The talk will focus on how shape grammars can be used as generative design tools and their potential on the customization of design. I’ll start by a general introduction to shape grammars highlighting the concepts and formalism used and introduce the work of George Stiny and James Gips in order to present the basis of the system. In this introduction examples of shape grammar’s applications will be shown from several design areas from art to architecture and product design. The second part of the talk will address two shape grammars developed for different proposes and design areas: one for architectural housing refurbishment and another for product design. In both cases shape grammars are used as tools to identify and encode the principles and rules behind a language of design. In the Rabo-de-Bacalhau apartments transformation grammar shape rules are used for the adaptation of existing apartments to new housing requirements. Mass customization is presented as a mean to take up the task of refurbishment the housing stock in European in an individualized way. For the Thonet grammar the aim is the mass customization of furniture through the design of alternative solutions enhanced by a digital design process. In this case the design has a direct correlation to fabrication issues. The fact that Rabo-de-Bacalhau grammar was developed manually and Thonet grammar was converted into a parametric design model to enable its implementation in CATIA will allow the discussion about the need and pertinence of grammar computer implementations.

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