A shape grammar for teaching the architectural style of the Yingzao fashi

The Yingzaofashi [Building standards] is a Chinese building manual written by Li Jie (d. 1110) and published in 1103. I present a shape grammar for teaching the architectural style - the language of designs - described in this manual. This grammar is distinguished by two objectives, and the technical means used to accomplish them. First, the grammar is for teaching. Usually, the author of a grammar of a style aims to generate all and only the designs in the language. To do this, he not only writes the grammar, but also judges whether the designs it generates are members of the language. In the Yingzaofashi grammar, on the other hand, I want to generate all and more than the designs in the language. It is then the student who evaluates the designs - does this design belong to the language? - and adjusts the grammar accordingly. Thus the student participates actively in defining the language of designs, and learns that style is a human construct. Second, the grammar is designerly. As already observed, most authors of style grammars focus on the language of designs; they do not consider how to structure the user's interaction with the grammar. By contrast, I consider explicitly what the user decides and when he decides it, and organize the grammar accordingly. In other words, I consider process as well as products. The grammar exploits several technical devices for the first time: the design as an n-tuple of drawings, descriptions, and other elements; the generation of descriptions in the n-tuple; and techniques that are made possible by these devices.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2001

Author dc:creator

• Li, Andrew I-kang

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• George Stiny.

• Architecture.

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.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/8631

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/8631