Editing Pattern language (section)

{{Short description|Method of describing good design practices}}
{{About|the structured design approach by architect Christopher Alexander}}
A '''pattern language''' is an organized and coherent set of ''patterns'', each of which describes a problem and the core of a solution that can be used in many ways within a specific field of expertise. The term was coined by architect [[Christopher Alexander]] and popularized by his 1977 book ''[[A Pattern Language]]''.

A pattern language can also be an attempt to express the deeper wisdom of what brings aliveness within a particular field of human endeavor, through a set of interconnected patterns. Aliveness is one placeholder term for "the quality that has no name": a sense of wholeness, spirit, or grace, that while of varying form, is precise and empirically verifiable.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Alexander |first1=Christopher |title=The Timeless Way of Building |date=1979 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-502402-9}}</ref> Alexander claims that ordinary people can use this design approach to successfully solve very large, complex design problems.