Using Standard Shape Grammars to Generate The Basic Types of Congregational Mosques

Abstract

Shape Grammars is among the recent concepts that have gained considerable significance for its multiple benefits for different fields. This concept with its applications had been evolved during the last thirty years within the field of architecture generally and Islamic architecture in particular. The main goal of the present research is to study the shape grammars of the congregational mosques basic types, analyzing them to conclude and define the shape rules that generate those types. Its significance comes from providing a more clear conception for the rules that had produced the basic types of congregational mosques with the possibility of reapplying the concluded rules to derive those types with their formal and syntactical properties. The research adopted (Standard Shape Grammar) which is interested in syntactical characteristics, formal relationships according to Euclidean transformations between different types regardless the different criteria and dimensions of each one. The research goal has been achieved by concluding the shape rules formulating the basic types of congregational mosques and reapplying the concluded rules to derive those types to test their potentialities for the generation process.