2.3.8. Design from Pattern to Detail

Patterns give us context. Observing them help us to predict things, which is vital to be able to do in complex systems. For example, when growing things weather patterns are vital information. Other example are; the things you do every morning after waking up, how you respond to certain things, and the patterns of climate changes each season. These are all patterns and we call that pattern language.

Do you know which way the wind blows in your region, and what time of year? 

What are your rain patterns? Not just average patterns, but extremes? Is there a long term pattern to drought and flooding? 

How about temperature patterns - it’s good to know the averages but what are the patterns of extremes? What are the record cold temperatures and when and how often have they hit? 

Weather is a day to day event. We can recognize short term patterns in weather but it can be unpredictable if just following the day to day happenings. Climate is a pattern language. It is what weather does over time - over one year (seasons, for instance), or over decades. Weather can change drastically from day to day, but climate changes slowly and can have a much deeper effect. 

Because of climate change, major weather patterns are changing. So we need to design for that.

Here’s one example: The jet stream is a major flow of wind high in the atmosphere pattern that can have a major effect on temperature, rain, and wind. It moves from west to east in the US. In winter, the jet stream is sometimes pushed further south, bringing cold arctic air into the US states. This can cause record cold or freezes early or late in the season. This stream of air, when it meets warm air, also causes heavy weather. This includes massive thunderstorms, “bomb cyclone” winter storms, derechos, tornadoes, flooding, etc.

Lately, the pattern of the jet stream has been driven south and sometimes “sticks” in place longer. This causes multiple nights of freezing in normally warm areas, which is harder on plants, or many days of rain which causes larger floods. The jet stream tends to hit Texas and Louisiana particularly hard in the south, and the midwest through the east coast in the north. It sometimes stays far enough south to send freezing weather to much of Florida.

The record bitter cold in Texas in early 2021 was caused by the polar vortex (cold, rotating air that encircles the North Pole) being shoved down into the US. A number of factors need to be in place in order for that to happen. Wind patterns from the south pushed the vortex further north before it hit Florida full force. These are patterns of give and take in the atmosphere that cause major weather to occur.

There are seasonal river and spring patterns, insect patterns, migration patterns, etc, that are useful to know as well. We have so much more prediction when we understand these patterns and our designs are more informed. 

There is much more to this subject and we’ll cover it in more detail in its own section, but the reason this is a principle is that pattern gives you a context for designing for resilience that you don’t have if you ignore these larger patterns of the landscape. 

There are invisible structure patterns that can affect the design too, such as your own habit patterns.