### Problem
>If you spend eight hours of your day at work, and eight hours at home, there is no reason why your workplace should be any less of a community than your home.

### Solution
>Build or encourage the formation of work communities—each one a collection of smaller clusters of workplaces which have their own courtyards, gathered round a larger common square or common courtyard which contains shops and lunch counters. The total work community should have no more than 10 or 20 workplaces in it.

### Related Patterns
... according to the pattern [[Scattered Work (9)]], work is entirely decentralized and woven in and out of the housing areas. The effect of [[Scattered Work (9)]] can be increased piecemeal, by building individual work communities, one by one, in the boundaries between the neighborhoods; these work communities will then help to form the boundaries -- [[Subculture Boundary (13)]], [[Neighborhood Boundary (15)]] -- and above all in the boundaries, they will help to form [[Activity Nodes (30)]].

Make the square at the heart of the community a public square with public paths coming through it [[Small Public Squares (61)]]; either in this square, or in some attached space, place opportunities for sports -- [[Local Sports (72)]]; make sure that the entire community is always within three minutes' walk of an [[Accessible Green (60)]]; lay out the individual smaller courtyards in such a way that people naturally gather there -- [[Courtyards Which Live (115)]]; keep the workshops small -- [[Self-Governing Workshops and Offices (80)]]; encourage communal cooking and eating over and beyond the lunch counters -- [[Street Cafe (88)]], [[Food Stands (93)]], [[Communal Eating (147)]] ...

---

> [!cite]- Alexander, Christopher. _A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction_. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 222.
> #APL/confidence/high
>
> #APL/Town-Patterns/Work-Communities