Archinect - Features

You, Me, and DALL-E: On the Relationship Between Architecture, Data, and Artificial Intelligence

2023-05-01T08:00:00-04:00

Thirty years after the thaw of the last 'AI Winter,' the landscape of artificial intelligence is one of a forest in full bloom. On a weekly basis throughout 2023, new tools have been released taking advantage of the latest advances in machine learning algorithms, while existing software and applications scramble to maintain relevance by incorporating our new AI companions into their interfaces. Architects and designers have also turned their creative energy to investigating how AI-powered image generators can imagine new styles, new experiences, and new worlds, while also exploring how AI chatbots can suggest sustainability strategies, inform fee negotiations, and aid office management.

How did this AI forest come to be? Who are its caretakers? How might it continue to grow in the future? What is its relationship to the design and operation of the built environment? In our search for answers, we speak with one expert spanning architectural practice and academia on how designers can...

Architects of Social Responsibility: Views of Humanitarian Architecture in Practice

2017-05-24T12:11:00-04:00

Last month, Airbnb announced they had hired former Architecture for Humanity co-founder Cameron Sinclair to lead their project to supply temporary housing to 100,000 people in need, shortly after launching a program to secure refuge for members of Chicago’s homeless community. Users of the online hospitality service can now register as ‘hosts for good’, and architects are stepping in to make that happen. IKEA’s recent drive to create flat-pack temporary homes for refugee camps through their Foundation in collaboration with UNHCR is another example of how companies are exploring philanthropic interests through the medium of architecture. This month’s feature engages with architects adopting a range of business models to pursue social responsibility and looks deeper into ways the profession is engaging with building for a common good.

Screen/Print #48: "Lobby" Investigates Faith in Architecture

2016-12-13T01:07:00-05:00

The fifth issue of LOBBY, the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London's publication of thematically related essays and interviews, explores the meaning, fragility, and ultimate worth of a unifying architectural "faith."