bruno/MuNa
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull requests Projects Releases Packages Wiki Activity Actions

Add generalized form-language prompt template

Browse source 
Distills the two-step Salingaros prompting process (docs/salingaros-form-language-prompt.md)
that produced ref/Ecuadorian_Form_Language_Grammar.md into a reusable, placeholder-driven
prompt template for any region/site/typology, in templates/. Addresses failure modes not
present in the original worked example: unverified "search" claims, region-scale incoherence,
missing buildability/code-compliance disclaimer, and unscoped cultural-sensitivity risk around
sacred/ceremonial motifs.

Closes ecuador-vay.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Bruno Postle 2026-07-24 19:53:36 +01:00
parent b61456ebdd
commit b259252cea
4 changed files with 286 additions and 1 deletions
Show stats Download patch file Download diff file Expand all files Collapse all files

1
.beads/interactions.jsonl
View file

@ -14,3 +14,4 @@
{"id":"int-af24789b","kind":"field_change","created_at":"2026-07-18T20:42:03.117851886Z","actor":"Bruno Postle","issue_id":"ecuador-j4n","extra":{"field":"status","new_value":"closed","old_value":"in_progress","reason":"docs/illustration-prompts.md written: 13 self-contained image-generation prompts (one per illustration in docs/counter-proposal.md, some placeholders split into two distinct scenes), each repeating the full shared style guide (warm watercolor/gouache medium, fixed post-storm lighting, CR1 material/color palette, ornament placement rules, consistent non-stereotyped people, negative constraints) for set consistency"}}
{"id":"int-327eb8ee","kind":"field_change","created_at":"2026-07-18T20:44:21.279024692Z","actor":"Bruno Postle","issue_id":"ecuador-j4n","extra":{"field":"status","new_value":"open","old_value":"closed"}}
{"id":"int-a8a82bd1","kind":"field_change","created_at":"2026-07-18T20:47:07.720751243Z","actor":"Bruno Postle","issue_id":"ecuador-j4n","extra":{"field":"status","new_value":"closed","old_value":"open","reason":"docs/illustration-prompts.md rewritten: each of the 13 prompts now has the full shared style guide pasted literally inline (no cross-reference placeholder), so any single prompt can be copied straight into an image generator"}}
{"id":"int-efe834f8","kind":"field_change","created_at":"2026-07-24T18:52:02.458487025Z","actor":"Bruno Postle","issue_id":"ecuador-vay","extra":{"field":"status","new_value":"closed","old_value":"in_progress","reason":"Wrote templates/form-language-prompt-template.md, reviewed for failure modes (hallucination/unverified search claims, region-scale coherence, buildability disclaimer, sacred-motif caution) and applied fixes"}}

2
.beads/issues.jsonl
View file

@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
{"_type":"issue","id":"ecuador-cbd","title":"Mine critique transcript for named failures to avoid","description":"Why: CLAUDE.md step 2 uses the critique transcript (Nikos Salingaros and others analysing\nthe winning competition proposal) as a source of specific, concrete failures - not vague\ncomplaints - so the condensed brief and later narratives can explicitly steer clear of\nthem. This transcript is a 1352-line unstructured conversational recording (references\neye-tracking studies of the losing design), so it needs a deliberate reading pass rather\nthan a quick grep.\n\nWhat: Read ref/youtube-transcript.txt in full and extract a list of specific named\nfailures of the winning proposal (e.g. illegible circulation, inhuman scale relative to\nvisitors, hostile/blank facades, disconnection from urban context, parking treated as a\nprimary experience, meaningless shed-like massing - confirm and expand on actual read).\nFor each failure, note: (a) a short label, (b) the concrete evidence/quote from the\ntranscript, (c) which stakeholder(s) it harms, and (d) which pattern(s) in\n\"A Pattern Language Ecuador National Museum.md\" directly counters it (e.g. shielded/small\nparking lots patterns 97/103 counter \"parking as primary experience\"; circulation realms\npattern 98 counters \"illegible circulation\"). Write up as ref/critique-failures.md.","acceptance_criteria":"ref/critique-failures.md lists concrete, evidenced failures (not paraphrased vibes), each mapped to at least one countering pattern from the subset","status":"closed","priority":1,"issue_type":"task","assignee":"Bruno Postle","owner":"bruno@postle.net","created_at":"2026-07-18T19:38:10Z","created_by":"Bruno Postle","updated_at":"2026-07-18T20:03:36Z","started_at":"2026-07-18T20:00:17Z","closed_at":"2026-07-18T20:03:36Z","close_reason":"brief-condensed.md, critique-failures.md, and CLAUDE.md output-format decision all written","dependencies":[{"issue_id":"ecuador-cbd","depends_on_id":"ecuador-7vi","type":"parent-child","created_at":"2026-07-18T20:47:40Z","created_by":"Bruno Postle","metadata":"{}"}],"dependency_count":0,"dependent_count":1,"comment_count":0}
{"_type":"issue","id":"ecuador-mcq","title":"Condense official brief into genuine human-needs facts","description":"Why: CLAUDE.md step 2 requires distilling the official Stage 1 call documents down to\nwhat serves genuine human needs. The first pass of this task under-weighted one thing:\n\"human needs\" framing must not be used to reduce the National Collection itself to a\nbare scale number - the actual holdings are a legitimate, central program driver (what\npeople will actually encounter) and later narratives, especially the indigenous/\ncommunity stakeholder one, need to reference real, specific heritage content rather than\nan abstract \"collection\". Also new source material has arrived: Nikos Salingaros\ncontributed ref/Casa de la Memoria Andina - National Museum Narrative-Kimi.txt, a\nproject-data-plus-narrative document that already states site/program parameters\n(sometimes rounded differently than the official brief, e.g. \"13,000 sqm\" vs the\nofficial 13,004.65 sqm) - reconcile any discrepancies against the official brief rather\nthan silently picking one.\n\nWhat: Read ref/Muna Technical Bases for Stage 1.txt (Overview, National Museum of\nEcuador history/mission, National Collection reserve breakdown, Location section) and\nref/Muna ANNEX-1/ANNEX-2 (confirm ANNEX-2 is administrative-only beyond blank\nteam-portfolio tables). Write ref/brief-condensed.md with two clearly separate parts:\n\n1. FACTS: institutional mission/history, site data (13,004.65 sqm plot, Av. Eloy Alfaro\n / Av. de la Republica, Inaquito, La Pradera Urban Action Unit, opposite La Carolina\n park, Metro/Trolleybus access), minimum 25,000 sqm building area, broad program\n categories (exhibition, conservation and research, education, public areas,\n landscape). Note there is no detailed room-by-room spatial program in the source\n docs.\n\n2. THE NATIONAL COLLECTION (do not reduce to numbers only): for each of the 5 reserves,\n give both the scale AND representative named/typed content, since this is what\n visitors and community stakeholders will actually encounter:\n - Archaeology Reserve: 62,103 pieces - lithic tools/obsidian points through Manteno\n stone seats and the Tolita Sun.\n - Colonial and Republican Reserve: 5,353 pieces - colonial altarpieces, sculptures by\n Bernardo de Legarda, works by Joaquin Pinto.\n - Modern and Contemporary Art Reserve: 2,538 works - Luis A. Martinez, Araceli\n Gilbert, and other 20th/21st-century Ecuadorian artists.\n - Human Sciences Library: ~210,000 bibliographic items (1480-present), including the\n Jijon y Caamano and Isaac Barrera collections - a major, currently under-served\n holding, not just an adjunct to the galleries.\n - Historical Archive: 918,673 documents - colonial manuscripts, photographs, musical\n scores, sound/radio recordings, cartography, posters.\n Also carry forward the brief's own framing: the museum currently exhibits under 1% of\n its collection due to space/infrastructure limits - this is a core human-needs problem\n the new building must solve, distinct from square-footage alone.\n\nCross-check both parts against ref/Casa de la Memoria Andina - National Museum\nNarrative-Kimi.txt's stated project parameters and flag (don't silently resolve) any\nnumeric discrepancies for the chassis-extraction task to settle.","acceptance_criteria":"ref/brief-condensed.md has a distinct National Collection section naming representative holdings per reserve (not just counts), keeps the under-1%-exhibited problem, and flags any numeric discrepancies with the Salingaros narrative rather than silently overriding either source","status":"closed","priority":1,"issue_type":"task","assignee":"Bruno Postle","owner":"bruno@postle.net","created_at":"2026-07-18T19:38:05Z","created_by":"Bruno Postle","updated_at":"2026-07-18T20:03:35Z","started_at":"2026-07-18T20:00:13Z","closed_at":"2026-07-18T20:03:35Z","close_reason":"brief-condensed.md, critique-failures.md, and CLAUDE.md output-format decision all written","dependencies":[{"issue_id":"ecuador-mcq","depends_on_id":"ecuador-7vi","type":"parent-child","created_at":"2026-07-18T20:47:35Z","created_by":"Bruno Postle","metadata":"{}"}],"dependency_count":0,"dependent_count":1,"comment_count":0}
{"_type":"issue","id":"ecuador-7vi","title":"Museum counter-proposal: brief → chassis → narratives → consistency check","description":"Why: This is the project's core deliverable per CLAUDE.md - a pattern-language-driven\ncounter-proposal narrative for the National Museum of Ecuador, published to influence\npublic debate while the winning competition scheme is on hold. The pattern subset and\nform-language grammar are already in ref/; the brief has not yet been condensed and no\nnarratives have been written.\n\nWhat: Parent epic tracking the full remaining pipeline: condense brief facts + mine\ncritique transcript for named failures -\u003e fix shared design invariants in one chassis\ndocument -\u003e draft four stakeholder narratives against that shared chassis -\u003e cross-check\nall four for fidelity to patterns/brief/grammar and mutual consistency.","acceptance_criteria":"All 4 narratives exist at the agreed location, are mutually consistent, trace every design claim to the pattern subset/chassis/brief, and the cross-check issue (ecuador-7vi.5) is closed with no unresolved findings.","status":"closed","priority":1,"issue_type":"epic","owner":"bruno@postle.net","created_at":"2026-07-18T19:36:29Z","created_by":"Bruno Postle","updated_at":"2026-07-18T20:15:40Z","closed_at":"2026-07-18T20:15:40Z","close_reason":"Full pipeline complete: brief condensed, critique failures mined, chassis extracted, all four stakeholder narratives written and cross-checked with no unresolved findings","dependency_count":0,"dependent_count":0,"comment_count":0}
{"_type":"issue","id":"ecuador-vay","title":"Generalize a reusable form-language prompt template","description":"The original Postle \u0026 Salingaros paper (buildings-15-02400-v2.txt) only used a\npattern-language fragment as LLM context. This project's key methodological\naddition is pairing that with a form-language grammar (tectonic/spatial/color/\nornament rules) - see ref/Ecuadorian_Form_Language_Grammar.md as the concrete\nexample output for this project.\n\nWe now have the evidence needed to generalize this into a reusable instrument:\n- docs/salingaros-form-language-prompt.md - the actual prompts Salingaros used\n to generate the Ecuadorian form-language grammar (initial + follow-up,\n iterating toward: research vernacular/historical building images across a\n region, synthesize into a generative grammar rather than a style to copy,\n narrow to the specific project's climate/site while drawing vocabulary from\n the wider region, and produce a structured document meant to feed a later\n narrative-generation prompt rather than to generate images directly).\n- ref/Salingaros-Chapter-11-Two-Languages-for-Architecture.md - the theoretical\n basis (pattern language = human/organizational rules, form language =\n geometric/tectonic rules; the two must be linked or the pattern language\n can't connect to built form).\n- ref/Ecuadorian_Form_Language_Grammar.md - the worked example: its structure\n (tectonic sequence, spatial lexicon, composition syntax, color/ornament\n systems with coded references like CR1/OP2/OP4) is the target shape for the\n template's output.\n\nNext step: distill these into a prompt TEMPLATE (with placeholders for region,\nclimate, site, and building-typology specifics) that could be handed to an LLM\nto generate a form-language grammar for any locale/project, in the same\nstructural format as the Ecuadorian example. This is a generalization of the\nmethod, likely relevant to a future paper or revision of the Buildings 2025\nmethodology alongside the existing pattern-language-only approach.","status":"open","priority":2,"issue_type":"task","owner":"bruno@postle.net","created_at":"2026-07-24T18:29:07Z","created_by":"Bruno Postle","updated_at":"2026-07-24T18:29:07Z","dependency_count":0,"dependent_count":0,"comment_count":0}
{"_type":"issue","id":"ecuador-vay","title":"Generalize a reusable form-language prompt template","description":"The original Postle \u0026 Salingaros paper (buildings-15-02400-v2.txt) only used a\npattern-language fragment as LLM context. This project's key methodological\naddition is pairing that with a form-language grammar (tectonic/spatial/color/\nornament rules) - see ref/Ecuadorian_Form_Language_Grammar.md as the concrete\nexample output for this project.\n\nWe now have the evidence needed to generalize this into a reusable instrument:\n- docs/salingaros-form-language-prompt.md - the actual prompts Salingaros used\n to generate the Ecuadorian form-language grammar (initial + follow-up,\n iterating toward: research vernacular/historical building images across a\n region, synthesize into a generative grammar rather than a style to copy,\n narrow to the specific project's climate/site while drawing vocabulary from\n the wider region, and produce a structured document meant to feed a later\n narrative-generation prompt rather than to generate images directly).\n- ref/Salingaros-Chapter-11-Two-Languages-for-Architecture.md - the theoretical\n basis (pattern language = human/organizational rules, form language =\n geometric/tectonic rules; the two must be linked or the pattern language\n can't connect to built form).\n- ref/Ecuadorian_Form_Language_Grammar.md - the worked example: its structure\n (tectonic sequence, spatial lexicon, composition syntax, color/ornament\n systems with coded references like CR1/OP2/OP4) is the target shape for the\n template's output.\n\nNext step: distill these into a prompt TEMPLATE (with placeholders for region,\nclimate, site, and building-typology specifics) that could be handed to an LLM\nto generate a form-language grammar for any locale/project, in the same\nstructural format as the Ecuadorian example. This is a generalization of the\nmethod, likely relevant to a future paper or revision of the Buildings 2025\nmethodology alongside the existing pattern-language-only approach.","status":"closed","priority":2,"issue_type":"task","assignee":"Bruno Postle","owner":"bruno@postle.net","created_at":"2026-07-24T18:29:07Z","created_by":"Bruno Postle","updated_at":"2026-07-24T18:52:02Z","started_at":"2026-07-24T18:34:49Z","closed_at":"2026-07-24T18:52:02Z","close_reason":"Wrote templates/form-language-prompt-template.md, reviewed for failure modes (hallucination/unverified search claims, region-scale coherence, buildability disclaimer, sacred-motif caution) and applied fixes","dependency_count":0,"dependent_count":0,"comment_count":0}
{"_type":"issue","id":"ecuador-j4n","title":"Write AI image-generation prompts for the counter-proposal's illustrations","description":"Why: docs/counter-proposal.md is the public presentation document and has illustration placeholders throughout (11 markers, several covering more than one distinct scene, ~13 images total) that need to be generated by an AI image tool later, by others (per CLAUDE.md, image generation itself is out of scope for us). For the images to read as one coherent building rather than 13 unrelated renders, the prompts need a shared visual style guide (materials, color palette, massing, ornament placement, mood, rendering medium) repeated/embedded consistently in every individual prompt, plus a scene-specific description grounded in the exact passage of the narrative it illustrates.\n\nWhat: Produce a documented set of detailed image-generation prompts, one per illustration placeholder in docs/counter-proposal.md, each prompt self-contained (includes the full shared style/consistency context, not just a cross-reference) so it can be handed individually to an image generator. Base the visual facts on ref/project-chassis.md (materials strata, CR1 color system executed in plain language, OP2/OP4 ornament) and the relevant narrative passage in docs/counter-proposal.md. Decide file location/format as part of this work.","status":"closed","priority":2,"issue_type":"task","assignee":"Bruno Postle","owner":"bruno@postle.net","created_at":"2026-07-18T20:37:57Z","created_by":"Bruno Postle","updated_at":"2026-07-18T20:47:07Z","started_at":"2026-07-18T20:38:12Z","closed_at":"2026-07-18T20:47:07Z","close_reason":"docs/illustration-prompts.md rewritten: each of the 13 prompts now has the full shared style guide pasted literally inline (no cross-reference placeholder), so any single prompt can be copied straight into an image generator","dependency_count":0,"dependent_count":0,"comment_count":0}
{"_type":"issue","id":"ecuador-cmo","title":"Decide narrative output format/directory layout, update CLAUDE.md Status","description":"Why: CLAUDE.md's Status section explicitly defers this decision: \"Output format,\nfilenames, and directory layout are not yet finalized - decide and record here once the\nnarrative-writing step actually begins.\" That step is about to begin, so this needs\nresolving before narrative-writing tasks are picked up, otherwise each narrative risks\nlanding in an inconsistent location/format.\n\nWhat: Decide (a) directory - likely a new top-level narratives/ - (b) one file per\nstakeholder vs one combined document, (c) filename convention, (d) whether a short\nshared preamble (chassis summary) is prepended/linked in each narrative file for a\nreader encountering only one of them. Update CLAUDE.md's Status section and Deliverable\nsection to record the decision so future sessions don't have to re-derive it.","acceptance_criteria":"CLAUDE.md Status/Deliverable sections state the concrete directory, filenames and per-file structure to use","status":"closed","priority":2,"issue_type":"task","assignee":"Bruno Postle","owner":"bruno@postle.net","created_at":"2026-07-18T19:38:14Z","created_by":"Bruno Postle","updated_at":"2026-07-18T20:03:38Z","started_at":"2026-07-18T20:00:19Z","closed_at":"2026-07-18T20:03:38Z","close_reason":"brief-condensed.md, critique-failures.md, and CLAUDE.md output-format decision all written","dependencies":[{"issue_id":"ecuador-cmo","depends_on_id":"ecuador-7vi","type":"parent-child","created_at":"2026-07-18T20:47:44Z","created_by":"Bruno Postle","metadata":"{}"}],"dependency_count":0,"dependent_count":4,"comment_count":0}
{"_type":"issue","id":"ecuador-e0k","title":"Delete stale ref/ Kimi narrative duplicate","description":"ref/Casa de la Memoria Andina - National Museum Narrative-Kimi.txt is a messier PDF-extraction duplicate of docs/Casa-de-la-Memoria-Andina-National-Museum-Narrative-Kimi.txt (which is the cleaned, canonical copy). Delete the ref/ copy once confirmed nothing else references it.","status":"open","priority":3,"issue_type":"chore","owner":"bruno@postle.net","created_at":"2026-07-24T18:09:17Z","created_by":"Bruno Postle","updated_at":"2026-07-24T18:09:17Z","dependency_count":0,"dependent_count":0,"comment_count":0}

19
CLAUDE.md
View file

@ -222,6 +222,25 @@ His files, in pipeline order:
have no equivalent processing pipeline in this repo and aren't referenced
from any of our Markdown.
## Reusable templates (`templates/`)
Generalized, project-agnostic instruments distilled from this project's
own method — distinct from `ref/` (this project's specific inputs) and
`docs/` (this project's specific outputs). Intended for reuse on future
projects, and as candidate material for a future paper or revision of the
Buildings 2025 methodology.
- `form-language-prompt-template.md` — a single-shot prompt template
(with `{PLACEHOLDER}` fields for typology, region, site/climate, and
historical strata) that generalizes the two-step prompting process
Nikos Salingaros used to produce `ref/Ecuadorian_Form_Language_Grammar.md`
(see `docs/salingaros-form-language-prompt.md` for his original
prompts). Produces a structured form-language grammar document in the
same section shape as that worked example, meant to be paired with a
pattern-language module (per
`ref/Salingaros-Chapter-11-Two-Languages-for-Architecture.md`) as input
to a later narrative-generation prompt.
## Conventions
- Reference documents received as PDF are converted to Markdown (or plain

265
templates/form-language-prompt-template.md Normal file
View file

@ -0,0 +1,265 @@
# 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).