Files
Abstract
Built environments exert a formidable influence on societal behavior--they shape the behavior of their users just as surely as an architect shapes a building. The form, therefore, of our environments becomes ultimately important. Christopher Alexander and the other authors of A Pattern Language address the general lack of meaning in our built environments by offering a system of building and planning based upon patterns which they assembled and consider to be archtypal. The patterns are based on observations from around the world of human behavior and structures. The authors describe the patterns as being so deeply rooted in the nature of things that they regard them as transcendent of culture and time. But are the patterns truly universal? Within the context of Ghana, West Africa, five patterns are explored with regard to their universality.