Problem
There is no substitute for fire.
Solution
Build the fire in a common space—perhaps in the kitchen—where it provides a natural focus for talk and dreams and thought. Adjust the location until it knits together the social spaces and rooms around it, giving them each a glimpse of the fire; and make a window or some other focus to sustain the place during the times when the fire is out.
Related Patterns
… this pattern helps to create the spirit of the Common Areas at the Heart (129), and even helps to give its layout and position, because it influences the way that paths and rooms relate to one another.
Even where the traditional open fireplace is obsolete for heating or where fuel is scarce, find some way of converting refuse, paper, scraps of wood and cardboard into logs which can be burned, and which smell good - perhaps with some kind of natural resin in a home-made press. Burn all the dry organic materials that do not go to the Compost (178), so that the leftovers from the materials which come into the house all serve a useful function, either as fertilizer or as fuel; indeed, the ashes from the fire may go into the compost. Make a circle of chairs around the fire - Sitting Circle (185); perhaps these chairs include a Window Place (180).
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 838.