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Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Shape Grammars Reality (SGr) : computing in the real world

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

As a rule, architects calculate, draw, annotate, write, diagram, model, map, photograph, animate, or simply visualize objects, spaces, territories, and processes. They make visual and verbal representations compiling ideas that they have "seen" from direct sensory observations and past memories. Shape Grammars Reality (SGR) allows architects to apply design rules in the real world, by utilizing the idea of calculating with shapes. The current applications of the computational theory of Shape Grammars use primarily sketching on tracing paper with conventional tools. SGR proposes a user interface on the intersection between Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and eye-tracking research. By using Virtual Reality headsets, a designer is able to brainstorm-draft in real time, by applying basic schemas and transformation rules in the smartphone' SGr app. The combination of shape rules and Augmented Reality of this thesis is unique since the current design tools within the ecology of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications are not rule-based. The designer explores possibilities by inventing his/her own library of schemas through seeing. Given the fact that seeing is by definition a non-linear process, SGR allows the emergence of shapes in design via real time interaction between the reality of a space and the design intention of the user.

Degree

thesis:*
Department dc:contributor.department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture.
Grantor dc:publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Year dc:date.issued
2016

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Vlavianos, Nikolaos
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • George Stiny and Terry Knight.

Subjects

dc:subject × 1

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
Language dc:language.iso
eng

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Handle dc:identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106424
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/106424

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
MIT
Base URL
dspace.mit.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
related terms
citation

Vlavianos, Nikolaos. Shape Grammars Reality (SGr) : computing in the real world. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106424