Writing Patterns: Getting to Robust Sustainability Through an Unfolding Process

Tom Kubala, AIA, The Kubala Washatko Architects, Inc.

The very nature of a highly sustainable building stands in contrast to the ‘normal' built environment. We see a normal building as being conceived as a mechanism, a program of discrete rooms interacting with one another through adjacency, circulation and visual accessibility. More often than not, a normal building design is conceptualized in advance by the architect, the programmed parts are then made to fit the preconception. Such a design process comes with a high cost in functionality and environmental connectedness. In contrast to normal building, a sustainable whole building depends on a seamless interconnectedness with its natural, cultural and technical environment for success. To get there, we have employed Pattern writing, a mode of seeing and listening developed by Christopher Alexander.

Both a campus cluster and a stand alone laboratory are expensive ventures . It behooves owners and developers to utilize their dollars as effectively as possible, or as we put it: to achieve the highest 'issue-resolved per dollar' ratio possible. The issues needing resolution are many and diverse in nature. Besides the complex technical issues surrounding the functioning of a laboratory, its impact on the natural environment in the form of energy and emissions, its ability to offer a safe, clean and uplifting environment for its users and its positive role in a larger community, begin to call on those responsible to address a wide and interwoven range of factors. Not a simple task to be sure. No wonder that for the sake of efficiency, the dauntingly complex scenario surrounding a laboratory design is artificially reduced to its more tangible features.

This is where Pattern writing offers an alternative to the normal design process. The act of writing Patterns is not reductive in nature, it employs a phenomenological, whole brain consciousness that avoids conceiving of the world as discrete and divided parts. Pattern writing involves the client/user group in first identifying essential roadblocks to ideal operation. Through discussion with users and observation of the local bio-climate, ecology and built environment, a list of issues surface. These are organized in terms of the scale of their impact on the situation, largest scale first. We then write a formal issue statement that succinctly elucidates the problem to be resolved. Each issue statement is followed by a solution statement that clarifies the conditions necessary for the issue to be resolved. Our approach to writing is as metaphorical as possible, allowing the dynamic tension between tenor and vehicle to express the potential solution without being prescriptive. Case study to illustrate Pattern writing: The Leopold Legacy Center, WI

Biography:

In the 25 years since co-founding The Kubala Washatko Architects, Inc. with University of Illinois classmate Allen Washatko, Tom Kubala's work can be characterized by a commitment to the ideals of a regenerative future. Through research and lectures Tom has worked to trace the roots of ‘Organic' architecture and to extend the philosophical foundation for a ‘new' Organic architecture. For the past 15 years Tom has conducted bi-weekly studio seminars on the ideas of Christopher Alexander, an architect and author of the four-volume The Nature of Order, which seeks to identify how the processes that govern the evolution of organic and inorganic forms can be applied to the challenges of contemporary architectural and urban design. The Alexander seminars are attended by TKWA studio staff, architects, artists, students, and other interested individuals.

Note: I²SL did not edit or revise abstract or biography text. Abstracts and biographies are displayed as submitted by the author(s).