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- Title
Unveiling the structure of the Marrakech Medina: A shape grammar and an interpreter for generating urban formReprint requests to: José P. Duarte, Departamento de Engenharia Civil e Arquitectura, Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal. E-mail: jduarte@fa.utl.pt
- Authors
José P. Duarte; João M. Rocha; Gonçalo Ducla Soares
- 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.
- Subjects
MARRAKECH (Morocco); MOROCCO; DESIGN research; URBAN planning; ARCHITECTURAL design; STRUCTURAL design
- Publication
AI EDAM, 2007, Vol 21, Issue 4, p317
- ISSN
0890-0604
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/S0890060407000315