# Ecuadorian Form Language — Quito Grammar *A reusable design-grammar module for LLM-driven architectural description and image generation.* ## 0. Role of this document This document is one module of a larger prompt. Other modules supply the design brief (program, site, constraints) and the spatial chassis (the organizational type chosen for the project). This module supplies everything else: - the invariant climate script (fixed: Quito sierra); - the form vocabulary (lexicon of elements, drawn from all Ecuadorian regions and four historical strata); - the syntax (mandatory combination rules); - the color system (a menu of registers — exactly one is selected per generated project); - the ornament system (a menu of packages — selected per generated project); - the variation protocol (how to sample distinct color × ornament combinations across a batch of generated projects). Precedence when instructions conflict: 1. Brief constraints and spatial chassis (from other modules) govern program and organization. 2. The climate rules of §2 are invariant — they always win. If a formal idea drawn from another region conflicts with the Quito climate script, the element must be reinterpreted until it complies (e.g., a coastal stilt-house gallery becomes a corredor on a stone plinth). 3. Syntax rules of §4 govern all composition. 4. Color and ornament selections (§5, §6) are the free variables: each generated project makes one distinct choice. Terminology discipline: always use the glossary terms of §11 exactly as defined (e.g., zaguán, corredor, zócalo, alero). Every generated description must explicitly name its chosen Color Register (CR#) and Ornament Package(s) (OP#). This keeps a batch of generations comparable and traceable. ## 1. Design thesis The form language is a stratified fusion of Ecuador’s complete architectural spectrum: Ground like the pre-Columbians, walls like the colonials, roofs like the indigenous, celebration like the baroque. Every building reads from bottom to top as geological and cultural time: a heavy, earth-bound base (pre-Columbian logic of platform, terrace and battered stone); an earthen-timber body (colonial logic of tapial, adobe and bahareque); a light, dominant, deeply overhanging roof (indigenous logic of the great protective canopy); and a strictly rationed layer of ornament and color (baroque and textile logic of density at thresholds and crowns). The language is a grammar of translation, never replica: no historical facade is copied whole; elements are decomposed, understood by their climate function, and recombined. ## 2. Invariant climate script — Quito sierra (FIXED) ### 2.1 Climate facts as design parameters | Parameter | Value | Design consequence | |---|---|---| | Latitude / altitude | ≈0.2° S / ≈2,850 m | Sun path nearly vertical, swinging north (Jun) and south (Dec); both N and S facades receive direct sun seasonally | | Temperature | ≈9–22 °C year-round; no seasons; diurnal swing 10–15 °C | Passive design only: thermal mass buffers nights, sun capture warms days; no heating/cooling machinery drives form | | Rainfall | ≈1,000–1,250 mm/yr, distributed year-round with two peaks (Mar–May, Oct–Nov); afternoon storms; occasional hail | Permanent rain readiness; sun and rain can occur the same afternoon — shading and shelter must be simultaneous, not seasonal | | Sun | Near-zenith twice yearly; extreme UV (index 11+) | Horizontal shading outperforms vertical fins; mineral paints and limewash as renewable skin | | Humidity / air | Moderate; cool nights; still mornings, breezy afternoons | Cross-ventilation desirable midday; closable, massive envelope desirable at night | ### 2.2 Mandatory climate responses (Rules C1–C10 — always apply) - C1 — Dominant pitched roof. Every major volume carries a pitched roof (25–40°), gabled, hipped or conical. Flat roofs permitted only as minor links or terraces between pitched volumes. - C2 — Deep eaves (alero). Horizontal overhangs of 0.8–1.2 m on all exposed eaves, protecting earth render, shading walls from the near-vertical sun, and sheltering perimeter circulation. - C3 — Raised plinth. Every building meets the ground on a stone plinth (0.3–0.6 m) or platform against rain splashback and ground moisture. Buildings never touch grade directly. - C4 — Mass inside, light outside. Thermal mass (tapial/adobe/stone, 0.4–0.6 m) forms ground-floor and inner walls; upper floors and gables may lighten to bahareque/timber (0.15–0.2 m). - C5 — Courtyard sun capture. Patios sized to admit the high equatorial sun: courtyard width-to-surrounding-height ratio ≈ 1:1. - C6 — Covered circulation. At least one all-weather covered path (corredor, cloister walk, deep eave walk) connecting the building’s principal rooms. - C7 — Orientation discipline. Principal habitable rooms favor morning (east) sun; west facades are guarded (smaller openings, screens, corredor buffering) because hot afternoon sun coincides with rainstorms. North and south facades both receive seasonal sun and may be opened with eave protection. - C8 — Cross-ventilation stack. The sequence zaguán → patio → corredor must be able to ventilate through the building; ridge or gable vents exhaust warm air. - C9 — Water as ornament. Rain discharge is expressed: canales, gargoyles, or scuppers throw water clear of earthen walls into stone-lined channels or garden rills. - C10 — No seasonal operability. Do not invent “summer/winter” mechanisms. Quito has one eternal mild, wet, high-UV day; the building is always simultaneously a sunshade, an umbrella, and a night-time thermal battery. ## 3. Form vocabulary (lexicon) Elements are grouped by tectonic family. Each carries its origin stratum — S1 Indigenous, S2 Pre-Columbian, S3 Early Colonial, S4 Baroque, R Regional/19th-century — and may be drawn from any Ecuadorian region, but must comply with §2 and §4. ### 3.1 Ground and platform elements - E1 Terraced stone base (S2 — Ingapirca, andenes): sloped sites are carved into terraces of rough or fitted stone; buildings sit on platforms, never on flattened fill. Retaining faces may incline (batter) inward. - E2 Earthen platform/mound (S2 — Cochasquí): communal or ceremonial program may be raised on a broad earthen platform with a ceremonial ramp — mass as shaped ground. - E3 Stone plinth (S3): continuous rubble or ashlar base band, 0.3–0.6 m, under all earthen walls. ### 3.2 Wall elements - E4 Battered ashlar wall (S2): fitted stone, faces inclining slightly inward; joints readable; used for bases, portals, retaining — carries seismic and visual weight. - E5 Tapial / adobe wall (S3): monolithic earthen wall, 0.4–0.6 m, limewashed; deep rounded reveals at openings. - E6 Bahareque / quincha (S3): timber or cane frame with woven infill and mud-lime render; light, flexible, used for upper floors, gables and interior partitions; may be expressed (visible weave pattern) or rendered smooth. - E7 Trapezoidal opening (S2): doorways and niches narrowing toward the top, monolithic lintel; use sparingly for principal thresholds or niches — a potent pre-Columbian marker. ### 3.3 Roof and sky elements - E8 Great conical canopy (S1 — maloca): steep conical or pyramidal roof, structure expressed as radiating poles; contemporary translation in timber, bamboo or steel with shingle/thatch/standing-seam skin; reserved for communal/ceremonial volumes (hall, chapel, market, gathering space). - E9 Gabled/hipped tile roof (S3): the default roof; clay barrel tile, pitch 25–40°, ridge vents possible. - E10 Deep eaves walk (S1/S3): the alero deep enough (0.8–1.2 m+) to become a shaded, rain-proof perimeter room. - E11 Tiled dome / lantern (S4): small glazed-tile dome or lantern over the symbolic core (stair hall, chapel, reading room); silhouette event, rationed (see G6). - E12 Espadaña / finial (S3/S4): bell-gable or sculpted finial as skyline punctuation on otherwise simple masses. ### 3.3 Threshold and in-between elements - E13 Zaguán (S3): covered passage from street to patio; deep, shaded, often with a postigo (door-within-door); the building’s primary threshold and airlock. - E14 Patio (S3): open court, width ≈ surrounding height; planted, paved in stone or brick; the climatic and social heart. - E15 Corredor (S3/R): covered gallery — colonnade or arcade, 1.5–2.5 m wide — ringing patio or street facade; the all-weather social room; carved timber posts or stone piers. - E16 Balcón corrido (R — Cuenca): continuous timber balcony on street facades, with turned spindles and carved brackets; mediates interior and street. - E17 Atrio (S3/S4): raised forecourt before a principal entrance, bounded by a low wall with corner finials; the civic threshold. - E18 Mirador (R): roofed lookout bay or tower room framing a volcano/valley view; upper-level counterpoint to the patio. - E19 Arcaded portal (S3 — Balbanera): deep arched entry porch in stone; the archaic colonial threshold, powerful on civic fronts. - E20 Celosía / reja (S3/R): timber lattice or wrought-iron grille over windows; ventilated shade and privacy; surface for geometric ornament (OP1/OP3). ### 3.4 Interior elements - E21 Artesonado ceiling (S3/S4 — mudéjar): coffered/interlaced timber ceiling over the principal hall; structure as ornament (OP3). - E22 Retablo wall (S4): one interior wall organized as a tiered, framed composition of niches, carving and color (OP4). - E23 Whitewashed nave with colored carpentry: calm limewashed interior volume with doors, balconies, choir rails and beams carrying the saturated color. ## 4. Syntax — combination rules (Rules G1–G8, always apply) - G1 — Stratification. Compose bottom-up: pre-Columbian ground (E1–E4) → colonial body (E5–E6) → indigenous-derived crown (E8–E10). A building must be heaviest at the earth and lightest at the sky. Never invert. - G2 — Perimeter around void. Program wraps one or more patios; every inhabited room touches both an exterior edge and a court or corredor. - G3 — Threshold gradient. Public-to-private sequence is always graduated: street → atrio or zaguán → patio → corredor → room. No door opens directly from street into an intimate room. - G4 — The roof is the fifth facade. Quito is a city of slopes: roofs are constantly seen from above. Compose tile pitch, eave lines, ridges, domes and espadañas as a deliberate roofscape. - G5 — Additive bays. Buildings grow in structural bays of 3–4.5 m; expansion happens by adding bays and successive patios, giving natural phasing and modularity. - G6 — One dense face / one dense room. Ornament concentrates at a single exterior episode (portal, atrio front) and/or a single interior episode (retablo wall, artesonado hall). All other surfaces stay calm. Never distribute ornament evenly. - G7 — Slope empathy. On sloped sites, terrace (E1) and step the masses; each step may carry its own pitched roof, producing the characteristic cascading roofscape. - G8 — Proportional habits. Courtyards square-ish (1:1 to 1:2); openings tall and narrow within massive walls; portal rhythms of 3 or 5 bays; story heights 3.0–3.6 m; eave lines continuous across a composition. ## 5. Color system — SELECT EXACTLY ONE REGISTER PER PROJECT ### 5.1 Fixed placement rules (Rules P1–P6 — always apply, whichever register is chosen) - P1 — Quiet fields. Large wall fields stay limewash white, earth-tone or plaster-calm. Saturation is never spread over whole structural masses (exception: CR4, which replaces fields with polychromy by design). - P2 — Zócalo band. A deep mineral-hue base band (0.6–1.2 m) runs at the foot of exterior walls — historically a splash guard, compositionally the building’s grounding line. - P3 — Carpentry carries color. Doors, windows, balconies, corredor posts, shutters and grilles carry the register’s accent hue(s), in one consistent hue family per facade. - P4 — Roofs stay natural. Clay tile red-brown, thatch tone, or dark metal; only domes may be glazed colored tile. - P5 — Matte mineral character. All color reads as limewash, mineral pigment, or fired clay — matte, slightly veiled, never synthetic gloss. - P6 — Interior inversion allowed. A restrained exterior may conceal a saturated interior (the baroque inversion), but only when the chosen register says so. ### 5.2 Color Registers (CR1–CR8) - CR1 — Quito White & Andesite. Historic-center canonical: lime-white fields; grey volcanic andesite at plinth, portal and carved elements; dark walnut carpentry; red-brown tile; small oxblood zócalo. Mood: grave, civic, monastic. - CR2 — Almagre Earth. Rural Andean: almagre red-oxide zócalo and lower walls; ochre and bone-white upper fields; near-black or deep-green carpentry. Mood: earthen, warm, archaic. - CR3 — Añil Contrast. White fields with deep indigo/añil blue carpentry, doors and balcony rails; thin red zócalo. Mood: crisp, graphic, highland-clear. - CR4 — Las Peñas Polychromy. Coastal transplant (requires simple massing and strict P3 discipline): each facade plane or bay in a different saturated pastel — turquoise, coral, saffron, leaf green, rose — with white trim unifying. Mood: festive, popular, street-life. - CR5 — Cuenca Timber. Least-painted register: natural wood (honey to dark walnut) dominates corredores, balconies, eaves; white plaster fields; tile roof; black iron rejas. Mood: crafted, quiet, material-honest. - CR6 — Tocapu Earth Code. Pre-Columbian textile palette: madder red, charcoal black, bone white, gold ochre, applied in geometric bands, panels and floor patterns (pair with OP1/OP2). Mood: coded, ancestral, graphic. - CR7 — Golden Baroque Inversion. Exterior near-monochrome (white/grey/stone, P1–P4 strictly); interior explodes: gold-toned light, polychrome retablo wall, painted ceilings (pair with OP4). Mood: severe outside, ecstatic inside. - CR8 — Mestizo Pastels. Otavalo-market limewash palette: soft rose, aqua green, pale yellow fields in alternating bays; white trim; deep blue or green carpentry. Mood: gentle, domestic, luminous. ## 6. Ornament system — SELECT PER PROJECT Select one geometric system (OP1–OP3 or OP7) and optionally one episodic system (OP4–OP6). Never two geometric systems; never more than one figurative episode per building (G6). ### 6.1 Fixed placement rules (Rules O1–O4 — always apply) - O1 — Zoned placement. Ornament lives in three zones only: the base (masonry bonds, zócalo patterns), the threshold (portal frames, zaguán doors, window surrounds, celosías), and the crown (cornices, espadañas, domes, eave details). Fields between stay calm. - O2 — Density gradient. Ornament density increases toward the principal portal or principal room, and falls off with distance. - O3 — Structural honesty. Geometric ornament must be made by construction (brick bonds, tile coursing, timber joints, shadow gaps, perforations), not applied as surface decal, except where a package explicitly says otherwise. - O4 — Translation, not replica. Motifs are abstracted and re-proportioned for contemporary construction; no wholesale copying of a historical facade. ### 6.2 Ornament Packages (OP1–OP7) - OP1 — Tocapu Grid (geometric, S2). The Inca textile cell system: a gridded field of distinct square glyphs (steps, keys, diagonals, diamonds, checks). Translate to: perforated brick screens, parapet patterns, floor tilings, shadow-jointed wall panels. Palette follows CR6 or the chosen register’s accents. - OP2 — Chakana & Diamond Course (geometric, S2). The stepped Andean cross and Cañari diamond: stepped profiles in cornices and parapets; diamond-coursed masonry bonds; chamfered building corners; mullion patterns. Works at the scale of the whole plan (stepped massing) down to a door pull. - OP3 — Mudéjar Lacería (geometric, S3). Islamic-Spanish interlace: star-pattern timber lattice celosías; alfiz frames (rectangular bands) around arched openings; and one artesonado coffered ceiling over the principal hall — interlaced timber geometry as structure-ornament. - OP4 — Quiteño Retablo Episode (episodic, S4). One dense carved composition only, at the main portal (carved volcanic stone or timber) or one interior wall: sun and moon discs, Andean flora and fauna (pineapple, parrot, puma, corn, monkey), tiered niche composition, estípite (inverted-pyramid pilaster) silhouettes permitted. Everything else calm (G6, O2). - OP5 — Domestic Carved Timber (episodic-craft, R — Cuenca). Ornament as woodworking craft: carved corredor columns and brackets, turned balcony spindles, deep-carved zaguán doors, patterned eave boards. Distributed along corredores and balconies — the exception that lives in circulation zones rather than one episode. - OP6 — Skyline Ornament (episodic, S3/S4). The silhouette as ornament: espadañas, finials, small glazed-tile domes, lanterns; composed against the equatorial sky per G4. Pairs with any geometric system; keeps wall surfaces free. - OP7 — Neighbor Techniques (geometric-surface, borrowed). Techniques imported from Latin America’s broader orbit, used only as bands and friezes: azulejo/talavera-style glazed tile wainscots; sgraffito plaster bands (two-tone scratched plaster, Tunja manner); fileteado-style flowing painted linework reserved for soffits, signs and small panels. ## 7. Composition procedure (for the describing LLM) When given a brief and spatial chassis from the other prompt modules, compose in this order: 1. Restate the chassis in grammar terms (which patios, terraces, or halls organize it). 2. Apply the climate script C1–C10 as non-negotiable section decisions: pitch, eaves, plinth, mass placement, orientation, ventilation path. 3. Assign the strata (G1): choose ground elements (E1–E4), body elements (E5–E6), crown (E8–E12), thresholds (E13–E20), interiors (E21–E23). 4. Check the syntax G1–G8 explicitly. 5. Select one Color Register (CR#) and apply placement rules P1–P6. 6. Select one geometric ornament system (+ optionally one episodic package) and place per O1–O4 and G6. 7. Verify against the negative constraints of §10. 8. Write the description following the template of §8, naming CR/OP selections. ## 8. Output description template Each generated building description must contain, in this order: 1. Name and one-sentence concept (evocative, references the strata fusion). 2. Site and massing — platforms/terraces, volumes, roofscape (G4, G7). 3. Section and climate devices — explicitly trace C1–C10 compliance (eaves, plinth, patio ratio, ventilation path, orientation). 4. Structure and materials — strata assignment: ground / body / crown elements by E-number. 5. Color application — name the CR#, then describe field / zócalo / carpentry / roof / interior per P1–P6. 6. Ornament placement — name the OP#(s); describe base, threshold, crown episodes per O1–O4; confirm G6 rationing. 7. Camera-ready visual summary — 3–5 sentences of pure visual description for the image-generation step, plus 2–3 suggested viewpoints (e.g., “aerial oblique showing roofscape,” “from the patio toward the corredor,” “street elevation at the zaguán”). ## 9. Variation protocol (for generating a batch of projects) To produce a diverse batch that covers the traditional Ecuadorian spectrum: - Hold invariant: climate script (§2), syntax (§4), placement rules (§5.1, §6.1). These make the batch legible as one language. - Vary systematically: the spatial chassis (from other modules) × one CR# × one geometric OP# (+ optional episodic OP#). - Recommended pairings (affinities, not obligations): CR6→OP1/OP2; CR7→OP4; CR3/CR5→OP5; CR1→OP3/OP6; CR2→OP2; CR4→OP5 (simple massing); CR8→OP5/OP6. - Coverage target: a batch of 8–12 variants should cycle through most CR#s and both pre-Columbian and colonial/baroque ornament families, so the human selector sees the full spectrum — archaic-earthen, graphic-indigenous, monastic-white, festive-polychrome, and baroque-ecstatic. ## 10. Negative constraints (forbidden moves) - N1 No seasonal mechanisms (“opens for summer” / “closed for winter”) — Quito has no seasons. - N2 No vertical louvers/fins as primary solar control (sun is near-vertical); use horizontal eaves and corredores. - N3 No fully glazed facades without eave or colonnade protection; no glass-box massing. - N4 No flat primary roofs (minor terrace links excepted). - N5 No building meeting grade without plinth, platform or terrace. - N6 No more than one figurative ornament episode per building; no evenly distributed ornament. - N7 No free-floating ornament outside base/threshold/crown zones. - N8 No mixing two Color Registers in one project; no hues outside the chosen register; no synthetic gloss. - N9 No colored roofs (glazed domes excepted). - N10 No towers, domes or espadañas over minor private rooms — skyline events mark communal/civic cores only. - N11 No literal historical collage (a copied colonial facade); translate and abstract per O4. - N12 Regional elements (coastal stilts, Amazonian open walls, etc.) may enter only as formal references reinterpreted to comply with C1–C10. ## 11. Glossary (use these terms exactly) - alero — deep roof overhang/eave. andén — agricultural terrace, basis of the terraced base. artesonado — mudéjar interlaced timber ceiling. atrio — walled forecourt before a church or civic building. bahareque / quincha — timber-cane frame with mud-lime render infill. balcón corrido — continuous timber balcony. canales — roof water spouts/gargoyles. celosía — perforated lattice screen. chakana — stepped Andean cross. corredor — covered gallery ringing a patio or facade. espadaña — bell-gable wall rising above a roofline. estípite — inverted-obelisk pilaster of late baroque. maloca — Amazonian communal house under a great conical roof. mirador — roofed lookout framing a view. patio — interior open court. postigo — pedestrian door cut within a large gate. reja — wrought-iron window grille. retablo — tiered, framed altar-piece composition. tapial — monolithic rammed earth. tocapu — Inca geometric textile glyph. zaguán — covered entry passage street-to-patio. zócalo — painted or stone base band at a wall’s foot. ## Appendix A — Canonical precedents by stratum (reference anchors) - S1 Indigenous: Shuar/Achuar maloca (conical thatch, radiating poles); Andean rural choza (ichu-grass gable, stone footings). - S2 Pre-Columbian: Ingapirca (Cañari-Inca; elliptical Temple of the Sun, battered ashlar, trapezoidal niches, terracing); Cochasquí (Caranqui; fifteen earthen pyramids with ramps); tocapu textiles (All-T’oqapu Tunic); chakana. - S3 Early Colonial: La Balbanera, Colta (1534; stone, arched portal, espadaña, atrio); San Francisco, Quito (atrio, mudéjar artesonados, twin towers); Calle La Ronda popular housing; rural bahareque farmhouses. - S4 Baroque: La Compañía de Jesús, Quito (1605–1765; carved andesite facade with Andean flora-fauna and sun disc; gold interior); Santo Domingo and La Merced, Quito (domes, mudéjar ceilings); Quito School carving and polychromy. - R Regional/19th-c.: Cuenca historic center (corredores, carved balconies, cascading tile roofs over the Tomebamba); Las Peñas / Cerro Santa Ana, Guayaquil (polychrome timber houses, elevated galleries); Otavalo, Zuleta and Salasaca textile patterns. - Neighbor techniques (OP7): Cusco-school gilding and Altiplano arquebusier angels; Tunja sgraffito interiors; Brazilian/Portuguese azulejos; Mexican talavera and churrigueresque density; Argentine fileteado linework.