Shape

George Stiny is the paterfamilias of grammars for shapes, embracing all of their inherent ambiguity. This book beautifully explains why shapes are so ambiguous and why their lack of structure is so crucial for design. Stiny shows that grammatical rules for shapes can produce an infinite complexity of designs, just as grammatical rules can produce the expressive richness of prose or poetry. Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance provides an introduction to the damaging effects of structure and analysis in design; for readers wishing to embrace ambiguity, and build on its expressive power, Shape supplies the essential deeper insights.

Erik K. Antonsson, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology

Shape is an important read for anyone interested in the formal process of design. An insightful analysis of the computation, art, cognition, and philosophy of shapes, Stiny's book shows us that even the simplest shape is both ambiguous and perfectly clear.

Jonathan Cagan, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, coauthor of The Design of Things to Come

Stiny is to 'shape' as Chomsky was to 'word' or Wolfram to 'number.' In my view, though, Stiny may well prove to be the most radical of the three. How different a place his pictorial world is from standard textual or digital worlds: with shape there is no vocabulary, no syntax, no bits, no atmos. As Stiny draws, he talks. Shapes and shape rules bear the force of argument. These drawings are to be looked at keenly, even traced and redrawn by the reader. The supportive text illustrates what can be seen and done, providing both a personal and intellectual history. Through its drawings and maxims, Shape challenges much conventional wisdom in philosophy and education, in computer science and artifical intelligence, and in design and the visual arts.

Lionel March, former Rector, Royal College of Art, London, and Emeritus Professor, Design and Computation, University of California

George Stiny is the paterfamilias of grammars for shapes embracing all of their inherent ambiguity. This book beautifully explains why shapes are so ambiguous and why their lack of structure is so crucial for design. Stiny shows that grammatical rules for shapes can produce an infinite complexity of designs just as grammatical rules can produce the expressive richness of prose or poetry. Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance provides an introduction to the damaging effects of structure and analysis in design; for readers wishing to embrace ambiguity and build on its expressive power Shape supplies the essential deeper insights.

Erik K. Antonsson, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology