Problem
The movement between rooms is as important as the rooms themselves; and its arrangement has as much effect on social interaction in the rooms, as the interiors of the rooms.
Solution
As far as possible, avoid the use of corridors and passages. Instead, use public rooms and common rooms as rooms for movement and for gathering. To do this, place the common rooms to form a chain, or loop, so that it becomes possible to walk from room to room—and so that private rooms open directly off these public rooms. In every case, give this indoor circulation from room to room a feeling of great generosity, passing in a ride and ample loop around the house, with views of fires and great windows.
Related Patterns
… next to the gradient of spaces created by Intimacy Gradient (127) and Common Areas at the Heart (129), the way that rooms connect to one another will play the largest role in governing the character of indoor space. This pattern describes the most fundamental way of linking rooms to one another.
Whenever passages or corridors are unavoidable, make them wide and generous too; and try to place them on one side of the building, so that they can be filled with light - Short Passages (132). Furnish them like rooms, with carpets, bookshelves, easy chairs and tables, filtered light, and do the same for Entrance Room (130) and Staircase as a Stage (133). Always make sure that these rooms for movement have plenty of light in them and perhaps a view - Zen View (134), Tapestry of Light and Dark (135), and Light on Two Sides of Every Room (159). Keep doors which open into rooms, or doors between rooms which create the flow through rooms, in the corners of the rooms - Corner Doors (196) …
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 627.