My favourite reference book on planning and architecture is A Pattern Language, written by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein in 1977. In it the authors set out a series of “patterns”, which they have quite subjectively arrived at to provide a sourcebook of a timeless way of building.
The patterns relate to towns, buildings and construction. For example, pattern number 125 “Stair Seats” states: “wherever there is action in a place, the spots which are the most inviting are those high enough to give people a vantage point and low enough to put them in the action”. Other patterns out of a total of 252 include “Shopping Street”, “Old People Everywhere”, “Windows on Two Sides” etc and each pattern gives an argument as to why it is important to include these considerations in planning either a town or a house.
Pattern No 21 is “Four Storey Limit”. In this pattern it is argued that there is “abundant evidence to show that high buildings make people crazy”. Studies are cited to support this assertion, including a Danish study comparing children from high and low residential blocks, which showed that kids from the high blocks started playing out of doors on their own at a later age than the low block kids and that the percentage of kids playing out of doors on their own decreased with the height of their homes.
The pattern concludes that a four storey limit is “an appropriate way to express the proper connection between building height and the health of people” and quotes a Glasgow children’s verse that relates to flinging a “piece”, a slice of bread and jam, from a window to a child in the street. This has been a recognised custom in Glasgow tenement housing.
The Jelly Piece Song By Adam McNaughton
I’m a skyscraper wean, live on the nineteenth floor, On’ I’m no’ gaun oot tae play ony mair, For since we moved tae oor new house I’m wastin’ away, ‘Cos I’m gettin’ wan less meal ev’ry day,
Oh, ye canny fling pieces oot a twenty-storey flat, Seven hundred hungry weans will testify tae that, If it’s butter, cheese or jeely, if the breid is plain or pan, The odds against it reaching us is ninety-nine tae wan
We’ve wrote away tae Oxfam tae try an’ get some aid, We’ve a’ joined thegither and formed a “piece” brigade, We’re gonny march tae London tae demand oor Civil Rights, Like “Nae mair hooses ower piece flingin’ heights”.
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Four storey limit
My favourite reference book on planning and architecture is A Pattern Language, written by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein in 1977. In it the authors set out a series of “patterns”, which they have quite subjectively arrived at to provide a sourcebook of a timeless way of building.
The patterns relate to towns, buildings and construction. For example, pattern number 125 “Stair Seats” states: “wherever there is action in a place, the spots which are the most inviting are those high enough to give people a vantage point and low enough to put them in the action”. Other patterns out of a total of 252 include “Shopping Street”, “Old People Everywhere”, “Windows on Two Sides” etc and each pattern gives an argument as to why it is important to include these considerations in planning either a town or a house.
Pattern No 21 is “Four Storey Limit”. In this pattern it is argued that there is “abundant evidence to show that high buildings make people crazy”. Studies are cited to support this assertion, including a Danish study comparing children from high and low residential blocks, which showed that kids from the high blocks started playing out of doors on their own at a later age than the low block kids and that the percentage of kids playing out of doors on their own decreased with the height of their homes.
The pattern concludes that a four storey limit is “an appropriate way to express the proper connection between building height and the health of people” and quotes a Glasgow children’s verse that relates to flinging a “piece”, a slice of bread and jam, from a window to a child in the street. This has been a recognised custom in Glasgow tenement housing.
The Jelly Piece Song By Adam McNaughton
I’m a skyscraper wean, live on the nineteenth floor, On’ I’m no’ gaun oot tae play ony mair, For since we moved tae oor new house I’m wastin’ away, ‘Cos I’m gettin’ wan less meal ev’ry day,
Oh, ye canny fling pieces oot a twenty-storey flat, Seven hundred hungry weans will testify tae that, If it’s butter, cheese or jeely, if the breid is plain or pan, The odds against it reaching us is ninety-nine tae wan
We’ve wrote away tae Oxfam tae try an’ get some aid, We’ve a’ joined thegither and formed a “piece” brigade, We’re gonny march tae London tae demand oor Civil Rights, Like “Nae mair hooses ower piece flingin’ heights”.