LING YUAN MING
ARCHITECTURE E-PORTFOLIO
SHAPE GRAMMAR
(ARC61903)
Project 1
Shape Grammar Inspired by Surrounding Elements
In this assignment students will be exposed to the shape grammar procedure in understanding the underlying language that made up the form or design of their chosen element. The design language will be translated into shape rules that explain the transformations of shapes or objects that took place in the element. Using the newly established rules, students are required to produce several design alternatives of a pavilion.The following are just an example of the element (left) and the pavilion design (right) which can be produced using the same underlying principles or language of the element.
The objectives of this project are as follows
1. To encourage students to closely observe a natural or man-made elements and identify underlying design principles that formed them.
2. To allow students to create and explore new designs using the same or modified design principles through shape grammar method
Form a group of between 2 to 3 students. Each group is required to find ONE natural or man-made element from actual observations, books or internet which is believed to have certain underlying design principles. This could be identified especially if the element has some repetitive components, gradual enlargement or reduction in scale, gradual rotation, or other predictable modifying principles. You may use the whole natural or man-made element or only certain part of the element. For example if the element chosen is a dragonfly then the group can study only the patterns of its wings. Then, the group should analyse and explain the underlying design principles in terms of shapes and forms, i.e.: prediction of how the forms or shapes in the natural or man-made element were formed and translate them into shape rules. There is no limitation on the number of shape rules that can be created. The group then needs to produce FIVE pavilion designs using the shape rules derived from the element. Finally, choose ONE pavilion design and show the development process of creating it and include 3D renderings of the final design.
In this final project, students will be employing multiple rule shape grammar to produce new architectural designs from their own set of rules or rules derived from an existing building which inspires them. Each student needs to recall and creatively apply all the knowledge that they have acquired from lectures and exercises to produce a good grammar. The shape grammar will allow students to create multiple design alternatives of the future house and subsequently choose the best design to be further detailed.
The objectives of this assignment are as follows:
1. To develop student’s skills in producing and working with multiple rule shape grammar.
2. To develop student’s abilities in producing architectural designs using shape grammar method
The minimum space requirements for the house that students need to produce are as follows: i) 5 bedrooms
ii) 6 bathrooms (including powder room)
iii) 2 living rooms (formal living and family area)
iv) 2 dining rooms (formal and family dining)
v) 2 kitchen (dry and wet kitchen) vi) Other rooms, i.e.: study, prayer, theatre, music, etc.
vii) Supporting spaces, i.e. store room, porches, garages, terraces, etc.
The first step in this project would be the establishment of multiple shape rules (at least 4 rules) for the grammar. The rules should be divided into two categories; i) rules to create the basic form of the house and ii) the ornamenting rules to further elaborate the basic form i.e.: adding roofs, balconies, porches, curve walls, windows and doors, etc. Then, produce a minimum of five designs using the rules that have been established without showing the development process. Next, choose one of the design alternatives to be finalised. The development process of the chosen design need to be shown however it does not have to include all the rules applied one by one but can be simplified by grouping several rules together in each development stage. Then, students are required to produce all floor plans as well as a minimum of three renderings of the final design in 3D where one of it should be superimposed with an imaginary site.
Project 2
Case Study and Documentation of Building Services Systems
After completing this project, I am able to roduce new designs using shape grammar method from the student’s own set of rules.
Upon successful completion of the module, I am now able to execute shape grammar from given rules to come up with the student’s original designs. I can produce new designs using shape grammar method from the student’s own set of rules as ell as identify and describe the process to analyse existing designs using shape grammar method.
After completing Project 1, I can Identify and describe the process to analyse existing designs using shape grammar method.
Shape grammar is a method used to produce new and original design languages using the relationship between shapes as opposed to the traditional and conventional method which mainly depends on the designer’s intuition, experience and ideas as well as adaptation from other projects. In addition it is also used to analyse existing design language and subsequently using the same language to create a number of new and diverse designs which have never been produced before. In this module students will be introduced to the basic concept of shape grammar as well as a range of the existing shape grammar applications including which were produced using computer programming languages. In the beginning several exercises will be given to facilitate students’ understanding of the concept, from a simple single-rule two-dimensional shape grammar to a more advanced three-dimensional shape grammar. Then, students will be embarking into two projects to further explore this method to produce their own architectural designs. The module will expose students to an alternative means of producing designs which may be applied afterwards in the design studio projects. Even though the recent shape grammar projects were generated using computer programming languages, yet this module will only demonstrate to the students the creation of shape grammar using manual framework.
Exercise
