MuNa/templates/form-language-prompt-template.md

# Form-Language Prompt Template

*A reusable prompt for generating a project-specific architectural
form-language grammar module, in the style pioneered for this project.*

## Provenance

This template generalizes the two-step prompting process Nikos Salingaros
used to produce `ref/Ecuadorian_Form_Language_Grammar.md`
(`docs/salingaros-form-language-prompt.md` — his initial and follow-up
prompts), collapsed into a single one-shot prompt with placeholders for
region, climate, site, and building typology. The required output shape
(§0–§11 + appendix below) mirrors the structure of that worked example,
which should be used as the calibration reference for filling this
template in and for judging any grammar it produces.

The theoretical basis is Salingaros' *pattern language + form language =
adaptive design method* (`ref/Salingaros-Chapter-11-Two-Languages-for-Architecture.md`):
a pattern language alone cannot connect to built form without a
complementary form language of geometric/tectonic rules. This template
generates that second, complementary document.

## What this produces

A structured **grammar document**, not images and not a narrative — a
module meant to be handed, alongside a pattern-language module, a project
brief, and a spatial-chassis module, into a *later* prompt that asks an
LLM to write the experiential design narrative (see the paper's Section
4.2 approach, `ref/buildings-15-02400-v2.txt`). Color and ornament are
left as a menu of selectable registers/packages rather than a single fixed
choice, so that later narrative/image generation can sample distinct
combinations and a human can select among them.

## Placeholders

Fill these in before sending the prompt. If a field is left as `(let the
model propose)`, say so explicitly rather than deleting the line — an
LLM asked to research and propose is different from one given no
instruction at all.

| Placeholder | Meaning | Ecuador worked example |
|---|---|---|
| `{TYPOLOGY}` | The building program/typology | a national museum |
| `{WIDE_REGION}` | The broad cultural/geographic region to draw form vocabulary from — narrow enough that its history is genuinely coherent (so the strata actually relate to one another), broad enough to give real stylistic range; usually a country or a historically-linked macro-region, not a continent | Ecuador (and neighboring Latin America for the "neighbor techniques" package) |
| `{FIXED_SITE}` | The specific city/site the climate script must be fixed to | Quito, Ecuadorian sierra |
| `{CLIMATE_SEED_FACTS}` | Known climate facts to ground the research (latitude, altitude, temperature range, rainfall pattern, sun/UV character, seasonality or lack of it) — prevents hallucinated climate data | ≈0.2° S / ≈2,850 m; 9–22 °C year-round; ~1,000–1,250 mm/yr rain, two peaks; near-zenith sun, high UV; no seasons |
| `{HISTORICAL_STRATA}` | The historical/cultural strata to synthesize across, oldest to newest (or `(let the model propose)`). Not every region has an indigenous or pre-colonial stratum in the sense the Ecuador example does — for a region without one, list whatever historical building cultures it does have instead (e.g. vernacular farmhouse, Roman, medieval, renaissance, industrial-era) rather than forcing an indigenous/colonial framing onto it | indigenous wooden/conical-roof structures; pre-Columbian stone monumental; early colonial wood/earth; later colonial baroque |
| `{SCALE_NOTES}` | Programmatic/scale notes that affect massing (approx. size, public vs. civic character, number of principal volumes) | ~25,000 m² minimum, high-visitation civic building |
| `{DOWNSTREAM_MODULES}` | What other prompt modules this will be combined with later (fixed boilerplate unless the project's pipeline differs) | brief constraints, spatial chassis |

## The prompt

Copy everything below the line, substitute the placeholders, and send it
to an LLM as a single message.

---

I need to develop an architectural form language for {TYPOLOGY} in
{FIXED_SITE}, drawing on the broader architectural traditions of
{WIDE_REGION}.

**Research and synthesize, don't copy.** Locate and study open-source
descriptions and images of traditional buildings and urban spaces across
{WIDE_REGION}, spanning its full historical range: {HISTORICAL_STRATA}.
Synthesize what you find into a design *grammar* — a vocabulary of
elements plus rules for how they combine — not a style to be reproduced.
No historical facade should be copied whole; decompose elements,
understand their climate and structural function, and recombine them.
Treat any images only as references for the grammar you derive, not as
material to reproduce or publish. You most likely cannot actually browse
the internet or verify images within this conversation — unless you have
a real, working search or browsing tool available, treat any specific
building, site, or tradition you name as drawn from your training-data
familiarity, not from verified research, and say so plainly rather than
presenting recollection as verified fact.

**Fix the climate and site, but not the vocabulary.** The building itself
is fixed at {FIXED_SITE}: {CLIMATE_SEED_FACTS}. Derive from this a set of
climate facts and the mandatory design responses they imply (roof form,
eaves, plinth/ground relationship, thermal mass placement, courtyard
proportion, orientation, ventilation, water management, and — if the
climate truly has no seasons — an explicit rule against inventing
seasonal mechanisms). These climate rules are invariant: if a form drawn
from elsewhere in {WIDE_REGION} conflicts with them, reinterpret the form
until it complies rather than dropping the climate rule. The *vocabulary*,
by contrast, should still be drawn from the whole of {WIDE_REGION}, not
narrowed to the immediate site.

**Give special attention to color and ornament traditions** across
{WIDE_REGION} and its historical strata. Do not settle on a single color
or ornament choice for the project. Instead produce a menu: several
distinct, named color registers and several distinct, named ornament
systems, each historically grounded, each internally consistent, each
usable on its own. A later step will generate several project variants,
each committing to exactly one register and one ornament system, so a
human reviewer can compare a genuine spread of options — do not
pre-select a "best" one.

**This document is a prompt module, not an image request.** It will be
combined later with other modules — {DOWNSTREAM_MODULES} — inside a
further prompt that asks an LLM to write a verbal design narrative
(images, if any, come after that, generated from the narrative). Write
for that downstream reader: precise, structured, unambiguous, using
consistent short codes for anything a later step must reference (color
registers, ornament packages, individual vocabulary elements) so a batch
of generated projects stays traceable and comparable.

**Produce the grammar in this structure, in this order:**

0. **Role of this document** — state that it is one module of a larger
   prompt (brief and spatial chassis supplied elsewhere), list what this
   module supplies (climate script, form vocabulary, syntax, color
   system, ornament system, variation protocol), and state the precedence
   order when instructions conflict (brief/chassis govern program; the
   climate script is invariant and always wins; syntax governs
   composition; color/ornament are the free variables chosen per
   project). State that every generated description must name its chosen
   color register and ornament package(s) explicitly, and must use the
   glossary terms (§11) exactly as defined. State explicitly that this
   document describes a formal and tectonic *vocabulary* for descriptive
   and illustrative use, not a structural, seismic, fire, or
   building-code specification — literal historical materials and
   assemblies it names (e.g. rammed earth, masonry vaulting) may need
   re-engineering or reinterpretation with modern materials/methods to
   be actually buildable and code-compliant, and that determination is a
   separate engineering exercise outside this document's scope.

1. **Design thesis** — one paragraph stating the stratified-fusion logic:
   how the historical strata you're drawing on relate to each other
   vertically or conceptually (e.g. ground/ancient logic, body/mid-period
   logic, roof/vernacular logic, ornament/late-period logic, or whatever
   ordering genuinely fits {HISTORICAL_STRATA} and {WIDE_REGION} — do not
   force Ecuador's bottom-to-top stratification onto a region where it
   doesn't apply).

2. **Invariant climate script for {FIXED_SITE} (FIXED)** — a table of
   climate facts and their design consequences, then a numbered list of
   mandatory climate-response rules (roof, eaves/shading, ground
   relationship, thermal mass, courtyard/opening proportion, orientation,
   ventilation, water management, plus a rule forbidding invented
   seasonal mechanisms if the climate has none).

3. **Form vocabulary (lexicon)** — elements grouped by tectonic family
   (ground/platform, wall, roof/sky, threshold/in-between, interior, or
   whatever families fit this typology), each tagged with its origin
   stratum and region, each given a short reusable code.

4. **Syntax — combination rules** — numbered, always-apply rules for how
   the vocabulary combines: stratification/ordering logic, relationship
   of program to void/courtyard/street, threshold gradation from public
   to private, treatment of the roof or fifth facade if relevant, growth/
   modularity logic, ornament concentration logic (dense at few episodes,
   calm elsewhere), proportional habits.

5. **Color system — one register selected per project** — placement
   rules that apply regardless of register (where saturation is allowed,
   where fields must stay calm, how base/trim/roof are differentiated,
   material honesty of the color), then several named, coded color
   registers, each historically grounded in a specific place/tradition
   within {WIDE_REGION}, each with a one-line mood description.

6. **Ornament system — selected per project** — placement rules that
   apply regardless of package (zoning of ornament to base/threshold/
   crown or equivalent, density gradient toward the principal entrance,
   structural rather than applied ornament where possible, translation
   not replica), then several named, coded ornament packages (geometric
   and episodic/figurative), each grounded in a specific tradition within
   {WIDE_REGION}. If any stratum in {HISTORICAL_STRATA} carries motifs
   with sacred, ceremonial, or otherwise living cultural significance —
   as distinct from motifs that are purely decorative or historical —
   say so explicitly, and mark those motifs as needing consultation with
   the communities they belong to before real-world use, rather than
   folding them into the ornament menu as free decorative material. This
   is about protecting living meaning, not a judgment on any tradition's
   aesthetic value; skip this note where no stratum carries that kind of
   significance.

7. **Composition procedure (for the describing LLM)** — a numbered
   procedure for how a later prompt should use this module: restate the
   chassis in grammar terms, apply the climate script as non-negotiable,
   assign vocabulary by stratum, check the syntax rules, select one color
   register and apply its placement rules, select ornament package(s) and
   apply their placement rules, check against the negative constraints
   (§10), then write the description per the template (§8).

8. **Output description template** — the fixed section order a later
   narrative/description must follow (concept, site/massing, climate
   compliance, structure/materials by element code, color application
   naming the register, ornament placement naming the package(s), and a
   short camera-ready visual summary with suggested viewpoints for a
   downstream image-generation step).

9. **Variation protocol** — what stays invariant across a batch of
   generated project variants (climate script, syntax, placement rules)
   versus what varies (chassis × one color register × one ornament
   package), any recommended register/package affinities, and a coverage
   target so a batch spans the historical/regional spectrum rather than
   converging on one look.

10. **Negative constraints** — a numbered list of forbidden moves,
    derived directly from whatever climate rules and syntax rules you
    proposed above (e.g. if you required pitched roofs, forbid flat
    primary roofs here; if you required a plinth, forbid meeting grade
    without one; always forbid mixing two color registers in one
    project, more than one figurative ornament episode, evenly
    distributed ornament, literal uncredited copying of a named
    historical building, and applying any motif flagged in §6 as
    sacred/ceremonial without the noted consultation caveat).

11. **Glossary** — every non-English or specialist term used above,
    defined in one line, to be used verbatim (not paraphrased) by any
    later prompt.

**Appendix — canonical precedents by stratum.** For each stratum in
{HISTORICAL_STRATA}, list two or three named real buildings, sites, or
artifact traditions from {WIDE_REGION} that anchor it, as reference
points — not to be copied, but so a later reader can verify the grammar
is genuinely grounded in something real. For each one, note briefly
whether it's a well-documented example you're confident about or a
plausible-but-unverified recollection — don't present both with equal
certainty.

Scale notes for the project this grammar will serve: {SCALE_NOTES}.

---

## Usage notes

- The worked example this template generalizes
  (`ref/Ecuadorian_Form_Language_Grammar.md`) is the calibration
  reference for level of detail, tone, and coding conventions (its `E#`
  element codes, `C#`/`G#`/`P#`/`O#` rule codes, `CR#`/`OP#` register/
  package codes). A generated grammar doesn't need identical codes, but
  should be at a comparable level of precision and equally traceable.
- Salingaros' original process was two prompts — an open exploratory
  first pass, then a follow-up narrowing scope (fix climate to the
  specific site, keep vocabulary regional, drop a single color/ornament
  choice in favor of a menu, and reframe the output as a prompt module
  rather than an image request). This template front-loads that
  narrowing into one prompt; if the first response still drifts (e.g.
  proposes a single color and ornament choice, or narrows vocabulary to
  only the immediate site), send a follow-up correcting just that point
  rather than re-running the whole prompt.
- Check the output for fidelity the same way pattern-language narratives
  are checked (see CLAUDE.md's "Method" step 3): any climate rule,
  vocabulary element, or precedent that isn't grounded in something real
  for {WIDE_REGION}/{FIXED_SITE} is a hallucination to catch and
  regenerate away.
- Salingaros described his original prompt as asking the LLM to "locate
  open-source images of traditional buildings" and synthesize from them.
  It's unclear whether that literally happened, as opposed to the model
  drawing on general training-data familiarity with named buildings and
  presenting it in the language of research — locating and verifying
  images is a materially harder task than an LLM can reliably do without
  a real, working search/browsing tool. Treat the Appendix precedents as
  indicative, not verified, unless the model you're using actually has
  that capability and you've confirmed it used it.
- This document is a formal/tectonic vocabulary for description and
  illustration, not a construction specification: literal historical
  materials it names (rammed earth, adobe, stone vaulting) are
  references, not proof the resulting building is code-buildable.
  Seismic, fire, and code compliance are a separate engineering exercise
  — worth stating plainly, since {FIXED_SITE} may be in a seismically
  active region where this matters (Quito, this project's own case,
  among them).