Architects are loosing ground against Builders as the primary
designers of most buildings. Office buildings and schools and
industrial parks are all, literally, cookie cutter architecture. There
are either industry standards or government regulations for all sorts
of aspects of the built environment (at least in the US), so an
experienced construction firm can design and build perfectly
serviceable office buildings without Architects. (Builders have
architects on staff, of course, but not "Architects," if you get my
meaning.) That is the power of patterns. Patterns are not about
building fancy art museums that are unique but expensive. You need
Architects for that. Patterns are about building tens of thousands of
cookie cutter office buildings that are all functionally identical.

So... if you are building a fancy or unique or ephemeral web product
(movie website?) then patterns may be wasted on you. But if you are
building hundreds of similar functions in a large scale web product
(banking website?) then patterns seem like a good idea.

~ James

On 10/16/07, Mark Schraad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I asked the same question in the late nineties of some architect friends. My 
> office was located on the same block as the AIA and there were several firms 
> within a few hundred feet. What they told me was that the idea has ever been 
> widely accepted as optimal outside of the academic world. In fact it was met 
> with ridacule when the book was first published. One of them referred to it 
> as cookie cutter architecture. Certainly not a gauge on the entire 
> profession... but it is what I was told.
>
>
>
>
> On Tuesday, October 16, 2007, at 02:22PM, "David Malouf" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
> wrote:
> >Since I'm about to give a talk on this topic on Friday, it has been
> >on my mind a lot. I saw Chris' post on facebook questioning the very
> >value of Patterns themselves and I often question them too.
> >
> >Question: Has anyone spoken to people in the Architecture world and
> >about their thoughts on Patterns. We seem to admire Alexander, but do
> >they? And how are they using them if at all?
> >
> >I guess when it doubt go back to the source, no?
> >
> >I do know there are architects in this community maybe they can
> >enlighten us a bit.
> >
> >-- dave
> >
> >
> >. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> >Posted from the new ixda.org
> >http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss?post=21539
> >
> >
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-- 
James Melzer
http://www.jamesmelzer.com
http://del.icio.us/jamesmelzer
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