Christopher Alexander: Building

“On the geometric level, we see certain physical elements repeated endlessly, combined in an almost endless variety of combinations… It is puzzling to realize that the elements, which seem like elementary building blocks, keep varying, and are different every time that they occur …. If the elements are different every time that they occur, evidently then, it cannot be the elements themselves which are repeating in a building or town; these so-called elements cannot be the ultimate "atomic" constituents of space.”

Christopher Alexander book The Timeless Way of Building

Cited in: Peter Coad (1992, p. 152)
The Timeless Way of Building (1979)

Time

“Every place is given its character by certain patterns of events that keep on happening there…. These patterns of events are locked in with certain geometric patterns in the space. Indeed, each building and each town is ultimately made out of these patterns in the space, and out of nothing else; they [patterns in the space] are the atoms and molecules from which a building or a town is made.”

Christopher Alexander book The Timeless Way of Building

Cited in: Peter Coad (1992) " Object-oriented patterns http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse503/04sp/readings/designpattern.pdf." Communications of the ACM 35.9. p. 152
The Timeless Way of Building (1979)

“One begins to think with that new building block, rather than with littler pieces. And finally, the things which seem like elements dissolve, and leave a fabric of relationships behind, which is the stuff that actually repeats itself, and gives the structure to a building or a town.”

Christopher Alexander book The Timeless Way of Building

Cited in: Peter Coad (1992, p. 152) About what happens when one finds a pattern?
The Timeless Way of Building (1979)

Thinking

“Look more carefully…to find out what it really is that is repeating there …. Beyond its elements, each building [or town] is defined by certain patterns of relationships among the elements…. These relationships are not extra, but necessary to the elements… The elements themselves are patterns of relationships.”

Christopher Alexander book The Timeless Way of Building

Cited in: Peter Coad (1992, p. 152) About To find patterns, what does one look for?
The Timeless Way of Building (1979)