Shape morphology

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Shifting from lurking to contributing some of the resources that I’ve enjoyed, like George Stiny’s Shape. I used to be able to get the whole book online but this time I was only able to find the first chapter: http://mit.usiu.ac.ke/courses/architecture/4-273-introduction-to-design-inquiry-fall-2001/lecture-notes/stinycalculatewithshapes.pdf

I think it has some really nice ways of thinking about relational grammars in generative shape making, sort of like Constructive Solid Geometry, but with a bit more attention to lines and simple forms.

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Hi @devendorf, thanks for the reference. I found the book and haven’t had a proper read yet but from a skim it looks really excellent.

I thought the topic deserved it’s own thread, not sure about the current title (shape morphology) though and there’s some overlap with Pattern notation and Symbols and alphabets but lets see…

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I’m really enjoying this so far! It looks like the author used to have it for free download online, but the website expired. It’s still available here though: George Stiny - Shape — Are.na

There are also materials from a course on shape grammars from George Stiny here:

Including chapters from a forthcoming book: Primary Course Texts | Introduction to Shape Grammars I | Architecture | MIT OpenCourseWare

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I found Stiny’s book a little bit tricky to get into, with all its twists and turns, but this paper with Terry Knight much more accessible and practical:

https://core.ac.uk/reader/127609300

Then extend the idea into making, combining grammar for ‘doing’ and ‘sensing’.

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I enjoyed this retrospective lockdown talk with Terry Knight:

Kolam and Khipu make an appearance!

It’d be interesting to find out what her group is up to now.