The Spring 2011 (vol. 13 no. 1) issue of the Nexus Network Journal features eight papers that resulted from the 2010 Nexus conference section on Shape and Shape Grammars. Guest editor Lionel March provides an introduction for the entire group. The papers were selected to spread themes as widely and representatively as possible. George Stiny provides a keynote paper with theoretical insights, while other papers range from pedagogical applications in the architectural studio to shape language and style in classical Chinese architecture; from shape grammars and descriptions used to ‘decode Alberti’, to their use as an aid to the rehabilitation of housing stock in Lisbon; from the creation of a design system involving a parametric shape grammar with descriptions to generate urban block layouts within a defined spatial region, to a novel example of a kinetic shape grammar simulating human body movements. Among the authors are George Stiny, Mine Özkar, Andrew Li, José Duarte, Rudi Stouffs,Mario Krüger, Filipe Coutinho, José Beirão Alexandra Paio, Benamy Turkienicz, Sara Eloy, Maria da Piedade Ferriera, Duarte Cabral de Mello, and others.