John Portman’s work attracts significant commentary, although the focus is typically on the commercial and social aspects of his work as opposed to the actual designs and their related architectural implications. The obvious place to start unpacking this aspect of his contribution is in his widely recognized and published commercial portfolio, yet throughout his life he maintained that his design principles are to be found in his personal domestic projects. More precisely, he describes his 1964 residence Entelechy I as a crucial project for the ongoing definition of his work, claiming that “It was in my house that I first began to experiment with the concepts that I had identified as constant elements in the way that people related to their environment. Perhaps I am the only one who can see it, but much of my later work is implicit in that house. It contains the basis for my architectural philosophy: organizing principles that work for a room or a restaurant, a building or a group of buildings “ [Portman and Barnett, 1976].

This notion of the house as generator is the subject of this research, which aims to unpack the house as a productive construct that can shed new light on Portman’s architectural language, its instances, and influences. This project looks closely at the house to provide: a formal analysis of the house outlining its key features and relations and a parametric shape grammar that generates the original design as well as a series of variations.