08-20-1984 Planning Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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have any oth ’er- in tents Recorder r of on running the office d and shall grantees / ■ me, a nally to me fore- d instru R 3TA iw m-v‘ ' ■fc IS. i •> i b a <£.J I I? '■ v.«- <3 W. ,Jl----1: iippapii S^^EihE . w.V *./^ Shaping a home of one’s own How a Minnesota family and architect worked together to build that special place called home ^hai does a family with a low budget and a desire for an individual house do these davs? Read Christopher Alex ander's A Pattern Language, find an understanding archiiea and build that special house. That, at least, is how Bruce and Sharmainejohanson of White Bear Lake approached today ’s housing conundrum. To be sure, the Johaasons began their pursuit of a house with stronger pre conceptions about design than most first-time buwrs. A N’ear of reading about housing led them' to A Pattern Lan guage, a book by the architeaural the orist Christopher Alexander. The book, the second volume of a series by Alex ander (see related article for pre-pub lication excerpts from his volume 77je Production of Houses ) provides a lan guage” for planning and building. Each pattern in the language describes a 48 architecture MINNESOTA s; > ' t. *!C I I V -"• 4l V' T'-r '•. ■ •'V , ' '■ ;, ; c- :> -• M. ,.■k ' specific design problem in an environ ment and offers a variew of solutions.For instance, the pattern for a farmhouse kitchen describes a focal point in the house where many individual aaivities are accommodated. Choos ing that pattern determines the central place of the kitchen in the house as a whole. . The patterns —253 in all—can be combined to form infinitely different but equallv meaningful entities, just as words are used to create sentences. What A Pattern Language does is de- mN-stifi' the steps architects go through; it makes the process of design acces sible to laymen. And that, indeed, is precisely what the lohansons wanted—to be involved in the design of their owti house. Firmlv committed to Alexander s pattern language, the Johansons faced the next challenge; how to find an ar- chitea who could help them apply Alexander ’s approach as the\' built their own house. The>’ proceeded most straightfor- w’ardly. They called architeaural firms and a^ed if they knew of A Pattern Language. Failing to find any that did, the>’ contaaed Alexander ’s Center for Environmental Struaure in Berkeley, California and asked for advice. Sara Ishikawa, a colleague of Alexander ^ recommended Dale Mulfinger and Sarah Susanka, Twin Cities architects she had met at a conference. The Johansons took the advice and found in Mulfinger and Susanka two young architects who not only kne^' Alexander ’s approach but were enthu siastic about applying it to an aaual design process. Susanka had been thoroughly steep>ed in the principles of A Pattern Language in architecture school at the Universitt' of Oregon and had applied those principles in her early design projects. Mulfinger had used Alexander ’s work in teaching architec ture. The Johanson house presented the first opportunity for the two of them to "do a pattern house ” together. By the time the Johansons met wim the architects, they had a long want list devised from their study of the book. "We spent an entire day together and developed the design from the inside out,” says Susanka. "The very seleaion of patterns personalized the design.” "Using the pattern language,” sdys Susanka, "involves the person who is going to live there much more inti- maidy in planning the house. The ar chitects help, rather th^ just present ing the fiunily with a design.” And, since Bruce Johanson also sawed beams and pounded nails, building this family home was—from start to finish —a hands-on experience. A . t vT* *'^» H k: , I ^ i > i1 M- Ii ^ f i: ■ t. . IW quiet work Middle Level