Part of a 5-fold Pattern Language.
Subsequently published in Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential (1986)
Physical Many people want to live in the country whilst also living close to a large city. It is however geometrically impossible to have thousands of small farms within a few minutes of a major city. Both are possible by arranging a loose network of country roads around large open squares of countryside or farmland, with houses closely packed along the road, but only one house deep. In these terms, the suburb is an obsolete and contradictory form of human settlement.
Social There is advantage in participation in major groups and local communities. In order to reconcile these mutually incompatible forms of activity, a loose network of relationships is necessary which links both the limited number of central organizations to the many non-central, minimally organized groups and ensures that the latter provide protection against external encroachment.
Conceptual There is advantage in major conceptual frameworks as well as in minimally organized conceptual processes. In order to reconcile these mutually incompatible forms of conceptual organization a loose network of relationships is necessary which links both the limited number of centrally organized frameworks to the minimally organized conceptual processes and ensures that the latter provide protection against progressive formalization.
Psychic There is advantage in highly ordered modes of awareness as well as in minimally ordered modes of awareness. In order to reconcile these mutually incompatible modes a loose network of associative relationships is necessary which links both the limited number of ordered modes to the minimally ordered modes and ensures that the latter provide protection against loss of the former.
Broader Interpretation of complementary modes of organization.
Narrower Identifiable context; Cluster of frameworks; Non-linear organization; Four-level structural limit.
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