# Patterns which are alive and dead

> Christopher Alexander on living or dead patterns.[^1]

<Christopher Alexander> on living or dead patterns.[^1]

> …some towns and buildings are more full of life, and others less.
>
> Of course, stress and conflict are a normal and healthy part of human life…. But a pattern which prevents us from resolving our conflicting forces, leaves us almost perpetually in a state of tension…. It is therefore clear that patterns play a concrete and objective role in determining the extent to which we come to life in any given place…. But, beyond that, patterns are not merely instruments which help us live: they are themselves alive or dead…. Good patterns are good because to some extent each one of them reaches the [quality without a name](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Quality%20without%20a%20name.txt) itself.
>
> The more living patterns there are in a thing - a room, a building, or a town - the more it comes to life as an entirety, the more it glows, the more it has this self-maintaining fire, which is the [quality without a name](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/Quality%20without%20a%20name.txt).

## Footnotes

[^1]: Chapter 6 "Patterns which are alive", [The timeless way of building](https://wiki.g15e.com/pages/The%20timeless%20way%20of%20building.txt)