Although knowledge-based systems can be shown to be of assistance to designers in a number of areas like diagnosis of faults, testing for conformity to regulations, selection of elements and components, and so on, there are problems in their more general design application. Some of the...

Grammars of shapes and designs are rule-based models for the generation of members of a class of designs. The applicability of the formalism as a basis for generative expert systems for construction details in computer-aided design is discussed. A demonstration system is presented.

Shape grammars are specified that generate houses in the Queen Anne style which dominated domestic architecture in the United States of America in the 1880s; examples are used which are typical for Pittsburgh's historic Shadyside district. Separate grammars are given for the generation of plans...

The comparative evaluation of six regional settlement patterns in terms of accessibility and the use of energy, and in the context of three different energy scenarios, is reported; the results are discussed in terms of their implications for planning policy and for further research in this area.

Although substantial literature exists on the properties of formal grammars, much less has been written on the use of grammars for describing the languages which they are capable of explaining, Thus we see a well-developed theory concerning the expressive (generative) power of different kinds of...

Archaeology, systematic inquiry into the past using its material relics, is largely concerned with the study of artefacts, of the design systems that created them, and of the social and economic inferences that may be drawn. Artefact study, which began with typological sorting within an...

Several computer programs that enumerate rectangular dissections as solutions to certain layout problems have established a distinct paradigm for dealing with the crucial theoretical issues involved. In the present paper an extension of the paradigm is suggested, to include 'loosely packed...

This paper is concerned with problems that arise from attempts to integrate the components of a building model in a database that reflects the current status of a design. It is based on work that began in 1976 at the Architectural Research Laboratory of the University of Michigan. This effort,...