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Unveiling the structure of the Marrakech Medina: A shape grammar and an interpreter for generating urban form

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2007

José P. Duarte ,
João M. Rocha  and
Gonçalo Ducla Soares
José P. Duarte
Affiliation:
ICIST, Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
João M. Rocha
Affiliation:
CHAIA, Universidade de Évora, Évora, Portugal
Gonçalo Ducla Soares
Affiliation:
ICIST, Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
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Abstract

This paper describes research carried out to develop a parametric urban shape grammar for the Zaouiat Lakhdar quarter of the Medina of Marrakech in Morocco. The goal is to create the basis for a system that could capture some features of the existing urban fabric and apply them in contemporary urban planning and architectural design. The methodology used is described, from the initial historical analysis and fieldwork to the identification of three subgrammars necessary to encode the complexity of the urban preexistences: the urban grammar, the negotiation grammar, and the housing grammar. Top-down and bottom-up approaches to grammar design are analyzed and compared. The bottom-up urban grammar developed is then described, and a hand derivation of the existing urban fabric is proposed. Visual, symbolic, and tagged computer implementations of shape grammars are briefly discussed and a novel design generated by the tagged interpreter is presented.

Keywords

Generative SystemsIslamic ArchitectureShape GrammarsUrban Design
Type
Research Article
Information
AI EDAM , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , November 2007 , pp. 317 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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