Problem
Shops rarely place themselves in those positions which best serve the people’s needs, and also guarantee their own stability.
Solution
When you locate any individual shop, follow a three-step procedure:
- Identify all other shops which offer the service you are interested in; locate them on a map.
- Identify and map the location of potential consumers. Wherever possible, indicate the density or total number of potential consumers in any given area.
- Look for the biggest gap in the existing web of shops in those areas where there are potential consumers.
- Within the gap in the web of similar shops, locate your shop next to the largest cluster of other kinds of shops.
Related Patterns
… This pattern defines a piecemeal process which can help to locate shops and services where they are needed, in such a way that they will strengthen the Mosaic of Subcultures (8), Subculture Boundary (13), and the decentralized economy needed for Scattered Work (9) and Local Transport Areas (11).
We estimate, that under the impact of this rule, a web of shopping with the following overall characteristics will emerge:
| Population | Distance Apart* | |
|---|---|---|
| Magic of the City (10) | 300,000 | 10 |
| Promenade (31) | 50,000 | 4 |
| Shopping Street (32) | 10,000 | 1.8 |
| Market of Many Shops (46) | 4,000 | 1.1 |
| Corner Grocery (89) | 1,000 | 0.5 |
*These distances are calculated for an overall population density of 5000 per square mile. For a population density of D persons/sq.mile, divide the distances by root(D/5000)
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 104