1
Syntactic key words
1.1 Introduction
Syntactic
key-words clarify arguments, they help retrieval, understanding and
operationalising scientific texts and images in urban, architectural and
related technical design.
In
mathematics and formal logic expressions like
y(x)
are used as
‘y as a property (characteristic, quality) of x’. An expression like that is
called a ‘full-sentence function’. It is not yet a definition. In mathematics a
definition could be expressed in a ‘function’:
y := f(x).
A function
defines a property y as a function(working, action, output or result) of x(independent variable, actor, input,
condition or cause).
In
mathematics a function can be operationalised by ‘operators’ like +, -, x, /,
square, root and so on, for example:
f(x) := x2
This paper
discusses how to use full-sentence functions as key-words for retrieval, understanding and
operationalising scientific texts, images and study proposals in urban,
architectural and related technical design.
1.2 Full-sentences
For that
aim we interpret a full-sentence function primarily as a full-sentence in every
day language.
A
full-sentence in daily parlance has an active subject (x), a suffering object
(y) and a verb.
The verb in
the full-sentence function y(x), is
expressed by brackets.
Form follows function. ~ form(function)
That means,
that its meaning, the working itself, is left aside (except its direction). It
could be operationalised later. Just this opens great opportunities to name
vague workings supposed in texts and images we cannot yet define.
In that way
many vague study proposals and more elaborated scientific texts were earlier
extracted in full-sentence functions, for example:
landscape(villa).
To
emphasise the key-word character of the expression as a whole spaces before and
after the brackets in the representation are omitted.This full-sentence
function could be read as: ‘A landscape as a working of a villa’.
Whether
that working is a visual, psychological or physical working is still left
aside.
It could be
used naming any characteristic that can be read from an image, a photograph or
design.
It could
also be used as a short representation of a study proposal that aims to study
any impact of a villa in a landscape. In that sense the expression also
represents a question: ‘How does a villa influence the landscape?’ This
question is different from the one represented in:
villa(landscape).
When a
text, image or proposal concerns an interaction without presupposed direction
between both one simply uses the key-words both subsequently.
villa(landscape)
landscape(villa)
The concept
of ‘property’ is considered as a ‘working’. In the expression y(x), y as a
working of x, y is seen as property. Taking reversally the property as a
subject: y as a working of its property emphasises our selective cognition
(pars pro toto): ‘y as far as to be recognised by its property x’. Within the
property we ourselves are the active subject as beholder. The next passage
illustrates this reversal use:
‘…“Ex-ante”
evaluations are increasingly being carried out as part of the design process, because their use leads to better insight
into the effects of the dynamic properties of the building than
the usual static design methods…’
dynamic properties of the building à building(dynamic properties)
Negations
(‘not’, ‘lacking’) or antitheses (‘versus’) are logical operators. They can be
omitted, because they are enclosed in the brackets as verb:
‘…This
lack of a direct causal relationship between
series of actions and result is a problem in business management with
regard to the empirical model. …’
causal relationship(series of actions, result)
Operators
of formal logic (‘and’, ‘or’, ‘if … then …’ and so on) symbolised by brackets
give them a direction of working. To neutralise that pre-supposed direction one
have to mention the keyword twice, the second time in reversed order. Normally
an index of key-words presoppose operators of set theory (‘part of’,
‘enclosing’). The brackets could furthermore replace the words ‘of’, ‘in’ or
‘by’ if they have an active connotation:
the word ‘of’
variety of visions à visions(variety)
vector of movement à movement(vector)
technology of communication à communication(technology)
focus of research à research(focus)
pattern of urban centres à urban centres(pattern)
methods of decisionmaking à decisionmaking(methods)
portfolio of projects à projects(portfolio)
the word ‘in’
participators in planning à planning(participators)
the word ‘by’
study by design à study(design)
representation by words and/or drawings à representation(words, drawings)
However,
the profit of using full-sentence functions is in this case limited. Sometimes
it is better to use the form of every-day language. Often normal key-words will
be satisfactory. It is not the intention to argue that every-day language can
be missed. Full-sentence functions need every-day language to fill the ‘atoms’
in the line of argument clarified by brackets. Any word from every-day
language, be it a noun, a verb or an adjective can be used as element in a
full-sentence function. Adverbs and conjunctions often could be left aside,
represented by the brackets as ‘working’.
The
greatest contributions of full-sentence functions to retrieval, understanding
and operationalising study proposals appear by the possibility of ‘nesting’.
1.3 Nesting
Suppose we
would like to study a villa as a working of the landscape, but on its turn the
landscape in so far as it is a working of its water-system and history of the
landscape:
villa(landscape(water-system, history)).
In this
representation the villa is the ultimate passive object influenced by the
landscape. The water-system and history are ultimate active subjects,
influencing the landscape at last. The landscape itself is active subject to
the villa, but passive object to its watersystem and history.
Here we see
an example of ‘nesting’, well known from computer languages, that
everyday-language does not afford.
If the
study only concerns the history of the water-system (and not, for instance the
occupation by people) we have to extend the nesting to the third degree:
villa(landscape(water-system(history))).
Suppose we
want to include the history and spatial dispersion of occupation in our study,
we could express the whole study in one key-word like:
villa(landscape((water-system, occupation)(history,
spatial dispersion))).
As soon as
we find a constellation of brackets like ‘)(‘ in a key-word, we have to realise
that we can express part of it in a matrix. In this case the matrix would be:
|
|
history |
spatial dispersion |
|
water-system |
1 |
2 |
|
occupation |
3 |
4 |
The study
now has 4 primary objects as a working from something else, probably to be seen
already as chapters in our study report:
1
water-system(history)
2
water-system(spatial dispersion)
3
occupation(history)
4
occupation(spatial dispersion)
A drawn
matrix represents 2 or at the most 3 dimensions represented in 3D, but a
full-sentence function can indicate more dimensions. However, it does not fill,
but only names the dimensions to be studied. To elaborate its mutual workings
we need the study, text or the image it refers to itself.
1.4 Kind and direction of working
The kind of
working does not have to be causal: consequence(cause). In the expression
landscape(water-system(spatial dispersion)) the water-system is not supposed to
be historically caused by its spatial dispersion. The study concerns the
spatial dispersion as an actual condition for the water-system and its
working to find out how that influences the landscape now. If we were more
interested to study the cause of the actual spatial constellation of the water
system, hypotheses could be summarised like:
water-system(drainage(spatial dispersion(occupation(history))))
occupation(spatial
dispersion(water-system(drainage(history))))
The
difference could be according to the different suppositions (hypotheses) of an
urban planner and a civil engineer (occupation caused the water system versus
drainage caused special forms of occupation).
Full-sentence
functions leave aside the kind of working, but they nevertheless indicate a direction
of the working studied or aimed. The sequence of words in a full-sentence
function has thereby great impact on the type of study concerned. The type of
study from chapter 1.3 changes dramatically when the key-word were:
villa(landscape((history, spatial
dispersion)(water-system, occupation))).
The primary
objects would be:
1
history(water-system)
2
history(occupation)
3 spatial
dispersion(water-system)
4 spatial
dispersion(occupation)
Considered
as hypotheses these expressions indicate more causal and empirical study
(research), while the earlier ones indicate a more conditional, design oriented
study.
This
becomes the more clear when one substitutes ‘history’ by ‘design’ (try it
yourself).
1.5 Operationalisation
Vague study-ideas
have to be ‘operationalised’ to result in an effective and perhaps scientific
study. Elaborating such vague notions in full-sentence functions R(x, …) can
help to make a personal study programme, to formulate hypotheses and determine
the first steps.
The
operationalising process contains two important scientific criteria, validity
and reliability:
|
Validity |
Reliability |
|
|
|
|
R =
characteristic to be tested x,y,z
= computable variables wherein the characteristic to be tested is operational. |
|
Whether the
working of x, y and z represent R consistently (relatively complete, without
overlaps, in logical connection) or not, is a question of validity.
Whether
these working variables could be measured or realised in reality is a question
of reliability.
The
operationalisation of a study programme by full-sentence functions contains
elaborating objects without a direct relation to reality consistently into
testible or realisable subjects.
Lisette
Versteeg and Gertjan de Werk would like to study the vague concept of
‘environmental quality’ for their graduation project. They consider
environmental quality to be a working of future value, image value and user’s
value:
environmental quality(value(future, image,
use))
The first
question (about validity) is, whether the ultimate subjects of study (future,
image, use) are consistent and do represent the ultimate object (environmental
quality) indeed:
valid(consistent, representative).
We leave
the second semantic part of the question to the reader and concentrate on the
first.
Is a
building with a future value during 1 second useful? Perhaps for the image
value, but for the user’s value it should stay upright at least say 5 years. So
we should conclude:
user’s value(future value(<= 5 years)).
The future
value we really mean then appears to be:
future value(> 5 years).
Thinking in
workings sometimes leads to more precise definitions.
Furthermore,
could image perception be considered as a working of use: value(image(use)) or
the reverse? A marketing expert could also argument that a shop nobody can
imagine is useless: value(use(image)). What kind of study do we have in mind?
Supposed that visual and physical use do not overlap a consistent scheme
avoiding this dilemma by shift of definition seems to be:
environmental quality(value(future(>5
years), use(<5 years(visual, physical))))
The second
question (about reliability) is: ‘Could we measure or realise the ultimate
subjects directly in reality?’ The answer here is still negative, so we have to
elaborate them further. The user’s value is operationalised in many studies
until now[a].
Therefore we concentrate here on further operationlisation of value(future(>
5 years)).
1.6 The ultimate subject should be measurable or realisable
Richard
Koekoek would like to study the future value of VINEX districts realised last
years for his graduation project, concentrated on Ypenburg and Leidscheveen. He
interpreted future value in the long term primarily as a working of
adaptability:
future value(adaptability(whishes, costs))
The operationalisation
of adaptability is difficult: any district could be adapted if there is enough
money, and future whishes in the long term are difficult to predict. Richard
could not find any evidence about these future whishes(housing, facilities,
enterprises) and thus the future costs to be made to fulfill these whishes:
costs(adaptations(whishes)). Redefining the future value we found a solution:
future value(adaptability(costs(whishes)),
freedom of choice to move(districts(diversity(r = 30km))))
The future
value of a district is also high when you can move to other districts (radius =
1km) in the region where you work (r = 30km) selling your house to somebody
motivated by different whishes. That presupposes a diversity of districts in
the region, and that diversity can be measured and realised. Richard is now
comparing the districts in the region and will make a redesign for the district
in Ypenburg or Leidscheveen that resembles other districts in the region most.
In that way he contributes most likely to the future value of all districts in
the region. Furthermore he has an argument which district should be adapted
first.
The subject
nested to the highest degree (ulitimate subject) appears to be the start of the
study. That subject is independent variable by the designer or by empirical
facts influencing the object of study, to be clarified by research. The
ultimate object varies dependent on all other subjects and could be interpreted
as the aimed result, the objective to be clarified or realised.
2
Exercises with syntactic
key words
2.1 Making abstracts from texts
Make
an abstract of following text fragments from ‘Ways to study and research’[b]
in full-sentence functions and try to find the passage via the index of that
book. Add the author. First mark the key-words with a marker, then write them
down next to the text in the supposed order of working, then add brackets and
comma’s.
‘… the choice of installation system
must be made at the Preliminary Design stage. In practice, this is only possible
when form and characteristics of the façade (glazing percentage, type of sunshading, etc.) and of partition-walls and
finishings (heat
accumulating mass, false ceiling, and such) are known. However, these aspects
are only considered at the Final Design stage, not earlier.’
‘In architectural education fewer design
stages are being gone through. Teaching restricts
itself usually to the Project Definition (PD), Spatial Design (SD) and Preliminary Design. In a small number of exercises a Final Design (FD) is made.’
‘Solutions to get the ball rolling
tend to be characterised by compromise rather than synthesis, as a
result of the autocratic way of
decision-making by a limited number of expert designers.’
‘The ordering of the positioning and
size of the components constitutes the essence of the design, execution
and usage of buildings.’
‘It is precisely by not thinking of
architecture that you come to see analogies with other situations that incite
new ideas (by seeing it more as X you discover its potential fitness for Y).’’
‘In spite of yourself, you measure
every new experience against
the quality of all foregoing experiences of a
like nature, so that your chances of finding something new that is better than
what you already know keep diminishing, and so for most people the need to continue
searching will diminish too.’
‘Despite this division on the
process side of things, the architect (designer of the result) has to
operate on another level of abstraction with a process (work): the management of consecutive design
actions in
order to arrive at a design.’
‘If there is anything that can be generalised about design, this is
included, but here this involves generating designs
and only afterwards analysing their effects empirically.’
‘At an early stage the alignment and
size of the
structural layout were already determined. For the direction the east – west
parallel to the road was chosen and the size was derived from the sizing of a
‘standard’ office module.’
‘Usage of reflecting strips for
optimising daylight.’
‘This drawing represents a study of
the inter-dependence between the various design ideas. We came to the conclusion that it was largely
an affair of bits and pieces. There was no unity, no sense of conviction. The
feeling of the compositions was
just no good; so we should start one more time.’
‘‘Technical’ relates to the potential for execution (site
preparation, roads, sewage, bridges, etc.).’
‘It can involve an inventory of wants (those
of society, of the customer, of the party executing the commission), but here
the taking of inventory itself does not form part of the mode of what is
desired.
The inventory involves objectivity with regard to the "probable"
desires of others.’
‘Conceived this way, planning is a
human activity implying considerable responsibility: one
reason to oppose planning. The most effective way to escape
this responsibility is to deny the possibility of planning: ‘it is not up to human beings to shape the
future’.’
‘The Scientific Council was helpful
in commissioning Rob van Engelsdorp Gastelaars and Leo de Klerk from
the University of Amsterdam to write the political scenarios for the
Critical, The Dynamic and the Careful future.’
‘From the start, 1996/97, the initiators
knew they should be very selective in their choice of strategic projects, leaving the bulk of decisions where they traditionally
belong.’
Make an
abstract of the design process of Weeber, Verheijen, Brouwer, Röling, Bergh,
Vollers or Eekhout in full-sentence functions, and check via the index of ‘Ways
to study and research’.
2.2 Interpreting full-sentence functions
Write
down an argument in every day language concerning the following full-sentence
functions and if possible compare via the
index of ‘Ways to study and research ’:
working(action,
result, characteristic)
module(standard,
office)
module(standard
office)
module(standard(office))
potential(actual)
actual(potential)
Icarus(Daedalus(Metion))
education(design)
<> design(education)
design(proposal)
<> proposal(design)
typology(access)
<> access(typology)
building(analysis)
<> analysis(building)
programme(supply
side(critical mass(potentials(area)(design study, study by design)))
potentials(area)(design
study, study by design) =
potentials(area)(design
study)
potentials(area)(study
by design)
design
study <> study(design))
transparant
roof(closed wall)
closed
wall(transparant roof)
architect(result(process(design(consecutive
design actions))))
architect(design(result(process(consecutive
design actions))))
architectural
result(process(design(consecutive design actions(architect))))
architectural
result(process)(design(consecutive design actions(architect))))
(architectural
result, process)(design(consecutive design actions(architect))))
2.3 Making an image retrievable
Choose
your best drawing. Put it in a computer on the Faculty of Architecture of the
Technical University in Delft as .BMP, .JPG or .GIF image. Realise what other
people could read from it, put this content of the image in full-sentence
functions of the first degree. Choose http://iaai.bk.tudelft.nl/
on the internet, download the input programme, unpack it and put your
scientifically documented image on the internet. The input programme puts the
image automatically on your personal server space every student has in the
Faculty and besides that a .txt file with full-sentence functions and a .txt
file with your personal image catalogue. Do not change these .txt files, but
look how the server has represented all your data in full-sentence functions.
The IAAI-server makes the image retrievable on the internet next day. The next
input will go much faster, because the IAAI-server remembers all your standard
inputs of the first time and fills the input pages automatically. As soon as
you have made improvements in your drawing, replace it with exactly the same
name on your personal server space. The IAAI server controls the connected
server spaces every night and next day your portfolio on the internet is
actualised. If you can add more key-words or like to delete existing, the input
programme recovers your earlier input easily.
2.4 Making a study proposal
Write down your fascinations and associations in free style. Alcohol will help. First mark the key-words with a marker, then write them down in the supposed order of working, then add brackets and comma’s to make full-sentence functions. Coffee will help. Add new words. Read ‘Ways to study and research’ and choose your methods. Write your study proposal with problem, location, motivation or fascination statement, objectives or means, starting points, method, programme of study phases, elaborating the first step most.