Cognitive Process, Styles and Grammars

This paper argues that individual architectural styles are ways to express different theories of architecture. These theories, in turn, are related to the architectis design purposes or goals. In order to understand the cognitive process involved in the creation of a particular language or style goals have to be decomposed in subgoals, which will be related, step-by-step, to the vocabulary and syntactic rules adopted by these architects. The study should contribute to the development of models allowing the incorporation of cognitive processes in the generation of synthetic grammars. It is assumed that this will be made possible through the correlation between semantic rules and syntactic rules in shape grammars. As a case, this paper analyses semantic extensions of the architectural language of the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer defined by the constructive approach

A Grammar for Portuguese Historical Urban Design

This paper suggests that Portuguese historical cities were based on a structured knowledge-based process from where itis possible to retrieve not only a generative parametric urban grammar but also to construct a computational model capable to generate Portuguese planimetric proportionate and symmetrical urban grammar. The grammar is described graphically and discursively, followed by the introduction of a 2D shape grammars interpreter UrbanGENE. The 2D shape grammar interpreter will allow the user to interact with the genetic and generative principles of Portuguese historical urban design from 16th to 18th century and additionally be deployed in urban history teaching and learning

A Generative Urban Grammar for Portuguese Colonial Cities, During the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries: Towards a Tool for Urban Design

This paper main goal is to depict the generative principles of 16th -18th century Portuguese colonial urban design described from its Pythagorean-Euclidean geometrical genesis and correspondent logical rules and operations. These origins were found in Portuguese compendiums and treaties on practical geometry, architectural and military engineering from the sixteenth through the eighteenth century. The study attempts to show that rigorous operative geometrical discourse is inseparable from social knowledge, whereby form is the operative result of abstract mental processes and logical visual reasoning associated to ideas of growth and reproduction of order

Generative Process of Oskar Niemeyer\u27s Style

The aim of this study is to outline the structure of a possible grammar of Oscar Niemeyer’s architectural language, focusing on the so-called “free forms.” The idea is to assess the extent to which it is possible to shed some light on the discussion of architectural freedom as used by many authors when describing the work of the Brazilian architect. The investigation associates geometric relations present in Niemeyer’s buildings to the Shape Grammar model as proposed by Stiny & Gips (1975). The model made possible the depiction of consistencies in vocabulary, rules and operations deployed by Niemeyer. This eventually led to the description of an original architectural language present in Niemeyer’s buildings

CityZoom

In the last twenty years, computer tools have progressively enabled the modelling of buildings and cities in lesser time and cost, along with an increase in the results quality. A city modeled according to planning regulations usually present a correlation between plots and buildings dimensions. The representation of such correlation for a large number of plots requires repetitive work, thus suggesting the use of a computational tool to perform the task. Existing CAD, GIS, and VR software can generate accurate representations of the reality, but have no capabilities to simulate the impact of alternative urban regulations for large number of plots in a short period of time. CityZoom is a Decision Support System for urban planning, with a specific built-in city model, where data is represented in an object-oriented model representing the urban structure. CityZoom not only provide CAD tools, but a shell where different performance models can operate iteratively. It can simulate given urban regulations applied to a set of urban plots, as well as address environmental comfort issues such as shadow casting between buildings. Results can be displayed as tables, graphs, and in a 3D preview of the whole city or part of it. Itis also possible to export them to commercial GIS tools, to perform different data analysis. The graphical outputs make for an easy understanding of the results by laymen, an important feature for participatory planning, while the display of the correspondent numerical data enable correlations with indicators and parameters of urban quality

CityZoom: a Visualization Tool for the Assessment of Planning Regulations

A city modelled according to planning regulations usually presents a correlation between plots and building dimensions. To simulate the overall impact of building regulations over a large number of plots it is advantageous to use a computational tool to perform the task. Existing software can generate proxies of the would be reality, but do not accurately simulate the impact of alternative urban regulations. CityZoom is a Decision Support System for urban planning which not only provides CAD tools, but also allows users to evaluate and modify the city model according to different constraints such as solar radiation, luminance, terrain's pervious conditions, etc. By simulating specific urban regulations and addressing environmental comfort issues, CityZoom helps architects to simultaneously evaluate the different attributes of a particular design. Coupled with GIS tools, CityZoom allows users to perform multiple analyses over the existing database and use the resultant feedback to optimize proposed solutions. Future developments envisage giving CityZoom a more autonomous role, using artificial intelligence to optimize building shapes and dimensions