W.T. Dore @WT_Dore@octodon.social
you've seen me on Metafilter, now see me here.
#mefite 'the man of twists and turns'
Roadside Burgers https://octodon.social/media/7qEx9-xeToPiRDNgRTI
... Solution:
Set up a playground for the children in each neighborhood. Not a highly finished playground, with asphalt and swings, but a place with raw materials of all kinds - nets, boxes, barrels, trees, ropes, simple tools, frames, grass, and water - where children can create and re-create playgrounds of their own." Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language #patternlanguage #christopheralexander
"Problem:
A castle, made of cartons, rocks, and old branches, by a group of children for themselves, is worth a thousand perfectly detailed, exactly finished castles, made for them in a factory...
"Problem:
The human body does not wear out with use. On the contrary, it wears down when it is not used.
Solution:
Scatter places for team and individual sports through every work community and neighborhood: tennis, squash table tennis, swimming, billiards, basketball, dancing, gymnasium...and make the action visible to passers-by, as an invitation to participate." Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language #patternlanguage #christopheralexander
Today's #MeFi: ШАΛАШ , a Siberian record label specializing in #ambient music on vintage analog formats http://mefi.us/w/172613 #shalash #reeltoreel #cassette #metafilter #ШАΛАШ #Siberia #Siberian
... Solution:
In every neighborhood, provide some still water - a pond, a pool - for #swimming. Keep the #pool open to the public at all times, but make the entrance to the pool only from the shallow side of the pool, and make the pool deepen gradually, starting from one or two inches deep." Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language #patternlanguage #christopheralexander
"Problem:
To be in touch with water, we must above all be able to swim; and to #swim daily, the pools and ponds and holes for swimming must be so widely scattered through the city, that each person can reach one within minutes. ...
today's #Metafilter post: Our Lady Underground: Black #Madonnas, the history of #paganism in Europe, #Catholic #syncretism, and representations of Mary https://www.metafilter.com/172570/OLU #MeFi #OLU #BlackMadonna
.... Give each grave site an edge, a path, and a quiet corner where people can sit. By custom, this is hallowed ground." Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language #patternlanguage #christopheralexander
"Problem:
No people who turn their backs on death can be alive. The presence of the dead among the living will be a daily fact in any society which encourages its people to live.
Solution:
Never build massive cemeteries. Instead, allocate pieces of land throughout the community as grave sites - corners of parks, sections of paths, gardens, beside gateways - where memorials to people who have died can be ritually placed with inscriptions and mementos which celebrate their life....
Just threw out a cookbook for too many recipie failures.
"Problem:
There are very few spots along the streets of modern towns and neighborhoods where people can hang out, comfortably, for hours at a time.
Solution:
In every #neighborhood and work community, make a piece of the common land into an outdoor room - a partly enclosed place, with some roof, columns, without walls, perhaps with a trellis; place it beside an important path and within view of many homes and workshops." Chris Alexander, Pattern Language #patternlanguage #christopheralexander
tonight's #MeFi: MeFi: from psy-op pamphlet to stateside souvenier http://mefi.us/w/172486 the journey of the Afghan War Rug: depicting soviet tanks to american drones, travelling from Balochi weavers to Irish museums.
... Solution:
Lay out common land, paths, gardens, and bridges so that groups of at least 64 households are connected by a swath of land that does not cross traffic. Establish this land as the connected play space for the children in these households." Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language #patternlanguage #christopheralexander
"Problem:
If children don't play enough with other children during the first five years of life, there is a great chance that they will have some kind of mental illness later in their lives....
Think I'm getting the chest cold my kid had, took Dayquil for the first time in years. Didn't like that sensation.
"Problem:
Without common land no social system can survive.
Solution:
Give over 25 per cent of the land in house clusters to common land which touches, or is very near, the homes which share it. Basic: be wary of the automobile; on no account let it dominate this land." Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language #patternlanguage #christopheralexander
... Solution:
In each community and neighborhood, identify some #sacredsite as #consecratedground, and form a series of nested precincts, each marked by a gateway, each one progressively more private, and more sacred than the last, the innermost a final #sanctum that can only be reached by passing through all of the outer ones." Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language #patternlanguage #christopheralexander
"Problem:
What is a church or temple? It is a place of worship, spirit, contemplation, of course. But above all, from a human point of view, it is a gateway. A person comes into the world through the #church. He leaves it through the church. And, at each of the important thresholds of his life, he once again steps through the church...
Problem is that childbirth can go from everything normal to emergency really fast.
Hospitals have gotten better about childbirth since this was written, but hospitals are still sometimes necessary, and it's hard to predict when.
