---
title: "The Family (75)"
created: 2026-07-01
updated: 2026-07-01
type: concept
status: compiled
namespace: pattern-language
pattern_number: 75
pattern_name: "The Family"
source_repository: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md
source_url: https://github.com/zenodotus280/apl-md/blob/master/Patterns/The%20Family%20%2875%29.md
license_note: Non-commercial reuse with attribution; see namespace README and source LICENSE.md.
related_patterns:
  - "House Cluster (37)"
  - "Row Houses (38)"
  - "Housing Hill (39)"
  - "Housing In Between (48)"
  - "Life Cycle (26)"
  - "Household Mix (35)"
  - "Your Own Home (79)"
  - "House for a Small Family (76)"
  - "House for a Couple (77)"
  - "House for One Person (78)"
  - "Common Areas at the Heart (129)"
  - "Communal Eating (147)"
  - "Building Complex (95)"
---

# The Family (75)

> 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
>The nuclear family is not by itself a viable social form.

### Solution
>Set up processes which encourage groups of 8 to 12 people to come together and establish communal households. Morphologically, the important things are:

>1. Private realms for the groups and individuals that make up the extended family: couple realms, private rooms, sub-households for small families.
>2. Common space for shared functions: cooking, working, gardening, child care.
>3. At the important crossroads of the site, a place where the entire group can meet and sit together.

### Related Patterns
... assume now, that you have decided to build a house for yourself. If you place it properly, this house can help to form a cluster, or a row of houses, or a hill of houses - [[House Cluster (37)]], [[Row Houses (38)]], [[Housing Hill (39)]] - or it can help to keep a working community alive - [[Housing In Between (48)]]. This next pattern now gives you some vital information about the social character of the household itself. If you succeed in following this pattern, it will help repair [[Life Cycle (26)]] and [[Household Mix (35)]] in your community.

Each individual household within the larger family must, at all costs, have a clearly defined territory of its own, which it controls - [[Your Own Home (79)]]; treat the individual territories according to the nature of the individual households - [[House for a Small Family (76)]], [[House for a Couple (77)]], [[House for One Person (78)]]; and build common space between them, where the members of the different smaller households can meet and eat together - [[Common Areas at the Heart (129)]], [[Communal Eating (147)]]. For the shape of the building, gardens, parking, and surroundings, begin with [[Building Complex (95)]] ...

---

> [!cite]- Alexander, Christopher. _A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction_. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 376.
> #APL/confidence/medium
>
> #APL/Town-Patterns/Social-Institutions---Families