farmland north of Austin and all read this well conceived guide to building "as if people mattered." Like all such experiements, it was local zoning and building codes that ruined us, and we eventually sold the farm to a local farmer who wanted nothing more than to farm.

That book stayed with me, however, and served as guide to all built things, from houses to cities. Stephen Rose recently posted the following series at Huffingtonpost.com, a primer for President Obama. Alexander talks about a "timeless language" and so, now, that is needed as guide on rebuilding our entire world, not only as if people mattered, but all of life.

Getting people to understand this alternative to metrosprawl is a Promethean task. Getting the Obama administration to understand why this widely ignored and buried thinking is the essential missing link in all the talk of “economic” recovery is utterly necessary if we are to have change that will actually work for everyone.

See the brief at http://stephencrose.wordpress.com/pattern-language/ and then read in sequence:
Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four,, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Eight, Part Nine, Part Ten, Part Eleven, Part Twelve, Part Thirteen, Part Fourteen