10.1. Indoor-Outdoor Ambiguity

Within each Perimeter Building or Courtyard Building, there is a need to create an experience of spatial richness that binds the indoors to the outdoors.

Problem-statement: Buildings should not only contain hermetically sealed “interior” spaces, but should occasionally include ambiguous spaces that are not simply “inside” or “outside”.

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Discussion: Some of the richest spaces blend interior and exterior elements, often blurring the lines between them. Spaces that appear to be exterior are discovered to be interior but quasi-exterior — like the former courtyard at La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe New Mexico, seen in the photo at the start of this pattern. The doors appear to be exterior doors, even though they connect to another interior space. Treatments in the courtyard that seem to suggest an exterior, like plants and fountains, add to the ambiguity. Similarly, exterior spaces can begin to take on the characteristics of interior spaces (see for example the pattern Outdoor Room, APL 163).

It is possible to connect these spaces even further to other indoor and outdoor spaces, further blurring the lines. Courtyard buildings often do this masterfully, as they proceed through a sequence of courtyards, some of which are truly outdoors, and some of which are more ambiguous.

The ambiguity of these places is certainly delightful, and a powerful connective experience. Nevertheless, it is important that each space be experienced as a distinct place, felt as one identifiable piece in a Place Network. The seamless flow into another place is then perceived as emotionally positive. If, on the other hand, the geometrical character (especially the nature of the boundaries) is blurred to such an extent that the spaces are not perceived as distinct places, a user is likely to feel confused, as if swimming in ambiguity. This unsettling experience occurs in many cases where, for example, the indoor-outdoor distinction is totally erased through a plate glass curtain-wall. The original A Pattern Language puts a great deal of emphasis on how to achieve this coherence successfully.

It is difficult to say whether this space (from American Homes and Gardens magazine, 1905) is truly “outdoor” or “indoor”.

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Therefore:

Create structures that blend interior and exterior, including courtyards and solarium galleries. Use glass doors and windows to further blur the distinction between what is truly outdoor and what is quasi-outdoor. At the same time, keep each space coherent and distinct.

Use Interior Windows and Solid Doors With Glass to blur the distinction between indoors and outdoors. Use Pools Of Light created by skylights and glazed courtyards to create indoor spaces with outdoor qualities. Use rough, typically external materials like stone and brick — Complex Materials — to further blur the distinction. …

Mehaffy, M. et al. (2020). INDOOR-OUTDOOR AMBIGUITY (pattern). In A New Pattern Language for Growing Regions. The Dalles: Sustasis Press. Available at https://pattern-language.wiki/.../Indoor-Outdoor_Ambiguity

10.1. Indoor-Outdoor Ambiguity

Aus Pattern Language Wiki

Therefore:

SECTION I:

PATTERNS OF SCALE

1. REGIONAL PATTERNS

2. URBAN PATTERNS

3. STREET PATTERNS

4. NEIGHBORHOOD PATTERNS

5. SPECIAL USE PATTERNS

6. PUBLIC SPACE PATTERNS

7. BLOCK AND PLOT PATTERNS

8. STREETSCAPE PATTERNS

9. BUILDING PATTERNS

10. BUILDING EDGE PATTERNS

SECTION II:

PATTERNS OF MULTIPLE SCALE

11. GEOMETRIC PATTERNS

12. AFFORDANCE PATTERNS

13. RETROFIT PATTERNS

14. INFORMAL GROWTH PATTERNS

15. CONSTRUCTION PATTERNS

SECTION III:

PATTERNS OF PROCESS

16. IMPLEMENTATION TOOL PATTERNS

17. PROJECT ECONOMICS PATTERNS

18. PLACE GOVERNANCE PATTERNS

19. AFFORDABILITY PATTERNS

20. NEW TECHNOLOGY PATTERNS