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Introduction
Shape grammars, like rule systems, are formalisms that allow rules to be
combined in a structured way to create a set of designs that share a similar
root, are part of the same family or, in stylistic terms, belong to a certain
A generic shape grammar for the Palladian Villa, Malagueira Houses and
Prairie House
The grammars selected reflect the three types of shape grammars identified
and described in Knights grammar classification as quoted by Prats [9].
The grammars, namely the Palladian villas by Palladio [1], [11], the Prairie
houses by Wright [2] and the Malagueira houses by Siza [3], address the
grid, addition and subdivision types respectively.
One important feature that influenced the case study selection was the fact
that all the grammars are applied to single-family housing and, at the same
time, featured distinctive differences in style, layout, history, and
architects background and signature, in addition to different geographic
locations and periods of construction.
The next step involved comparing the study case data and identifying
differences and similarities within the rule sets.
The proposal for the new set of rules addressed and encoded all three
styles. The process selected was the one that seemed more flexible and
allowed for the production of all three types the subdivision process. The
subdivision grammar type used is clearly distinct from previous attempts
to recreate new Palladian-like designs since involves a grammar
formulation and proposes a method combining parametric shape rules
based on polygon division. This was the system used to generate the
original Malagueira grammar, and also the process selected and described
in an alternative Palladian grammar [12]. The alternative grammar for the
Palladian villas grammar is, to the extent of our knowledge, the first
attempt to propose a grammar that being intrinsically different in structure,
rule formulation, and derivation process, still allows the design of the same
corpus of designs described by the original grammar, the existing corpus
designed by Palladio and a group of villas not addressed by the original
grammar. The grammatical structure developed for the Palladian Villas, a
top-down subdivision of rectangles, was then applied to the Prairie houses.
The house starts with the inclusion of a house boundary and production
opts for a top-down approach to the generative process. The system
proposes a self-contained boundary shape that encompasses the limits of
the building work. Subdivision starts as process of refining a succession of
recursive divisions that generate different space subdivisions. A series of
parametric shape rules are proposed to provide accuracy in the generation
A generic shape grammar for the Palladian Villa, Malagueira Houses and
Prairie House
The original and first grammar formulation for the Palladian grammar had
eight design stages. The grammar formulation is illustrated in Figure 1 as a
grammar tree diagram. The first stage combines ten rules for grid
definition. These rules are additive processes that allow a grid scheme to
be recreated by cell addition. The second stage proposes the introduction
of a containing boundary shape and the inclusion of a single rule for
defining the exterior walls. The third stage incorporates the room layout
rules. This stage proposes seven concatenation rules. Special rooms are
designed by joining consecutive cells to create larger spaces with spatial
complexity. Stage 4 allows for wall realignment. At this point, the
manipulation of the grid cell borders can be altered to create less rigid
A generic shape grammar for the Palladian Villa, Malagueira Houses and
Prairie House
A generic shape grammar for the Palladian Villa, Malagueira Houses and
Prairie House
The fifth stage subdivides the space further by creating and allocating
service areas such as kitchens and pantries.
The sixth stage is the last subdivision stage and applies to small rooms and
divisions, utilizing the remaining spaces. It is a design refinement stage
that uses particular division rules.
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cultural backgrounds, specific clients, aesthetics and, more importantly, a characteristic, easily identifiable design language.
The common ground they shared was that all the grammars focussed on
single family housing and which allowed comparison.
Their processes follow different approaches. The Palladian villa and
Malagueira house grammars use a top-down approach, starting with the
general aspect of the building and detailing it as they progress, whilst the
Prairie house grammar uses a bottom-up approach starting with one
particular feature, the fireplace, and progressing to the other parts of the
design. This is intrinsically related to the nature of each grammar. Grid and
subdivision grammars first consider the big picture, either the boundary or
design limits, and then work their way inwards, whereas an additive
grammar typically starts with one of its parts and adds other elements
sequentially. This also leads to another assumption, namely that grid and
subdivision grammars often start with a self-contained element, whereas
addition grammars is much harder to envisage the future containing
shapes. If all three tree diagrams from each grammar are juxtaposed as
shown in Figure 4, the main differences and similarities between them can
be seen. Despite the differences, all three grammars appear to start from a
common point. They also present a similar number of steps from start to
finish. The first stage is usually an addition process. This initial step
always involves the addition of an element to start the design.
A generic shape grammar for the Palladian Villa, Malagueira Houses and
Prairie House
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Likewise, the final step, involving the deletion of labels and the
termination of the design, is very similar. The penultimate or seventh
stage, which is the detailing stage and is subtractive, is also very similar in
all the grammars. . The main purpose of the detailing that occurs in these
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A generic shape grammar for the Palladian Villa, Malagueira Houses and
Prairie House
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A generic shape grammar for the Palladian Villa, Malagueira Houses and
Prairie House
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assumptions that were introduced into the generic grammar. Both the
Malagueira and the Prairie house grammars addressed functions and
originally proposed shape rules associated with special meaning.
The seventh stage constitutes a subtractive stage to introduce a greater
level of refinement. At this stage openings are made in walls and interior
walls can be removed to create internal circulation and incorporate doors.
The exterior walls and facades can accommodate entrances and windows.
Geometry, proportion and window positioning varies greatly from one
house type to another. The rules that were written accommodate these
differences and take into account the symmetrical features needed for the
Palladian villa.
A specific function is associated with each space, created in accordance
with the shape rules in order to maintain spatial flow and coherence and
avoid the overlapping of functions, awkward adjacencies or spatial
relations not envisaged as part of the original style.
The eighth and final stage completes the design by deleting the
construction labels.
A generic shape grammar for the Palladian Villa, Malagueira Houses and
Prairie House
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La Malcontenta derivation
La Malcontenta was originally designed, built and completed in Venice
between 1559 and 1560 and is pictured in the Il quatro libri [11]. Its
orthogonal features and grid-like floor plan features a matrix that
resembles a 5x3 grid organisation. Whereas the original grammar used a
grid process, achieving the same design with subdivision allows us to
economise on certain steps (namely extensive concatenation). The new
tree diagram featuring the generic grammar is shown in Figure 6 and the
Malcontenta derivation in Figure 7.
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The envelope is thus designed and established from the start. This results
in the first derivation step with the application of Rule 1 (adding a four
sided polygon). Step 2 addresses the first main stage of the subdivision
process by applying Rule 3, the vertical subdivision. As shown, this
subdivision is doubled to address the symmetrical nature of the design.
Steps 3 to 6 use the division rules 2 and 3 recursively (in the case of Rule
3, repeated again and again). Steps 7 and 8 start the space merging or
concatenation process. This is a fundamental step for spatial configuration
in a Palladian villa. The core space or social area is often the, largest, most
central and geometrically complex area in the villa. This complexity is
achieved by combining adjacent cells to form a broad regular polygon.
Other larger rectangular spaces are allocated at the edges of the
construction facing the facades.
With the layout settled, the 9th derivation step continues with the wall
thickening, applying Rules 6 to 9. Step 10 adds new elements attached to
the exterior of the envelope, namely the entrance portico.
The 12th step assigns functions for the spaces previously designed, and the
next step creates detail and prepares the spatial articulation with the
insertion of openings such as doors and windows. The villa is finished in
Step 14 with the deletion of labels. In comparative terms, the derivation of
the Malcontenta using this alternative method is faster than the derivation
used in the original grammar.
The Robbie House derivation
A generic shape grammar for the Palladian Villa, Malagueira Houses and
Prairie House
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A generic shape grammar for the Palladian Villa, Malagueira Houses and
Prairie House
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rules for the required conditions, such as minimum spacing and bilateral
symmetry.
To the best of our knowledge, all the previous work on shape grammars
has proposed a unique grammar to describe a particular corpus of designs.
No one has proposed more than one grammar for the same style or a
grammar that can describe more than one style. However, we believe that
the effort of developing of an alternative grammar, different from the
original grammar developed for that style, can tell us more about the
essence of the style. We also believe that developing a grammar that can
describe more than one style, which we call generic grammar, helps us to
understand the commonalities among the different styles and the structure
of the common underlying type. In this paper we present a grammar for
single-family homes of three different styles.
This work refutes certain assumptions regarding shape grammars, namely
the uniqueness of the design style that one grammar can produce. Given
that there is more than one way to reproduce designs, more than one
suitable grammar and that one grammar that can produce more than one
style, many different representations are potentially viable.
This represents a breakthrough in shape grammar methodology and
research. Shape grammars are no longer exclusive, but can potentially be
manipulated to generate a larger corpus of new designs. This allows for
efficiency in exploring shapes and analysing results, thus widening the
scope of grammars.
Future work will focus on the effectiveness and implementation of the
generic grammar, such as the exploration of a new corpus of designs and
the analysis of generated design hybrids. It is expected that the mutation of
these design styles or the overlapping of rules will produce new consistent
designs with a new hybrid style. This is currently not allowed by the
restrictions implemented. Moreover, computerised implementation will
represent a positive development, allowing for the exploration of design
solutions and even the enumeration of design corpus results. The potential
of this generic grammar will be fully tested with a computerised tool, as
was the case with previous work developed for housing shape grammars,
such as the ABC system and the Haiti gingerbread house grammar [12].
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the contributions of Prof. Stiny and Prof Knight at
MIT and Prof. Steadman at UCL at different stages of this research project.
A generic shape grammar for the Palladian Villa, Malagueira Houses and
Prairie House
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