Transcript extracted from Discord weekly discussion of A Pattern Language, one pattern at a time. discord 
#98: Circulation Realms (2023-03-20) => #102
Ward — 03/14/2023 9:00 AM
This is the workshop where we proved to ourselves that A Pattern Language was "generative" in the same way a Chomsky style grammar is generative.
hillside.net
Alexander had suggested that the patterns could be usefully applied by the future occupants of a building by exploring the pattern language on the ground where the building was to be built. Attendees of the Generative Pattern Workshop walked across the parking lot and into the woods surrounding the condo building were we met. There we imagined that we were planning the "Center for Object-Oriented Programming" where we all would work. We took our books with us out onto the hillside and read #98 Circulation Realms aloud. We then imagined the wings of the building where we would work, the common space where we would meet, and the lobby where our grateful guests would arrive. Please imagine us trying our best to follow the contained advice when you read this pattern. (edited) After 10 or 15 minutes of discussion we moved on to the next suggested patterns which made complete sense for the next conversation. We were startled how well this worked. I remember being disappointed that this was just fantasy.
In a later exercise we sat in a sunny patio and tried writing programming advice that would have this generative property. We were admittedly stumbling. I later transcribe my short work in the newly created wiki:
c2.com
jonasmerlin — March 15, 2023 That's insanely cool, thanks for sharing this! Since you seem to have implemented some of the patterns yourself/seen some of them implemented in real physical spaces: what's your experience with and opinion on their validity @Ward? Has the organization of these spaces according to the patterns had the effect you desired? (edited) Ward — 03/18/2023 12:18 PM @jonasmerlin When 30 years ago we bought the house we still inhabit The Pattern Language was on my mind. We continue to appreciate Light On Two Sides Of Every Room even though this meant some windows looked at the neighbor's siding. They were valued more for light than view and were eventually decorated creatively. The under stair space was immediately recognized as Child Caves much to the appreciation of our then preschool kids. There is still stuff in there as they arranged it. The two-story plus basement plan had a potential fourth bedroom in the basement with its own outside door. This was offered as a Teenager's Cottage to both boys but neither was interested in separating from the family. (edited) We decorated reinforcing the Intimacy Gradient with the front room becoming the home for the occasional antique. We called this the "Don't Room" where kids were allowed but likely to get instructions not present in the rest of the house. The front yard was formal and the back yard wild with a stone path leading into the woods. jonasmerlin — Yesterday at 7:49 AM Oh wow, thanks for this detailed answer! I immediately had to tell my partner about your experience with these patterns, as they make APL more easy to grasp (and will be very relevant for us in the near to mid future). I hope she understands what it is that I'm reading there a bit better now (edited) BrunoWinck — Yesterday at 9:04 AM It's an inspiring chapter. I'll take the privilege of the French member, an hour earlier, to take a walk under the sun before the chat. OP — Yesterday at 10:56 AM so, in conclusion: hierarchies are good? Or, in some sense, inevitable… jonasmerlin — Yesterday at 11:05 AM Actually I find it very hard to draw any definitive conclusion from this pattern at all Far more so than with the other ones (edited) gilesdring — Yesterday at 11:09 AM I kind of agree, but it feels like a significantly more practical chapter than any of the earlier ones. I can imagine using this as a framework for thinking about the structure of a space (or more ephemeral / less physical design). jonasmerlin — Yesterday at 11:16 AM Yes, that's definitely true. In the intro to the chapter he also kind of says so himself, that now "we are dealing for the first time with patterns that are under the control of individuals or small groups of individuals, who are able to build the patterns all at once." Also not being able to draw a definitive conclusion isn't necessarily a bad thing - it means I'm also not able to "dismiss" the pattern. But with this pattern in isolation I find it hard to say if it even is saying something "meaningful" - in the sense that it's not obvious/inevitable - at all. I'm interested in seeing if this will stay true for the other more concrete/small scale patterns as well and if they will only be really meaningful in relation to each other. gilesdring — Yesterday at 11:23 AM I think, as has been observed in our discussions previously, that the book is A Pattern Language that encapsulates the collective world view of the authors. We’ve seen the Utopianism that this manifests in the large scale patterns. We’re now seeing the “rightness of a solution given this context” in the more actionable patterns. It’ll be interesting to follow this narrative in the way you suggest… In their defence, right up top of the book they say that it’s up to the reader to construct their own pattern language that works for their context. jonasmerlin — Today at 1:57 AM Absolutely agree. Part of me still thinks that it would have been very interesting to decide on a "project" before starting our journey and then structuring our reading around that, like they suggest in the book's intro. Exactly because of the book's insistance that the patterns only become "whole" in specific contexts. hanbzu — Today at 4:18 AM That's a good way of putting it, hierarchy is inevitable. Hierarchies emerge in all natural structures, so they are, at least, useful. But things are more complicated, as Alexander himself wrote in his 1965 essay "A city is not a tree", acknowledging that relationships never conform to a pure hierarchical structure—and accusing high modernist urban planners of making that mistake. Also it's important the process that generates hierarchies, they could be designed from the top, or emerge from the bottom, a combination of the two and everything in between