Shape Grammars

M.Arch
III rd Sem_SAP
 Introduction
• What is a Shape Grammar?
• “A shape grammar is a set of shape rules that
apply in a step-by-step way to generate a set, or
language, of designs.
• Shape grammars are both descriptive and
generative.
• The rules of a shape grammar generate or
compute designs, and the rules themselves are
descriptions of the forms of the generated
designs.”
Shape Grammars in Education and Practice: History and Prospects (Terry
Knight, 1999)
 What makes Shape
Grammars Special?
• Shape grammars are spatial
– They deal with shapes directly, no
translation or interpretation from symbols is
required.
‣ Shape grammars support emergence
– The emergence of shapes is an important
part of how shape grammars work.
‣ Shape grammars match non-
deterministically
 Shape Grammar

Illustration by Peter Murray, "the Architecture of the

Italian Renaissance"
Shape Grammar
Shape Grammar
Shape Grammar
Shape Grammar
 Shape Grammar

Derivation
Shape Grammar
 Background
• In the second half of the last century a
movement of a more systematic approach of
architectural design emerged (Alexander,
1967; 1977). In the well-known ‘A Pattern
Language’, design problems can be solved
using design patterns.
• Structuralism is another systematic approach
to architecture.
 Background
• In 1971 Stiny and Gips published their first paper
about the shape grammar formalism.
• In the years after and still today, different
grammars that have an analytical function in
describing a specific (architectural) style have been
developed.
• Also the roles of shape grammar applications in
education and practice have been studied (Knight,
1999).
• Recently there is a movement towards a
development of a more generic approach of shape
grammar in the application of design.
 Background

Orphanage: Burgerweeshuis Apartment complex: Safdie’s Habitat

Amsterdam, 1960 ’67, 1967

Just like these approaches, shape grammar describes a systematic

language to describe building designs.
 Background
• Shape grammar can also be applied in
education and design.
• The report on Shape Computation (Knight,
1999), states that there are three different
approaches possible for shape grammar in use
of architectural education and design:
– analysis of existing designs,
– creating original designs, or
– a combination of the two.
 Background
• The students create their
own grammar that reveals
simplicity or regularities
behind designs that seem
complex or random at first.
• The Kindergarten approach
developed by Stiny (Stiny,
1980b) is an approach that
creates designs from scratch
through shape grammar.
• Creating original designs
with shape grammars can Froebel’s Building blocks for children to
learn about spatial relations.
help in teaching composition
and visually correlates as
proportion and symmetry.
 Shape Grammar
how are they used?
• analyses
• original designs
• as explanatory devices
 Spatial Rules
• Shape grammars are spatial, rather than
textual or symbolic
– The elements of the shape grammar rules
are shapes: points, lines, planes, or volumes
– Shape grammar rules use shape operations
of addition and subtraction, and spatial
transformations, e.g. translation, reflection,
and rotation
 General shape rules.

Shape rules identified

 Spatial Rules
• Roughly there are three
different rule structures to
develop a basic composition :
1. addition around a focal
point,
2. subdivision, and
i. Addition around a ii. Subdivision
3. a transformation of a focal point
predefined grid.
• Benrós developed a generic
shape grammar in 2012, with
the structure of subdivision
for plans based on all three
rule systems. iii. Transformation of a predefined
grid
 Shape Grammars – Geometry / syntax

Koch snow flake grammar

ice ray lattice grammar Palladian grammar

Terry Knight grammar

Shape Grammars – meaning / semantics

Malagueira house grammar FLW grammar

 conceptual differences
geometry meaning

• geometric rewrite • semantic (graph)

rules rewrite rules

IF{‘left’} THEN {…}

IF{‘right’} THEN {…}
IF{‘street side’} THEN {…}
• ambiguous IF{‘ courtyard’} THEN {…}
• emergence
• unambiguous
• ‘easy’ to implement • emergence?
• little to no help for an
architectural designer • ‘harder’ to implement
• does it help the
architect?
22
ice‐ray Grammar designs
 Shape Grammar Development
Stages in a Shape grammar development
• shapes
• spatial relations
• rules
• shape grammar
• designs
 shapes

basic components of grammars and design

 shapes
• shape is …
• Shape is a finite arrangement of lines of non‐zero length
with respect to a coordinate system
• Shapes can be formed by addition of shapes which
consists of lines in both shapes.
• Shapes can be formed by subtraction of shapes which
consists of the lines in the first shape that are not in the
second.
• Shapes can be formed by combinations of the two
under an Euclidean transformation
• A central notion in this definition of shapes is pictorial
equivalence
 Euclidean transformations
Spatial transformations
1. translation
2. rotation
3. reflection
4. scale
 Euclidean transformations
• Boolean operations
• union
• intersection
• subtraction
Translation
Rotation
Reflections
Scale
Combinations of transformations
Euclidean transformations + scale
 shape rules

A shape rule has two parts separated by an arrow:

A left hand side (LHS) shape or shapes, which contain a condition
A right hand side (RHS) shape or shapes, which contain the associated action.
 Design: Derivations

Labeled rules:
Labels are symbols that
say how to apply a rule
.they could be
numbers , letters or
any kind
of signs (a) Four labeled shape rules
(b) (b) Derivations of designs
labeled rule based derivation
labeled rule based derivation
(a) different labeling of the
rule A->A+B
(b) Derivations of designs
An Example on The Shape Grammar That
Varies With The Emergence of Shapes
 Emergence
• Shape grammars treat shapes as non-
atomic elements that can be decomposed
and reassembled as required.
‣ This allows the application of rules to shapes
that emerge from any parts of the shapes
generated through the application of rules.
‣ Support for emergence distinguishes shape
grammars from other design grammars.
 vocabulary

• shapes made up from these vocabulary

In the general case, shapes are parameterized
schemes
• production rules (or rules of change,
encapsulate a spatial relation)
• seed shape (we have to start somewhere)
• “shape grammar embodies change implies
generation”
 vocabulary
• Vocabulary is a limited set of shapes no two of
which are similar.
• The vocabulary provides the basic building
blocks by means of which shapes can be
generated through shape arithmetic and
geometric (euclidean) transformations.
Transformation in shapes by using
simple shape grammar
 SHAPE RELATION
• Spatial relations arise whenever there are two or
more shapes in the space.
Three kinds of shape relations are:
• Overlapping - Those shapes that share a common
part are said to overlap.
• Embedding - If two shapes have common parts
and at least one of these shapes has no part that
is not a part of the other, then this shape is said
to be embedded within the other.
• Discrete shapes - Planes with no shared
boundaries are discrete. However shapes that
share a common boundary but have no part in
common are also discrete.
 spatial relations

When two or more shapes combine they form a spatial

relation That is, a set of shapes specifies a spatial relation
Bullion operation on shapes:
Addition and Subtraction rule
Addition and Subtraction rule
 Kindergarten grammars, Stiny (1980)

3D transformation of shapes
Shape Grammar
Evolution tree of the shape grammar
application in architecture
 SHAPE GRAMMAR AS AN ANALYTICAL TOOL:
The three grammars as case study are
the Prairie house
the Queen Anne house

the original Palladian

SHAPE GRAMMAR AS AN ANALYTICAL
TOOL

Koning's and Eisenberg's compositional forms for Wright's prairie-style houses.

F.L.Wright’s prairie
house grammar
Prairie house grammar
•The prairie house grammar (Koning &
Eizenberg, 1981) can generate a basic
composition and the ornamentation
of the composition of a typical Frank
Lloyd Wright prairie house.
•The part of the grammar that creates
the basic composition works very
clearly.
•With a few simple and
straightforward rules, spread out over
five stages, the layout of a prairie
house can be created.
•The fireplace is the generating center
of the prairie house, therefore these
rules are all constructed as addition
around a focal point
 In 2012 an alternative grammar
for the original Palladian grammar
is developed by Benrós, Duarte
and Hanna (Benrós, Duarte, &
Hanna, 2012), where the original
grammar is based upon a grid, the
alternative grammar is based
upon sub division.

Typical for the Palladian grammar is

the transformation of the grid, by
subtracting embedded parts and
adding new shapes. Rules 40 and 52
create an inantis portico by first
subtracting the front wall and adding
Palladian villa grammar columns.
 The Queen Anne House
grammar (Flemming, 1987)
could be used to generate a
basic type of a Queen Anne
House:

The first five stages of

the grammar generate
the interior and
therefore the relations
between spaces, while
the second five stages
generate the exterior of
the house.
Queen Anne grammar
Mughul garden grammar
SHAPE GRAMMAR AS A DESIGN TOOL
• Developing new, original designs by using shape
grammars emerged from analytic approach and
combining existing rules and grammar language.
• In the early 90’s shape grammars were used for
teaching architectural composition.
• Students of architecture at MIT, Harvard, UCLA
and Yale used the shape grammars to learn about
the architectural design language of certain
buildings and apply various modifications in order
to generate their own new languages.
• Shape grammar routine is used to subdivide
initial solid shape into constructible components
for digital fabrication on CNC cutting machine.
 A computer-implemented shape
grammar: design paths in a design
space
 Subdivision grammar results applied to Gehry's Experience Music Project
in Seattle.

• Shape grammar approach in Gehry's design projects

based on assumption that surface forms on any
curvature can be constructed from flat sheets,
deformed within some limited range.
Workflow for Master
Planning using Shape
Grammars
 Encoding design into grammar

Left: Stochastically with CGA (Computer Graphic

Applications) Shape placed building masses on a given
urban field.
Right: Automatic adjustments within the layout
following regulations concerning shape masses
Encoding design into grammar

Above: Layout of a typical urban

environment produced with CGA
Shape.
Below: Close-up on detailed urban
scene showing block, lot and
vegetation zones
PARAMETRIC SHAPE GRAMMARS

a) Rules for a Standard Shape Grammar

b) A derivation of the rules
(c) A result generated by applying the rules repeatedly.
(a) Rules for a Parametric Shape Grammar
(b) A derivation of the rules
(c) A result generated by applying the rules repeatedly.
application in a real design context
application in a real design context
Class Exercises
 1. Free exploration of shapes

The experiment began with a quick understanding about shapes

and how do we see it from a 1D to 3D perception, accompanied
with examples from architectural masterpieces with basic
geometric forms.
 2.Shape composition with rules
• The exercise begins
with the
understanding of
shape grammar
theory.
• Grammars are
experimented
conceptually through
the physical
manipulation of
thermocol blocks.
 Class Exercises
• Students are required to understand different kind
of shape grammar rules and develop their skills in
producing designs using the shape grammar rules
The exercises include the following:
i. Single rule 2-dimensional shape grammar
ii. Single rule 3-dimensional shape grammar
iii. Given two rules 2-dimensional shape grammar
iv. Two rules 2-dimensional shape grammar
v. Two rules 3-dimensional shape grammar
Single Rule – 2D
Single Rule – 2D
Single Rule – 2D
Double Rule – 2D
Double Rule – 2D
Single Rule – 3D
Single Rule – 3D
Single Rule – 3D
Example
Example
Single Rule – 3D
Double Rule – 3D
3. Shape grammar applied in design
process
The blocks can be used as pre-
cut and painted in different
colors that defined their
functions. A hypothetical
location can be considered with
definition of orientation.
 Final Project
• Final Project – The Shape Grammar of Residence
In this projects, students need to produce multiple
shape rules and use the shape rules to create multiple
design alternatives of their future home.
• Among the few designs, they are required to choose
one interesting design and show the development
process of it.
• The requirement of this home is to have 3bedrooms
with Toilets, dining room, 2 living rooms, kitchen and
other supporting spaces.
Final Project
Example1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Thank you