Use Of Pattern Languages Research Articles

A grounded pattern language: testing a methodology for exploring cohousing residents’ involvement in shared outdoor spaces

ABSTRACTThis paper presents a ‘grounded pattern language’ developed from a study on cohousing residents’ participation in shared landscapes. Pattern languages are recognised in the fields of architecture and urban design as useful tools for documenting commonplace problem-solving ideas in an easy-to-understand format. Since their initiation by Christopher Alexander in 1977, researchers across a wide range of disciplines have adopted the use of pattern languages in research as a way of engaging participants and creating succinct, implementable outputs. However, further methodological refinement for developing a pattern language is required to address criticisms around rigour and transparency. By combining previously adopted pattern language development stages with those of grounded theory, this paper outlines a grounded pattern methodology and its application in the study of cohousing residents’ participation in shared landscapes. The paper discusses the benefits and limitations of the grounded pattern methodology as a participatory research, design and theory building tool observed during its initial testing as a card game.

AN OBJECT-ORIENTED PATTERN LANGUAGE FOR ENGINEERING DESIGN

Psychological inertia, biases and incomplete knowledge can lead engineering designers to choose a sub-optima design. The use of design patterns can help engineering designers find better solutions. Design patterns are recurring/reusable design solutions that are known to work in a particular design situation or a context. Patterns represent both recurring problems and recurring solutions together with their relationships. A design pattern language is a collection of related design patterns covering a particular design domain. This paper describes an object-oriented framework and methodology for the construction and use of pattern languages for the design of technical systems. Key words: Engineering design patterns; Engineering design pattern language; Engineering design; object-orientation.

Using patterns to improve our architectural vision

Pattern languages can play an important role in furthering the use of architecture and objects in software design, but first we must understand what these terms mean. The authors use the work of Christopher Alexander (1975, 1979, 1981, 1985) to illuminate the problems and shed light on future directions in our use of pattern languages in design.