The Dynamic Façade Pattern Grammar

Abstract

This paper presents a generative grammar producing a language of patterns for the south façade of a prototype sustainable house. The patterns are produced through the activation of the electrochromic material that is applied on the windowpanes of the façade. The class of the performatively effective configurations of the façade is approached as a visual language and the productive (generation), combinatorial (enumeration) and performative (verification) attributes of this language are examined. Random, performance driven, patterns could supply sufficient interior daylight without acknowledging the visual potential of façade pattern generation. The uniqueness of the chosen approach is that the shape grammar encodes the performative constraints pertaining to the generation of façade patterns in a visual manner by associating principles of two-dimensional pattern generation to levels of illuminance.