226 Column Place*

. . . certain columns, especially those which are free standing, play an important social role, beyond their structural role as Columns at the Corners (212). These are, especially, the columns which help to form arcades, galleries, porches, walkways, and outdoor rooms - Public Outdoor Room (69), Arcades (119), Outdoor Room (163), Gallery Surround (166), Six-Foot Balcony (167), Trellised Walk (174). This pattern defines the character these columns need to make them function socially.

Thin columns, spindly columns, columns which take their shape from structural arguments alone, will never make a comfortable environment.

The fact is, that a free-standing column plays a role in shaping human space. It marks a point. Two or more together define a wall or an enclosure. The main function of the columns, from a human point of view, is to create a space for human activity.

In ancient times, the structural arguments for columns coincided in their implications with the social arguments. Columns made of brick, or stone, or timber were always large and thick. It was easy to make useful space around them.

A big thick column.

But with steel and reinforced concrete, it is possible to make a very slender column; so slender that its social properties disappear altogether. Four inch steel pipes or 6 inch reinforced concrete columns break up space, but they destroy it as a place for human action, because they do not create "spots" where people can be comfortable.

Thin columns of the plastic world.

In these times, it is therefore necessary to reintroduce, consciously, the social purposes which columns have, alongside their structural functions. Let us try to define these social purposes exactly.

A column affects a volume of space around it, according to the situation. The space has an area that is roughly circular, perhaps 5 feet in radius.

 

The space around the column.

When the column is too thin, or lacks a top or bottom, this entire volume - an area of perhaps 75 square feet - is lost. It cannot be a satisfactory place in its own right: the column is too thin to lean against, there is no way to build a seat up against it, there is no natural way to place a table or a chair against the column. On the other hand, the column still breaks up the space. It subtly prevents people from walking directly through that area: we notice that people tend to give these thin columns a wide berth; and it prevents people from forming groups.

In short, if the column has to be there, it will destroy a considerable area unless it is made to be a place where people feel comfortable to stay, a natural focus, a place to sit down, a place to lean.

Therefore:

When a column is free standing, make it as thick as a man - at least 12 inches, preferably 16 inches: and form places around it where people can sit and lean comfortably: a step, a small seat built up against the column, or a space formed by a pair of columns.

You can get the extra thickness quite cheaply if you build the column as a BOX COLUMN (216); complete the "place" the column forms, by giving it a "roof" in the form of a column capital, or vault which springs from the column, or by bracing the column against the beams - Column Connection (227). And when it makes sense, make the column base a Sitting Wall (243), a place for flowers - Raised Flowers (245), or a place for a chair or table - Different Chairs (251). . . .

A Pattern Language is published by Oxford University Press, Copyright Christopher Alexander, 1977.