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

Form-Language Prompt Template

A reusable prompt for generating a project-specific architectural form-language grammar module.

Provenance

This template is self-contained — everything needed to run it is in the "Placeholders" and "The prompt" sections below. This section and "Usage notes" are background only, safe to skip.

The template generalizes a two-step prompting process Nikos Salingaros used to produce a form-language grammar for a National Museum of Ecuador project (his initial exploratory prompt, then a follow-up narrowing scope), collapsed here into a single one-shot prompt with placeholders for region, climate, site, and building typology. That original worked example and his raw two-step prompts are project-specific files from the originating repository and aren't included with this template; §0–§11 + appendix below is this template's own self-sufficient output shape, not dependent on that example.

The theoretical basis is Salingaros' pattern language + form language = adaptive design method, set out in Chapter 11, "Two Languages for Architecture," of his book A Theory of Architecture (2006; revised 2014): 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. It is meant to be paired with a pattern-language module such as Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein's A Pattern Language (1977), from which a project-specific subset of patterns is typically curated.

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 Section 4.2 of Postle, B.; Salingaros, N.A. "LLM and Pattern Language Synthesis: A Hybrid Tool for Human-Centered Architectural Design." Buildings 2025, 15, 2400). 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. Each stratum must name a building culture — an ordinary construction tradition recurring across many buildings — not a single celebrated or architect-authored structure: a region's industrial-era stratum, for instance, usually means its ordinary workshop-houses, mill housing, and tenement factories, where industrial and residential use routinely overlapped in the same buildings, not one landmark 20th-century showpiece	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.

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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.

Default to natural, traditional materials. The vocabulary (§3) should default to natural, traditional materials — stone, brick, timber, earth, tile — drawn from {WIDE_REGION}'s own building cultures. Modern structural materials (reinforced concrete, steel) belong in the vocabulary only where {TYPOLOGY} genuinely cannot achieve its required spans, loads, or heights without them, not as an independent aesthetic stratum or a source of decorative expression in their own right. Where they are included, express them honestly as structure — an honestly exposed frame, not concrete dressed up to imitate a natural material, and not hidden behind an applied natural-material skin either — and justify each such element in §3 by the specific structural need, not by stylistic preference.

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. Each element should be natural/traditional material by default; if any element uses a modern structural material instead, tag it as such and state the specific structural necessity that justifies it.

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, applying any motif flagged in §6 as sacred/ceremonial without the noted consultation caveat, and using a modern structural material where §3 recorded no genuine structural necessity for it, or disguising one material as another instead of expressing it honestly).

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. Each precedent should be representative of that stratum's wider building culture, not the sole reason the stratum exists — if a stratum can only be anchored by one celebrated landmark with no supporting ordinary/vernacular examples, that is a sign it isn't really a building culture (see the {HISTORICAL_STRATA} placeholder note) and should be broadened, merged, or dropped rather than listed as-is. For each precedent, 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}.

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Usage notes

• Aim for a comparable level of precision and traceability throughout: a short, consistent code per element/rule/register/package (e.g. a letter-plus-number scheme such as G1, G2 for ground-family elements, W1, W2 for wall elements, R# for roof, CR# for color registers, OP# for ornament packages — the exact letters don't matter, only that every reusable item gets one and later prompts can cite it unambiguously). Every rule and vocabulary element should be traceable to a named stratum/tradition within {WIDE_REGION}, not presented as free invention.
• The two-step process this template collapses into one shot was: 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: 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, the same way a pattern-language narrative generated downstream should be checked against its selected pattern subset.
• 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).