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A Multi-formalism Shape Grammar Interpreter

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Computer-Aided Architectural Design. Design Imperatives: The Future is Now (CAAD Futures 2021)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1465))

Abstract

A shape grammar is a formal rewriting system for producing languages of shapes. While initially defined to operate over line segments and labeled points, the theory of shape grammars has numerously been extended to include other spatial and non-spatial entities, including, planar segments and volumes, some types of curves, weights, colors and descriptions. Over the years, also a number of shape grammar interpreters have been developed, implementations that support the specification and application of shape rules. However, each of these implementations has adhered to a single shape grammar formalism, even if the exact formalism may differ from one implementation to another. This paper reports on the development and application of a shape grammar interpreter supporting multiple shape grammar formalisms. This is achieved in two ways, first, by supporting a variety of representational structures as compositions of basic data types, and second, by providing two alternative matching mechanisms for spatial elements, a non-parametric and a parametric-associative mechanism. Together, this provides for a flexible and extensible interpreter for the specification and application of shape rules, which has been implemented in the Python programming language and is accessible from Rhino and Grasshopper.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Bui Do Phuong Tung for his development work on the SortalGI shape grammar interpreter, and Bianchi Dy for her development work on a previous version of the SortalGI Grasshopper plug-in.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore, 4 Architecture Drive, Singapore, 117566, SG, Singapore

    Rudi Stouffs

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  1. Rudi Stouffs
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Correspondence to Rudi Stouffs .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    David Gerber

  2. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Evangelos Pantazis

  3. Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Biayna Bogosian

  4. University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada

    Alicia Nahmad

  5. Aalto University, Espoo, Finland

    Constantinos Miltiadis

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Stouffs, R. (2022). A Multi-formalism Shape Grammar Interpreter. In: Gerber, D., Pantazis, E., Bogosian, B., Nahmad, A., Miltiadis, C. (eds) Computer-Aided Architectural Design. Design Imperatives: The Future is Now. CAAD Futures 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1465. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1280-1_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-1280-1_17

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-19-1279-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-19-1280-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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