---
title: "Short Passages (132)"
created: 2026-07-01
updated: 2026-07-01
type: concept
status: compiled
namespace: pattern-language
pattern_number: 132
pattern_name: "Short Passages"
source_repository: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md
source_url: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md/blob/master/Patterns/Short%20Passages%20%28132%29.md
license_note: Non-commercial reuse with attribution; see namespace README and source LICENSE.md.
related_patterns:
  - "The Flow Through Rooms (131)"
  - "Building Thoroughfare (101)"
  - "Circulation Realms (98)"
  - "Light on Two Sides of Every Room (159)"
  - "Alcoves (179)"
  - "Window Place (180)"
  - "Thick Walls (197)"
  - "Closets Between Rooms (198)"
  - "Outdoor Room (163)"
  - "Gallery Surround (166)"
  - "Low Sill (222)"
  - "Interior Windows (194)"
  - "Solid Doors with Glass (237)"
  - "The Shape of Indoor Space (191)"
---

# Short Passages (132)

> Source pattern from the abridged `apl-md` corpus. Use as a design reference and constraint seed; do not treat as commercial-clean training data.

### Problem
>“…long, sterile corridors set the scene for everything bad about modern architecture.”

### Solution
>Keep passages short. Make them as much like rooms as possible, with carpets or wood on the floor, furniture, bookshelves, beautiful windows. Make them generous in shape, and always give them plenty of light; the best corridors and passages of all are those which have windows along an entire wall.

### Related Patterns
... [[The Flow Through Rooms (131)]] describes the generosity of light and movement in the way that rooms connect to one another and recommends against the use of passages. But when there has to be a passage in an office or a house and when it is too small to be a [[Building Thoroughfare (101)]], it must be treated very specially, as if it were itself a room. This pattern gives the character of these smallest passages, and so completes the circulation system laid down by [[Circulation Realms (98)]] and [[Building Thoroughfare (101)]] and [[The Flow Through Rooms (131)]].

Put in windows, bookshelves, and furnishings to make them as much like actual rooms as possible, with alcoves, seats along the edge - [[Light on Two Sides of Every Room (159)]], [[Alcoves (179)]], [[Window Place (180)]], [[Thick Walls (197)]], [[Closets Between Rooms (198)]]; open up the long side into the garden or out onto balconies - [[Outdoor Room (163)]], [[Gallery Surround (166)]], [[Low Sill (222)]]. Make interior windows between the passage and the rooms which open off it - [[Interior Windows (194)]], [[Solid Doors with Glass (237)]]. And finally, for the shape of the passages, in detail, start with [[The Shape of Indoor Space (191)]] ...

---

> [!cite]- Alexander, Christopher. _A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction_. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 632.
> #APL/confidence/medium
>
> #APL/Building-Patterns/Light-and-Space