ARC 4303B
Aspects of Asian architecture
Spring 2002–03

Defining the language of sections in the Yingzao fashi

Week 01, 2003.01.09

Housekeeping

About the course

Writing

What do you know about wood-frame architecture (in the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties)? What questions do you have?

Course preview: defining a language of sections

Here are 18 sections from the Yingzao fashi. Why do they look similar? Evaluate whether a previously unknown section is in the language. Create a new section in the language.

Definitions

Design

“An n-ary relation among drawings, other kinds of descriptions, and correlative devices as needed” (Stiny 1990, 97). In other words, the representation of a building, not the building itself.

Set

“[A] collection, possibly infinite, of distinct numbers, objects, etc., that is treated as an entity in its own right, and with identity dependent only upon its members” (The HarperCollins dictionary of mathematics).

Generative and enumerative definitions

See below.

Language of designs

A set of designs based on a common generative definition.

Style

“When several buildings each create a similar impression, they are said to exemplify a particular architectural style” (Stiny and Mitchell 1978, 17, original emphasis). In other words, a language of designs that are perceived to be similar.

Corpus

A body of designs on which an analysis is based (adapted from The new shorter Oxford English dictionary: “A body of spoken or written material on which a linguistic analysis is based”).

Defining style (Stiny and Mitchell)

Stiny and Mitchell (1978, 17) give three tests for understanding (or characterizing or defining) a style.

Given a finite corpus of buildings that are perceived to be alike in some sense, the problem of style consists of characterizing the basis for this likeness. Ideally this characterization has three main purposes: (1) it should clarify the underlying commonality of structure and appearance manifest for the buildings in the corpus; (2) it should supply the conventions and criteria necessary to determine whether any other building not in the original corpus is an instance of the style; and (3) it should provide the compositional machinery needed to design new buildings that are instances of the style. If the characterization of a particular architectural style is to have any explanatory or predictive value, it must satisfy these descriptive, analytic, and synthetic tests of adequacy.

Defining a language of sections generatively

• Demonstrate generative definition with the Flash grammar.

• Generate a language of sections.

Generative and enumerative definitions

Simon (1996, 210–211) calls them state descriptions and process descriptions. What we used in the Flash grammar is a generative definition. It helps us answer all three tests in a way that an enumerative definition cannot.

Clearly this generative characterization satisfies the preceding criteria: the rules of the grammar elucidate the structure and appearance of villa plans; any villa can be determined to be an instance of the style by simply determining whether there is a sequence of rule applications that generates its plan; and plans of villas not already existing can be generated by the grammar (Stiny and Mitchell 1978, 17).

We can change the language by changing the definition.

• {2, 4, 6, 8} = {x : x = 2n, n ∈ N, n ≤ 4}

• {2, 4, 6, 8, 10} = {x : x = 2n, n∈ N, n ≤ 5}

• {2, 4, 6, 8, …} = {x : x = 2n, n ∈ N}

• {3, 6, 9, 12} = {x : x = 3n, n ∈ N, n ≤ 4}

One-minute paper

What is the main thing you learned? What is your main question?

Assignment 1 out

Begin with the corpus of 18 sections from the Yingzao fashi. Define a language that includes this corpus. Modify the Flash grammar by adding, deleting, or constraining rules (page 1 only). Generate all the sections in the language. If some of the sections seem not to belong, or if some that do belong are missing, revise the grammar again. Show the final version of the rules, all the sections in the language, and some sections not in the language.

Appraise the software briefly. What is the best aspect? What is the worst aspect? How would you improve it?

• Get the Flash grammar for Yingzao fashi sections:

  • for browser (SWF)

  • downloadable projector (Mac, 828 KB)

  • downloadable projector (PC, 708 KB)

Next class

Rules and gaps in the Yingzao fashi

References