TRANSFORMING GRAMMARS OF HISTORICAL ARCHITECTURE FOR THE GENERATION OF CONTEMPORARY DESIGNS : With an Example from Islamic Courtyard Buildings SUMBUL AHMAD, SCOTT C. CHASE Department of Architecture University of Strathclyde, UK. sumbul.ahmad@strath.ac.uk, s.c.chase@strath.ac.uk Abstract. A primary issue facing architects of the Islamic world is the generation of contemporary designs based on architecture of the past. We discuss shape grammars as a framework for the design generation of plans of courtyard buildings of Islamic architecture and describe ongoing research for the transformation of grammars of historic Islamic building types to generate new, contemporary designs or design styles. We raise issues in the grammar transformation framework and discuss directions of exploration that could be relevant to the design methods of Islamic architecture. 1. Introduction The contribution of the Islamic civilisation in the field of architecture is both vast and diverse. Spread across three continents from Southeast Asia to North Africa and Southern Europe from 750 AD till the present time, Islamic architecture adapted itself to local climate and materials, and thus portrayed a unique face in each region. A prime issue facing architects in the Islamic world is the generation of a contemporary idiom—one that projects the society’s identity and specificity by relating itself to historic architecture, whilst being modern and true to its time (Lewcock, 1988). This paper addresses the aforementioned issue by presenting shape grammars (Stiny and Gips, 1972) as a methodology for the analysis and design generation of Islamic architecture. The focus of our work is the generation of contemporary designs by transforming grammars of historic courtyard buildings of medieval central Asian Islamic architecture. The courtyard is considered a major feature of the architectural tradition of Muslim societies and it is our belief that a study based on it would provide a useful starting point for a vast area of exploration. 2. Analysis and generation of Islamic architecture using shape grammars One of the most important characteristics of Islamic architecture, which makes it