Design Patterns Explained

19O Part IV • Putting It All Together: Thinking in Patterns
How do we do this?
What is the process of
design?
into the whole by operating on the whole and crinkling it,
not by adding little parts to one another. In the process of
differentiation, the whole gives birth to its parts: The form
of the whole, and its parts, come into being
simultaneously. The image of the differentiating process
is the growth of an embryo. 5
"Complexification." What in the world does that mean? Isn't the
goal to make things simpler, not more complex?
What Alexander is describing is a way to think about design that
starts by looking at the problem in its simplest terms and then adds
additional features (distinctions), making the design more complex
as we go because we are adding more information.
This is a very natural process. We do it all the time. For example,
suppose you need to arrange a room for a lecture with an audience of
40 people. As you describe your requirements to someone, you
might say something like, "I'll need a room 30 feet by 30 feet"
(starting simple). Then, "I'd like the chairs arranged theater style: 4
rows of 8" (adding informatio n, you have made the description of
the room more complex). And then, "I need a lectern at the front of
the room" (even more complex).
The unfolding of a design in the mind of its creator, under the
influence of language, is just the same.
Each pattern is an operator that differentiates space: that is,
it creates distinctions where no distinction was before.
And in the language the operations are arranged in
sequence: so that, as they are done, one after another,
gradually a complete thing is born, general in the sense
5. ibid, p. 370.