Intimacy Gradient

A favorite pattern of mine from Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language — Towns, Buildings, Construction is a pattern called Intimacy Gradient. This pattern is also applicable to fields other than building architecture — e.g. it can be applied to information architecture or API design. I post the pattern here because it needs to be referenced frequently.

The problem that the pattern addresses is (quoted text verbatim from the above source):

“Unless the spaces in a building are arranged in a sequence which corresponds to their degree of privateness, the visits made by strangers, friends, guests, clients, family, will always be a little awkward”.

Alexander explains how different organization of space could give more meaning to encounters happening in the space. An undifferentiated, monotonous space would make interaction less rich — even confusing, I dare say.

An example of sequencing of space for a house:

Gate -> Outdoor Garden -> Porch -> Entrance -> Entry Room -> Living Room -> Common Areas -> Kitchen -> Bedroom -> Private Garden/ Patio

And so the solution, as given by Alexander is:

“Therefore:

Lay out the spaces of a building so that they create a sequence which begins with the entrance and the most public parts of the building, then leads into the slightly more private areas, and finally to the most private domains.”

It might seem very obvious solution, but if we look around, we can find that in practice, violation of this pattern is quite frequent.