‘The International Style’ multilingual three-dimensional grammar and hybrid designs

Abstract

The present paper describes a multilingual shape grammar to recreate the work of three designers that preconized the ‘International Style’. This is a top-down three-dimensional formulation. Whilst most grammars are monolingual and univocal, this work creates a multilingual formulation within the same artistic movement. Typically, a grammar describes a family of design solutions. These are helpful mechanisms to describe patterns that can be used for analysis or design exploration. This multilingual three-dimensional parametric grammar allows the independent recreation of original designs from three designers and hybrid solutions. Shape grammar's difficult application can be linked to its evaluation process. The original contribution of the study lies in the use of quantitative and qualitative methods for grammar evaluation, using Principal Components Analysis and user questionnaires. The PCA provides a pragmatic analysis, and the questionnaires an intuitive reading. Together they corroborate the results which are discussed using hybrids that assist in delineating parametric spaces.