Abstract

Shape grammars has been studied for 47 years, but its potential in the practise and education of art, architecture, and engineering is still untapped. Similarly, while reverse engineering is well-established in some engineering disciplines,its application in architectural design remains under-represented [1-15]. This paper develops a novel method that combines the power of shape grammars as a parsing tool in reverse engineering to decode the morphogenesis of visual compositions in architectural design by combining the two domains. The combined power is demonstrated by decoding the formal language of a case study's façade design, from which a seemingly simple set of rules can yield surprisingly complex compositions. The language rules can then be used to reconstruct parts of the case. façade. Most shape grammars in the architectural literature are applied to formal historical precedents, but the subject of this paper's morphological analysis is contemporary and has a style that exhibits non-orthogonal configurations that appear to be far from being standardised or subject to regulatory tectonic rules. The façade derivation grammar is explained and resynthesized in various computations to investigate emergent articulations that demonstrate predictive, synthetic, and generative abilities in addition to traditional analytic abilities.