A syntactical and grammatical approach to architectural configuration, analysis and generation

The combination of Space Syntax and Shape Grammar approaches to design potentially offers a rigorous way of first understanding a characteristic instance of architectural configuration (say, a set of designs by an architect or a particular building type) and then producing variations of that instance. This paper presents a method that commences with a justified plan graph-grammar-based analysis of an architectural design, and then uses a grammatical interpretation of the structure of this syntax. Using this graph as a starting point, it is then possible to develop a 3D shape grammar of the same building. In this way, both syntactical and formal information are captured as part of the sequential analysis. This combined analytical approach can support a better understanding of an architectural style and its design instances as well as the generative capability of these two computational theories – Space Syntax and Shape Grammar. The paper introduces this combined method and then demonstrates it using 10 house designs by Glenn Murcutt.