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Inspired by Christopher Alexander’s work, I intended to equip exhibition designers with a tool that would be based on his theory of a pattern language and would serve as a collection of best practices brought from other disciplines and adopted to exhibition design. During the course of my research I redirected my focus and decided to discover what pattern language means for exhibition design.
I looked for patterns and pattern languages in different areas of specialization. The idea o f design patterns, drawn from Christopher Alexander's work in architecture and planning, had been adopted throughout the worlds of design and computer science. I discovered pattern languages in pedagogy (case study 1) and design for behavior change (case study 2). Looking for an explanation why the human brain seeks patterns I came across The RIP Toolbox for Memory (case study 3). Furthermore, for expert insight, I interviewed Michael Meister, Director of Exhibition Design at the American Museum o f Natural History, Michael Joyce, Director o f Exhibition Design, Argyle Design, Inc., and Bernard D. Beitman, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department o f Psychiatry at University of Missouri-Columbia.
As a final outcome of my research I was able to define a pattern language in exhibition design. Sadly, preoccupation with design methods may cause designers to lose the human perspective. The hidden strength o f the pattern language in exhibition design lies in its imaginative appreciation of human patterns. I really think that understanding the pattern language helped me create an exhibit that is unified, comfortable, exact, egoless, and alive.
If exhibition designers understand a pattern language and apply it to the exhibition design practice they will be able to generate more diverse and efficient design solutions to the unique problems they encounter. The pattern language will help designers to create exhibits that are physically, intellectually, and emotionally satisfying to visitors.
The pattern language in exhibition design is the fundamental interconnectedness of natural, aesthetic, archetypal, cultural, and familial patterns, and a great appreciation of human patterns. This language defines any exhibit as unified, comfortable, exact, egoless, and alive.