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Inferring a shape grammar: Translating designer's knowledge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2014

Sara Eloy*
Affiliation:
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa/Associação para o Desenvolvimento das Telecomunicações e Técnicas de Informática, Lisbon, Portugal
José Pinto Duarte
Affiliation:
Centro de Investigação em Arquitectura, Urbanismo e design, Faculdade de Arquitetura, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
*
Reprint requests to: Sara Eloy, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Av. das Forças Armadas, 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal. E-mail: sara.eloy@iscte.pt

Abstract

This article focuses on a shape grammar, the rabo-de-bacalhau housing style, that was developed to enable the adaptation of existing houses to new requirements and most particular on the process of inference of the grammar. In the article we describe the process undertaken to develop the grammar and what the achievements of the transformation grammar are regarding the possibilities of a mass customization of a dwelling's rehabilitation work. The goal of this article is to describe and discuss how the designer's knowledge was encoded into shape rules. The process used to extract the architect's knowledge and to incorporate it into the transformation grammar enable us to abstract the designer's actions and to define a sequence of actions that can define a possible strategy of design. The proposed design methodology generates dwelling layouts that are legal because they follow the grammar language and adequate because they meet the a priori user and design requirements.

Type
Special Issue Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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