Problem
When a person arrives in a complex of offices or services or workshops, or in a group of related houses, there is a good chance they will experience confusion unless the whole collection is laid out before them, so that they can see the entrance of the place where they are going.
Solution
Lay out the entrances to form a family. This means:
- They form a group, are visible together, and each visible from all the others.
- They are all broadly similar, for instances all porches, or all gates in a wall, or all marked by a similar kind of doorway.
Related Patterns
… this pattern is an embellishment of Circulation Realms (98) which portrayed a series of realms, in a large building or a building complex, with a major entrance or gateway into each realm and a collection of minor doorways, gates, and openings off each realm. This pattern applies to the relationship between these “minor” entrances.
In detail, make the entrances bold and easy to see - Main Entrance (110) ; when they lead into private domains, houses and the like, make a transition in between the, public street and the inside - Entrance Transition (112); and shape the entrance itself as a room, which straddles the wall, and is thus both inside and outside as a projecting volume, covered and protected from the rain and sun - Entrance Room (130). If it is an entrance from an indoor street into a public office, make reception part of the entrance - Reception Welcomes You (149) …
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 499.