48-506 Shape Grammars I: Theory and Methods in Design
9 units, Carnegie Mellon University
This interdisciplinary course investigates design and making practices through the visual-perceptual, rule-based approach of shape grammars. The course delves into shape grammars in architecture, engineering, and art, and its continued developments, and offers foundational knowledge of historical methods developed in the field, while also exploring new directions and questions for contemporary applications in situated making practices e.g. crafts, digital fabrication, art, and robotics. Students will learn how to use shape grammars to analyze design, create computational descriptions, and generate meaningful outcomes of creative acts. The course covers the fundamentals through lectures, readings, discussions, hands-on exercises, and projects. It also explores new questions, critical perspectives, theoretical insights, potentials, and its ability (or inability) in analyzing, describing, and expressing what humans see, do, and experience. This course is ideal for graduate and undergraduate students interested in computational practices. No background in computing or computer programming is assumed and is not a requirement. Students with varied interests are welcome.
Prerequisites: none listed
Offered: Fall 2026, Fall 2025
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