Grammatical design

Design can be regarded as the process of transforming an initial set of requirements (and possibly an initial design) into an explicit, complete specification of an object that satisfies those requirements. The designer´s task involves repeated cycles of considering an existing partial design, comparing it with the design goal, deciding on a transformation to get closer to the goal, and then applying that transformation to the partial design. A transformation may take one of various forms, including adding detail to a design, modifying an existing structure, or adding new components. Grammatical design is a paradigm based directly on this view, concentrating on the representational structures and underlying transformation mechanisms. A grammar, or a formal generative system, has three parts: a vocabulary of elements; a set of transformation rules that transform structured arrangements of the elements into new structures; and an initial structure. The paper considers how a grammar, or a formal generative system, can provide design support