The narrowing of what can be selected from for inclusion in a narrative , and as a result a design, is what Goodman (1954) refers to as “probability” and Pouillon calls “contingency” (Chatman, 1980, 47). Both concepts help us understand the reduced availability of words or objects to be employed in writing a story or developing a landscape narrative that come with the first word or first impression. Once a theme, as derived from the design participants’ anticipated experiences, and client’s goals, is established, the design process, in a sense, becomes reductive. Goodman’s probability speaks to the coherence that comes with “being after the parts already presented and leading to the other parts” with a degree of probability. Interestingly, Christopher Alexander sums up this narrowing of resources a number of times throughout A Pattern Language: “no pattern is an isolated entity. Each pattern can exist in the world, only to the extent that is supported by other patterns: the larger patterns in which it is embedded, the patterns of the same size that surround it, and the smaller patterns which are embedded in it” (1977, xiii). With this we can allay students’ concern for “How do I decide what to include? I can do anything.” In deciding to design a bookcase, just as deciding to design a marina, a collection of possibilities and resources become available at the same time a myriad of other possibilities are recognized as unavailable (silly and out of place and not to be included). A backyard BBQ wouldn’t include aspects of an airport. It is unlikely that an urban plaza would include features found in a cemetery. Although Boston has a number of 250- to 300-year-old cemeteries throughout the city.
