Is artificial intelligence really the next big thing in architecture?
This article was originally published on Common Edge.
It’s here! The 21st century digital renaissance has just churned out its latest debutante, and her swanky and sensational entrance has sent the world into awed hysteria. Now sashaying effortlessly into the discipline of architecture, glittering with the promise of being immaculate, revolutionary and invincible: ChatGPT. OpenAI’s latest chatbot has been greeted with a frantic reception that feels all too familiar, almost a kind of dj vu. The reason is this: whenever a technological innovation peeks over the horizon of architecture, it is immediately thrust into a blinding spotlight and heralded as the next big thing. Even before it’s been understood, absorbed, or ratified, the idea has already gathered a horde of those who vouch for it and an even larger horde of those who don’t. Today, as everyone buckles in to be swept into the deluge of a new twist, we take an introspective look, unpacking where technology has taken us and what else is in store.
The architectural practice’s tendency to glamorize moments of technological glory may have been grounded in the early successes of CAD and BIM at a time when manual drafting was the norm. Curiously, not all of these moments translated into the upheaval it should have been. We remember, all too well, that in our early days in the profession, 3D printing was the ultimate promised land, leaving people on their toes with its cues of rapid production, cost efficiency, and minimizing waste. Yet this lofty vision has never been fully realized, and the innocuous tech struggles to see a large-scale adaptation today.
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Despite such disappointing experiences, architects continue to be fascinated, and even fearful, of the direction in which we are veering. Indeed, in the 21st century, for every starry-eyed architect fawning over all things science, there is an equally petrified counterpart cowering under the leviathan that is emerging technology. However, before throwing in the towel on architecture, let’s ask ourselves this first: what does it take for an innovation to be successful?
Invariably, like any other mass-produced good, innovation must be accessible and adaptable, supported by a commensurate level of skills, hardware and other resources. Architectural technology in particular must have the additional aspect of utility, or knowledge of Where fits into the machine of the design process. If it becomes an integral and indispensable cog in the machine, it will inevitably be sustained, as AutoCAD, BIM and generative design have been. But if it can’t prove absolutely critical to the process and remains optional or supplemental like 3D printing, virtual reality and AR, it’s less likely to thrive.
Discerning the scope of each technological innovation is an agency of its user. Each new tool operates within a specific domain, delineated by its functions, to produce a specific result. For example, navigating forms with advanced modeling tools would not be the same as navigating forms with more basic tools. In the end it is the architect’s decision to ascertain the path to obtain the desired result. Likewise, amplifying or diminishing the role of a certain step in the workflow can also define the scope of a certain technology. For example, at the Arups London office, VR/AR and related systems are used significantly to enrich the design process.
In a way, we seem to have cause for euphoria. We’ve come a long way from pen-and-paper architecture, and the colorful future of Matrix-like AI beckons at our doorstep. Most AI software like DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, Disco Diffusion, Midjourney and even ChatGPT operate using data derived from open access cyberspace to generate responses based on text requests provided by the user, in other words , giving tangible form to an idea in minutes. This reveals exciting new avenues in architecture, as designers are already discovering. Italian architect Arturo Tedeschi recently used ChatGPT to write a script for Grasshopper 3d, combining the strengths of text-based artificial intelligence and advanced modeling technology. While this was truly remarkable, using AI to design a building from scratch is still a distant dream, albeit an entirely plausible one. Meanwhile, we can still harness the capabilities of image-based AI in conceptualization, treating it, as London-based architect Arthur Mamou-Mani puts it, like a more involved mood board. In theory, asking the right questions to the software could potentially help explore an idea. Yet this is highly problematic due to the way AI works. With its hyperdependence on data laundering in cyberspace, AI is vulnerable to blind imitation of architectural styles, putting the design language of the future at risk of further objectification. The result is a copy-and-paste consumerist architecture produced to indulge one’s instant gratification sensibilities. An even more serious concern is that, in the absence of regulatory frameworks, architecture firms could be subject to data breaches. However, if regulation is indeed enforced in this ecosystem, it will likely limit the resource bank of AI software, rendering it useless. A more ingenious approach in today’s practice is to employ image-based AI in post-production, to augment the rendering process, or even in additional design needs of online content creation and marketing.
The domain of text- and image-based AI is potentially more pervasive than other technologies, as it can be employed at almost any stage of the design process. Yet it must be recognized that most of the design process is assigned to tasks (such as coordination between services) far less glamorous than the glittering clickbait images produced by AI. In a sense, architects also work on the basis of suggestions that the client provides directly, through a brief, and indirectly, through their personal subjectivities. This layer is then superimposed on the architect’s sensibility, his individualistic style and his interpretations. Incorporating this knowledge into artificial intelligence systems may still take some time, but in the meantime let’s revel in the knowledge unfolding before us, taking it with a grain of salt and not overestimating its capacity.
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