15.3. Construction Ornament

Aus Pattern Language Wiki

Human-Scale Detail needs to be beautiful and well-connected to the rest of the design.


15 3 01 Construction Ornament.jpg


Problem-statement: Many people today assume that ornament in construction is a superfluous decoration, like little bits of icing added gratuitously to a cake. This view fails to understand that ornament is an essential cognitive need.


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Discussion:In fact, as the pattern Ornament argues in the original A Pattern Language book, ornament is a kind of “glue” that binds the environment together, psychologically speaking (and in a sense, physically speaking too). It helps to connect the different regions of space, and draws our attention to them, much as we are drawn to the ornamentation of a pair of earrings heightening our sense of the shape of a person’s head. There is a natural reason that people have had a desire to create ornaments for their constructions from time immemorial.


A widely influential doctrine was introduced in the early 20th century by the Austrian architect Adolf Loos, arguing that ornament was a “crime” in that it was a waste of resources. This was a terrible mistake, failing to understand the real value played by ornament in the human environment, and leading to an era of stripped-down, ugly buildings. Worse, in Loos’ case it was borne of a racist doctrine, holding that Europeans were a superior race that, with their advanced mechanical technology, had outgrown the need for ornament.


This was a naive attitude at best — expressing a kind of “identity crisis” by early 20th century people. In effect they forced themselves to make a terrible decision, cutting themselves off from the past and its treasures — including the power of ornamentation. It was not understood until only recently that ornament, like biophilia, plays a key role in generating comfort and well-being in the built environment. Ornament employs the smallest articulated scales to generate organized complexity. We “feed visually” on this organized complexity, which makes it a necessary component of our environment, and not some aesthetic or philosophical ideal. This is why people all over the world and throughout history have consistently generated ornament.


Good ornament is coherent with all the intermediate and larger articulated scales, so we can perceive its “connectedness” to the large-scale structure. In turn, it helps us to feel the entire structure as internally more connected. We often don’t even notice some ornament consciously, since it makes its positive psychological effect subconsciously. But we do notice poor examples that fail in connecting to other scales. Such applied decoration appears disconnected, or “pasted on,” because it does not grow out of the structure of the whole, and express its connections.


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Therefore:

Do not be afraid to use ornament, in a careful and disciplined way, and in a way that grows out of the construction. For example, allow rafter tails to express an ornamental repetition, or bricks to express an ornamental alternating pattern.



15 3 02 Construction Ornament.jpg


Use unique local ornamentation to express Economies Of Place And Differentiation. Try out your ornament with a Community Mockup, and adjust until it feels just right. …




¹ The original pattern Ornament can be found in Alexander, C. et al., A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. London: Oxford University Press.



Mehaffy, M. et al. (2020). CONSTRUCTION ORNAMENT (pattern). In A New Pattern Language for Growing Regions. The Dalles: Sustasis Press. Available at https://pattern-language.wiki/.../Construction_Ornament



SECTION I:

PATTERNS OF SCALE


1. REGIONAL PATTERNS

Define the large-scale spatial organization…

1.1. POLYCENTRIC REGION

1.2. BLUE-GREEN NETWORK

1.3. MOBILITY CORRIDOR

1.4. 400M THROUGH STREET NETWORK

2. URBAN PATTERNS

Establish essential urban characteristics…

2.1. WALKABLE MULTI-MOBILITY

2.2. LEVEL CITY

2.3. PUBLIC SPACE SYSTEM

2.4. BIOPHILIC URBANISM

3. STREET PATTERNS

Identify and allocate street types…

3.1. URBAN GREENWAY

3.2. MULTI-WAY BOULEVARD

3.3. AVENUE

3.4. SHARED SPACE LANE

4. NEIGHBORHOOD PATTERNS

Define neighborhood-scale elements…

4.1. STREET AS CENTER

4.2. PEDESTRIAN SANCTUARY

4.3. NEIGHBORHOOD SQUARE

4.4. NEIGHBORHOOD PARK

5. SPECIAL USE PATTERNS

Integrate unique urban elements with care…

5.1. SCHOOL CAMPUS

5.2. MARKET CENTER

5.3. INDUSTRIAL AREA

5.4. HOSPITAL

6. PUBLIC SPACE PATTERNS

Establish the character of the crucial public realm…

6.1. PLACE NETWORK

6.2. WALKABLE STREETSCAPE

6.3. MOVABLE SEATING

6.4. CAPILLARY PATHWAY

7. BLOCK AND PLOT PATTERNS

Lay out the detailed structure of property lines…

7.1. SMALL BLOCKS

7.2. PERIMETER BLOCK

7.3. SMALL PLOTS

7.4. MID-BLOCK ALLEY

8. STREETSCAPE PATTERNS

Configure the street as a welcoming place…

8.1. STREET AS ROOM

8.2. TERMINATED VISTA

8.3. STREET TREES

8.4. STREET FURNISHINGS

9. BUILDING PATTERNS

Lay out appropriate urban buildings…

9.1. PERIMETER BUILDING

9.2. ARCADE BUILDING

9.3. COURTYARD BUILDING

9.4. ROW BUILDING

10. BUILDING EDGE PATTERNS

Create interior and exterior connectivity…

10.1. INDOOR-OUTDOOR AMBIGUITY

10.2. CIRCULATION NETWORK

10.3. LAYERED ZONES

10.4. PASSAGEWAY VIEW



SECTION II:

PATTERNS OF MULTIPLE SCALE


11. GEOMETRIC PATTERNS

Build in coherent geometries at all scales…

11.1. LOCAL SYMMETRY

11.2. SMALL GROUPS OF ELEMENTS

11.3. FRACTAL PATTERN

11.4. FRAMING

12. AFFORDANCE PATTERNS

Build in user capacity to shape the environment…

12.1. HANDLES

12.2. CO-PRODUCTION

12.3. FRIENDLY SURFACES

12.4. MALLEABILITY

13. RETROFIT PATTERNS

Revitalize and improve existing urban assets …

13.1. SLUM UPGRADE

13.2. SPRAWL RETROFIT

13.3. URBAN REGENERATION

13.4. URBAN CONSOLIDATION

14. INFORMAL GROWTH PATTERNS

Accommodate “bottom-up” urban growth…

14.1. LAND TENURE

14.2. UTILITIES FIRST

14.3. DATA WITH THE PEOPLE

14.4. INCREMENTAL SELF-BUILD

15. CONSTRUCTION PATTERNS

Use the building process to enrich the result…

15.1. DESIGN-BUILD ADAPTATION

15.2. HUMAN-SCALE DETAIL

15.3. CONSTRUCTION ORNAMENT

15.4. COMPLEX MATERIALS



SECTION III:

PATTERNS OF PROCESS


16. IMPLEMENTATION TOOL PATTERNS

Use tools to achieve successful results…

16.1. FORM-BASED CODE

16.2. ENTITLEMENT STREAMLINING

16.3. NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING CENTER

16.4. COMMUNITY MOCKUP

17. PROJECT ECONOMICS PATTERNS

Create flows of money that support urban quality…

17.1. TAX-INCREMENT FINANCING

17.2. LAND VALUE CAPTURE

17.3. EXTERNALITY VALUATION

17.4. ECONOMIES OF PLACE AND DIFFERENTIATION

18. PLACE GOVERNANCE PATTERNS

Processes for making and managing places…

18.1. SUBSIDIARITY

18.2. POLYCENTRIC GOVERNANCE

18.3. PUBLIC-PRIVATE PLACE MANAGEMENT

18.4. INFORMAL STEWARDSHIP

19. AFFORDABILITY PATTERNS

Build in affordability for all incomes…

19.1. INTEGRATED AFFORDABILITY

19.2. COMMUNITY LAND TRUST

19.3. MULTI-FAMILY INFILL

19.4. SPECULATION TAX

20. NEW TECHNOLOGY PATTERNS

Integrate new systems without damaging old ones…

20.1. SMART AV SYSTEM

20.2. RESPONSIVE TRANSPORTATION NETWORK COMPANY

20.3. AUGMENTED REALITY DESIGN

20.4. CITIZEN DATA