Grammar and quality: Assessing the design quality of grammar-system generated architecture

Abstract

In architectural research the SPT 2017 challenge of understanding things by their grammar has been taken up. Grammar systems have, for instance, been developed for analysing the design principles of types of architectural artefacts as Palladio villas and Queen Anne houses. The understanding these analytic grammars give of the artificial world may already be the topic of philosophical research. This paper focuses on a further challenge that grammars may bring to philosophy and that is their use for designing new architecture. This further use of grammars may seem business as usual, since it is merely the transition from descriptive tools to prescriptive ones. Within architecture it however raises fundamental questions. Are designs generated with grammar systems true architecture? Have grammar-system designs the same quality as designs created by human architects? In this contribution we take up the challenge of answering this last question. We present a research method for assessing the quality of grammar-system generated designs, and give the outcomes of an experiment done with it. This contribution may be taken as work on the broader methodological challenge of validating design tools.