Archinect - News

Instagrammer creates architectural AI designs inspired by food

2024-07-05T18:23:00-04:00

Fatih Ekşi, the popular Istanbul-based architectural designer, has shared some thoughts on the creative process behind his work, which has garnered over a million combined followers on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

His followers were recently treated to some playful, food-inspired architectural creations made using AI tools by his visualization studio Blick 3D.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Fatih Ekşi (@efatiheksi)

The latest series combines software with the principles of biomimetic architecture to produce designs whose form, structure, and building program utilize the natural geometries found in fruits, vegetables, and meat.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Fatih Ekşi (@efatiheksi)

"I studied Architecture for five years at the Vienna University of Technology, where I was nearing graduation but had to return to my hometown due to family matters," Ekşi tells Archinect of his background. "I have been working in archit...

Architects develop new AI visualization tool for architectural rendering

2024-07-03T06:23:00-04:00

Gendo, a new AI visualization platform, has launched today following a $1.1 million investment into the product created by London-based architectural designer George Proud with the help of his colleague and software engineer Will Jones.

The platform claims to convert 2D drawings, sketches, or text-based inputs into life-like visualizations.

Image courtesy Gendo

Zaha Hadid Architects, David Chipperfield Architects, and Benoy are among the beta testers of the software. It is being promoted as a way for firms to reduce costs and labor and gain an advantage in project and design competitions.

George Proud stated that, unlike mainstream generative image platforms such as Midjourney and DALL-E, Gendo allows generated visualizations to be edited, offering architects greater detail and precision.

The announcement follows closely last week's launch of another AI-driven platform called Treasury.

Study finds that AI is key to maximizing the benefits of smart buildings

2024-06-20T13:01:00-04:00

The value of smart building deployments is projected to grow by 95 per cent to $14bn by 2026 globally. This growth, up from $7bn in 2024, will be driven by sustainability initiatives and the need for cost reductions in building management, said Juniper Research, which has published the report.

As reported by Smart Cities World, the study found that artificial intelligence-based building management solutions will be key to both achieving sustainability and energy goals and securing a return on investment in smart buildings. Through in-depth data analytics, AI is capable of identifying potentially expensive issues, before they occur, which can increase safety and decrease operational costs. Additionally, the report predicts that through the integration of internet of things (IoT) networks and sensors with AI systems, the automation of building functionality in real-time can result in major savings and emissions reductions.

The study found that buildings, such as warehouses, factories, and agricultural buildings, could benefit the most from AI-based smart building technology as they tend to have high operational costs.

62% of A&E firms report using artificial intelligence increased efficiency, according to new Deltek study

2024-05-10T18:28:00-04:00

Statistics revealed in the latest Deltek Clarity Architecture & Engineering Industry Study have indicated wide optimism about the use of AI technology, even as most firms struggle to determine where and how to apply emerging trends in the face of prevailing economic headwinds.

According to the 45th annual report, 62% of all 650 surveyed A&E respondents across the United States and Canada have successfully begun using AI to augment their daily operations. Only 20% of firms now report at least three-quarters of their project leadership teams as possessing the proper project management training to best utilize such tools, with another 44% reporting insufficient time to invest in skill-based learning. Other leading challenges include prioritizing applicable trends and the cost of technology.

The findings add to a body of recent valuable industry trends reporting, including last month’s Autodesk study which stated that 76% of all AEC professionals now feel confident about incorporating ...

Autodesk introduces experimental AI 3D shape generator Project Bernini

2024-05-09T13:53:00-04:00

Autodesk has just announced the development of a new experimental generative AI design tool called Project Bernini, the latest addition to its Autodesk AI inventory for industry professionals and design students in every field.

Project Bernini can reportedly be used to generate complex and unique functional geometric shapes for 3D modeling via text prompts, 2D images, voxels, and point clouds. The model was trained on a range of over ten million different shapes using research from the Autodesk AI Lab in collaboration with the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Its potential will become even more considerable once trained on larger professional datasets after the product is made publicly available.

Demonstration video for Project Bernini. Video courtesy Autodesk/YouTube.

Autodesk says: “If trained on buildings, the models could generate geometrically rigorous creative designs and inspire a new generation of buildings and architects. If trained on video game character models or fanta...

Major uptake in artificial intelligence use across creative industries, Autodesk survey finds

2024-04-10T11:53:00-04:00

Autodesk has released a report on the state of digitization and technological adoption across creative industries. The 2024 State of Design & Make Report found that companies see artificial intelligence “as a current tool rather than a futuristic pipe dream.”

The report’s findings were derived from survey results of 5,400 industry companies and figures across architecture, engineering, construction, design, manufacturing, media, and entertainment. Among the findings was a high level of optimism, with 73% of companies believing they were prepared to handle unforeseen economic or geopolitical changes.

76% of professionals said they trust AI in their industry, with application areas including productivity and sustainability. “More than half of companies say they are approaching or have already achieved their goal of incorporating AI,” Autodesk said about the report findings. “While AI adoption is high, we still have a long way to go to maximize AI’s potential.”

Related on Archinect: Au...

Autodesk develops AI-powered embodied carbon tool for early-stage design

2024-04-03T11:39:00-04:00

Autodesk has developed an embodied carbon analysis tool to be integrated into the software maker’s AI-driven Forma application.

Powered by the C.Scale data model developed by U.S.-based architecture firm EHDD, the tool “enables designers to better understand the carbon impacts from primary material choices and building form during site feasibility and massing studies at the beginning of a project planning process,” Autodesk says.

Image credit: Autodesk

The tool allows architects working in Forma to subject their early design concept to an AI-powered analysis that can evaluate design concepts and iterate toward reducing carbon emissions.

Located in the ‘analysis’ tab in the Forma web application, the analysis allows users to define site-wide analytical properties as well as those specific to individual buildings. Parameters that can be specified include building function, structural system, and envelope factors such as cladding and window-to-wall ratio.

Image credit: Autodesk

Accordi...

AI models predict the 2024 Pritzker Winner

2024-03-04T08:10:00-05:00

As the architecture community anticipates the official Pritzker Prize announcement this Tuesday, our team at Archinect has been fully immersed in the whirlwind of predictions and speculations. A few days ago we published a roundup of forecasts from the Archinect community, highlighting potential winners such as Moshe Safdie, Barclay Crousse, Eyal Weizman/Forensic Architecture, Thomas Heatherwick, H arquitectes, and Johnston Marklee, to name just a few. This curiosity led to an idea for a fun experiment: consult with various Artificial Intelligence models to gauge their insights on the prestigious award's 2024 recipient. Initiating conversations with four leading LLM models—ChatGPT 4, Google Gemini, Anthropic's Claude 2, and Perplexity—I navigated the sometimes hilariously clumsy, but mostly very interesting "thoughts" from our AI frenemies. Each of the models ended up predicting different winners, but there's a common theme with all of the selections that you'll notice.

I conducted...

RIBA's new Artificial Intelligence Report features revelatory findings about AI within architectural practice

2024-02-29T18:56:00-05:00

The newly published RIBA Artificial Intelligence Report has revealed statistics detailing the architecture industry’s turn towards AI within professional practice using findings from a recent survey of 500+ members. The study also gives clues about the technology’s future and feedback on how new software tools have impacted the design process.

According to the report, 41% of architects in the UK have begun using AI software at least occasionally, with another 43% stating their opinions that it has made the design process "more efficient."

"Our findings show architects are curious and open-minded about AI, and some of us are true pioneers," RIBA President Muyiwa Oki summarized. "By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and a culture of responsible innovation, we can harness the power of AI to create a more inclusive, resilient and sustainable built environment. There’s no turning back."

New AI resource guide details tech solutions for building contractors

2024-02-15T20:36:00-05:00

The industry group Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) has just published a new guide to AI resources for contractors working closely with architects on building projects across the U.S.

“The possibilities of AI technology may sound endless, but we must first educate ourselves on the basics, and this resource is a starting point to understand AI and its potential impact on the construction industry,” said ABC Director of Construction Technology and Innovation Patrick Scarpati, who authored the guide. “The industry has immense opportunities to evaluate how we can better deliver projects, and we can lean on AI in achieving essential goals like upskilling, workforce development, knowledge transfer, supply chain optimization, enhanced safety design and planning and much more.”

Among the tools ABC says are supposed to make the building trade more efficient, safer, and productive are Autodesk’s new Construction IQ risk analysis software, the Hypar building modeling program that let...

The Motorist Won: Envisioning a vehicle-centric UK with Archinect Generative Futures finalist Kyle Branchesi

2024-02-13T19:32:00-05:00

Designer Kyle Branchesi has shared images from his latest creative experimentation with generative AI tools, a visual commentary touching on the debate over pedestrianism and motor vehicles happening currently within the UK.

For 'The Motorist Won,' Branchesi imagined a far-off dystopia plagued by vehicle traffic where historic streets and all visible landmarks are besieged by the hum of engines and blur of lights, making cities like London or Edinburgh the all-too-unfortunate casualties of what PM Rishi Sunak says is a "war" against cars.

The Motorist Won by Kyle Branchesi

Branchesi describes: "Amidst a political landscape where the 'war on motorists' is wielded as a populist tool, this series captures a future where this rhetoric has prevailed. The transformation of UK landmarks like Stonehenge into vast vehicular realms underscores the absurdity and danger of prioritizing short-term political gains over sustainable urban planning. These images mirror the contentious debates in the ...

Drexel University researchers develop AI-guided robotic structural inspection system

2024-02-12T08:00:00-05:00

Researchers based at the Drexel University College of Engineering have devised a new method for performing structural safety inspections using autonomous robots aided by machine learning technology.

The article they published recently in the Elsevier journal Automation in Construction presented the potential for a new multi-scale monitoring system informed by deep-learning algorithms that work to find cracks and other damage to buildings before using LiDAR to produce three-dimensional images for inspectors to aid in their documentation.

The development could potentially work to benefit the enormous task of maintaining the health of structures that are increasingly being reused or restored in cities large and small across the country. Despite the relative age of America’s built environment, roughly two-thirds of today’s existing buildings will be in use in the year 2050, according to Gensler’s predictions.

Refik Anadol creates ‘world first’ AI model trained on data from nature instead of humans

2024-01-15T11:35:00-05:00

Refik Anadol Studio has announced the creation of the “world’s first open-source generative AI model dedicated to nature.” Titled 'Large Nature Model,' the model is trained “solely on nature’s inherent intelligence” as opposed to the conventional approach to AI large language model training, which consists of human-generated data such as art and text.

To train the model, Anadol’s studio used open-access information from institutions including the Smithsonian Institution and London’s Natural History Museum alongside various other universities, museums, foundations, government entities, and libraries. The studio is also visiting 16 rainforest locations around the world, deploying data collection technologies such as LiDAR, photogrammetry, and the capturing of ambisonic audio and high-resolution visuals of diverse ecosystems to further train the model.

“Our vision for the Large Nature Model goes beyond being a repository or a creative research initiative,” said Refik Anadol about the m...

Looking back at our in-depth exploration of artificial intelligence in 2023

2023-12-20T08:00:00-05:00

One of Archinect’s most significant editorial undertakings of 2023 was our Archinect In Depth: Artificial Intelligence series. Across the year, we spoke with over 30 experts in the field, producing dozens of interviews and features alongside almost 50 news stories covering the hyper-fast pace of progress emerging from the AI community.

The result is an all-encompassing, rigorous, and diverse collection of perspectives and reflections on what artificial means for the future of architects, architectural practice, and the architectural profession, along topics including ethics, labor, inequality, skills, and licensure.

Explore further insights on Archinect's leading coverage of architecture's relationship with artificial intelligence across 2023 below.

Conversations across the intersection of AI and architecture

Behnaz Farahi. Image credit: Behnaz Farahi

'The Notion of AI as a Form of Augmentation or Enhancement Is Fascinating to Me'; A Conversation with Behnaz Farahi

In May, we spoke ...

Refik Anadol's Machine Hallucinations generative AI piece acquired by MoMA

2023-10-11T15:59:00-04:00

Refik Anadol has made history as one of two prominent digital artists to have their works acquired into the permanent collection of the 94-year-old Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.

The museum announced its acquisition of Anadol’s 2022 Generative AI piece Unsupervised – Machine Hallucinations, along with the blockchain-based piece 3FACE. 2022 from artist Ian Cheng, this week. Anadol's work was a gift to the museum by the 1OF1 Collection (which is led by Ryan Zurrer) and the RFC Collection, which is led by Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile and Desiree Casoni.

Writing on Instagram, Anadol commended the museum’s curatorial decision, saying it “inscribes a historic chapter as MoMA welcomes the first Generative AI and tokenized artwork into its esteemed permanent collection.” The work was one of three made for last year’s special solo exhibition using a machine learning algorithm to interpret publicly available data taken from the museum’s collection to produce reinterpreted images that...

An open role at the University of Florida demonstrates AI's rise in architectural education

2023-10-11T12:35:00-04:00

Following last week's look at an opening for the Director of the College of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an opportunity on Archinect Jobs for an Assistant Professor for AI in the Built Environment at the University of Florida.

The role, based in Gainesville, FL, calls for an individual who will be “positioned as a key collaborator within DCP [the College of Design, Construction, and Planning] and take an active role in the burgeoning university-wide network of Al faculty.” Among the requested qualifications is a relevant Ph.D. or terminal degree in the field and “demonstrated innovative research and education interests in the application of artificial intelligence in any aspect of design, construction, and planning.”

Related on Archinect: You, Me, and DALL-E: On the Relationship Between Architecture, Data, and Artificial Intelligence. Image credit: Archinect / Midjourney

Why the role inter...

Rayon unveils Norman Foster-backed design tool for developing architectural plans

2023-09-27T09:00:00-04:00

Architectural software developers Rayon have launched a new design tool to “enable seamless collaboration across AEC industries.” The software, which shares its company’s name and is backed by funders including Norman Foster, is a browser-based tool that allows teams to collaborate on 2D floor plans in real-time.

Video credit: Rayon

Launching out of beta today, the Rayon tool was created to “end the dominance of legacy software in AEC.” While noting that such tools were groundbreaking when launched, the company argues that the high-performance specifications and licensing costs required for their use present a barrier to collaboration. “As a result, only using PDFs to share files makes it hard for professionals to transmit and share data, while the industry remains captive due to proprietary file formats,” the company explains.

Image credit: Rayon

As a result, Rayon supports filetypes such as images, PDFs, DWGs, and DWFs, and includes drawing, annotation, layout, and styling featur...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Metadata"

2023-08-11T11:19:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented or adopted vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring a term relevant to the both recent wave of generative AI tools released for public use in the AEC sector and beyond, and the software tools already underpinning the profession.

"Metadata," often described as "data about data," refers to information that provides details about other data. In essence, metadata offers context, description, or additional details about the main data it pertains to. Examples of metadata include the title of a document, the date a photo was taken, or the author of a piece of content.

In the context of building design, metadata plays several crucial roles:

Building Information Modeling (BIM): BIM is a digital representation of the physical and functional characteristics of a facility. Within BIM, metadata can include information about the materials used, the manufacturer of a component, maintenance schedules, and much...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Reinforcement Learning"

2023-08-04T12:54:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented or adopted vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring a term relevant to the recent wave of generative AI tools released for public use in the AEC sector and beyond.

"Reinforcement Learning" (RL) is a subset of machine learning where an agent learns to make decisions by taking actions in an environment to maximize some notion of cumulative reward. The agent learns from the consequences of its actions, rather than from being explicitly taught, and adapts its future behavior based on what it learns.

The agent's learning process involves exploring its environment, taking actions, and getting rewards or penalties. Over time, it builds a policy, which is a strategy to choose actions based on the state it is in, aiming to maximize the total reward over a period of time.

Reinforcement learning has pot...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Multimodal AI"

2023-07-28T12:02:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented or adopted vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring a term highly relevant to the recent wave of generative AI tools released for public use in the AEC sector and beyond.

"Multimodal AI" refers to artificial intelligence systems that are capable of understanding, processing, and integrating data from multiple modes or types of inputs. These systems can process and interpret data from various sources such as text, images, video, voice, or other sensory inputs. Multimodal AI allows for a more nuanced understanding of information as it can leverage the rich context provided by combining multiple data modes.

In the context of architecture and design, Multimodal AI can manifest in many ways, such as:

Enhanced Design Processes: Multimodal AI can analyze multiple types of data simultaneously to generate insights. For ...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Information Architecture"

2023-07-21T09:00:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented or adopted vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring a term that was coined by recent Archinect interviewee Richard Saul Wurman, and featured heavily in a book by recent Archinect interviewee Molly Wright Steenson.

"Information Architecture" is a specialized field of study and practice that focuses on the organization and structure of information in digital or physical environments. It involves designing, creating, and managing the structural design of shared information systems. Key aspects of information architecture include categorization, navigation, labeling systems, and searchability, with the goal of making information easily findable and usable for the intended users.

By providing clear, intuitive pathways and organizational strategies, good information architecture enables users to understand where they are, what they've found, what's around, and what to expect.

Related on Archinect: 'T...

Stability AI launches free sketch-to-image tool

2023-07-17T13:32:00-04:00

AI developers Stability AI have announced the release of Stable Doodle, a sketch-to-image tool that “converts a simple drawing into a dynamic image, providing limitless imaging possibilities to a range of professionals and hobbyists.”

Accessible through Stability AI’s Clipdrop platform, Stable Doodle translates sketches drawn directly into its interface and currently does not support hand-drawn sketches being uploaded to the platform. Having drawn a sketch, users can enter a supporting text prompt to explain the scene, as well as select preferred styles including photographic reality and comic book art.

“Stable Doodle is geared to both professionals and novices, regardless of their familiarity with AI tools,” Stability AI explained in a blog post. “With Stable Doodle, anyone with basic drawing skills and online access can generate high-quality original images in seconds.”

Stable Doodle joins other web-based, AI-driven tools in Stability AI’s portfolio. The company is also the creat...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Generative Adversarial Network"

2023-07-14T13:06:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented or adopted vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring an artificial intelligence term that has been cited in our recent feature articles with both Matias Del Campo and Genevieve Goffman.

A "Generative Adversarial Network" (GAN) is a class of machine learning systems invented by Ian Goodfellow and his colleagues in 2014. GANs consist of two parts, a generator and a discriminator, that are set against each other (thus the term 'adversarial').

The generator creates new data instances, while the discriminator evaluates them for authenticity; i.e., it determines whether each instance of data that it reviews belongs to the actual training dataset or not. The generator tries to fool the discriminator, and there is a continual back-and-forth as each side learns from its adversary. This eventually enables the generator to produce high-quality data that are almost indistinguishable from the real ones, as j...

Winners announced for Archinect's Generative Futures: AI + Architecture Storytelling Challenge

2023-07-11T12:01:00-04:00

Archinect is pleased to reveal the winners of the Generative Futures: AI + Architecture Storytelling Challenge!

The competition invited participants to develop creative and original submissions, welcoming various storytelling formats and genres, such as allegories, love stories, horror stories, diary entries, or data-driven predictions. Participants were encouraged to use AI tools to assist in generating submissions. Entries were judged based on creativity and originality (50%) and impact and relevance (50%).

After careful deliberation, the competition jury selected a Top Prize winner and four honorable mentions from each category: The AI-infused city; The AI-infused architecture studio; The AI-infused construction site; and the Open Category: entrants may define their own theme as it relates to AI and architecture

Explore the winning entries and honorable mentions below:

TOP PRIZE WINNER: Open Category

Maurice's Last Shift by Tim Papienski

Image generated using Dall-e. Courtesy of...

'Maurice's Last Shift,' Top Prize winner in Archinect's Generative Futures: An AI + Architecture Storytelling Challenge

2023-07-11T12:00:00-04:00

Maurice's Last Shift by Tim Papienski

Just after dawn, as light rain pattered down on the tarps of the construction site, Maurice stepped gently, trying not to land in the mud. As he passed through the guarded entrance, the banner above proudly proclaimed “847 days without a workplace accident.” Mounted on a pole below, was the ever-present red Stop Work button.

Maurice was a Sensor Jockey. Led a crew of them, in fact. He was retiring after 40 years, and today was his last shift. Maurice has spent his entire working life on jobsites such as this—big, sprawling constructions. He knew everything a person could know.

The jobsite was a repurpose of an abandoned office complex, a mix of apartments, businesses and “Temps.” Maurice headed to the end of the site, the final section block of Temps being printed. The great gantry had been rolled into place, the concrete extruder paused dramatically, like a monk about to illuminate the edges of a medieval bible.

Nobody really knew what wa...

'The Last Flesh and Blood Architect,' Honorable Mention in Archinect's Generative Futures: An AI + Architecture Storytelling Challenge

2023-07-11T12:00:00-04:00

The Last Flesh and Blood Architect by Juan Manuel Prieto

Human-designed and built architecture was dying out. Hans knew this well, for he had followed it all his days, and he clung to it with a love greater than his need. Many times, he had been urged to give up his old-fashioned ways and join the new order of things, where all was done by the cunning devices of the Machine-mind. But he would shake his head and answer that he was content with his own work, and that he could do better than any machine. But this was only half the truth, for he also felt such pride and joy in his work that nothing else could give him. And he feared the day when it would be no more, when the last of his kind would be swept away by the tide of progress.

After months of idleness and nearing the brink of bankruptcy, fortune finally smiled upon Hans. He encountered a group of visionary investors who shared his passion for human touch, for that spark of life in their creations. They presented him with an opp...

'Ignorance to navigate the maelstrom,' Honorable Mention in Archinect's Generative Futures: An AI + Architecture Storytelling Challenge

2023-07-11T12:00:00-04:00

Ignorance to navigate the maelstrom by Mel Lewis

The Earth is a theme park, fully subdued to oblige us… and well our literate animal friends.

Its visual primal beauty, reconstructed from the archeological suggestions of three hundred million years ago, fed into the computer to generate a painted “wilderness” landscape. A museum in total where each printed vegetation is accompanied by a label indicating its year, description, cost, and source. Each biological object is carefully monitored; each dynamic flow of water analyzed; each crop plucked at its opportune moment.

Buildings are now part of a rendered surroundings, where architecture and biology are so intertwined that they can be viewed as a single unified field of experience. Everything is nodes in a network to receive and deliver information, a central nervous system for the planet - wrestling the rhythms of nature.

“Organic interdependence means that disruption of any part of the organism can prove fatal to the whole,” remar...

'Blueprints of Belonging: Architecture in the Age of AI,' Honorable Mention in Archinect's Generative Futures: An AI + Architecture Storytelling Challenge

2023-07-11T12:00:00-04:00

Blueprints of Belonging: Architecture in the Age of AI by Kyle Branchesi

Welcome to the journey of Maria, a young architect, and her AI muse, Calida. Together, they navigate the complex urban landscape of Los Angeles, grappling with a mission far beyond merely building structures. Their quest is to reweave the vibrant cultural tapestry of the city, strained and frayed by relentless forces of gentrification and global homogenization. This is a story about the future of architecture, where AI doesn't replace human creativity but collaborates with it, embracing the community's voice and preserving its rich cultural heritage. This narrative presents a utopian vision of AI as an enabler, an ally, and a force that transforms the architectural profession into a champion of diversity. Explore how the alliance between human sensitivity and AI efficiency can reshape our cities, fostering a built environment that reflects and respects its inhabitants.

Open Air Dialogue: As the sun dips below t...

'Dystopian Dreams and Gigabyte Gleams,' Honorable Mention in Archinect's Generative Futures: An AI + Architecture Storytelling Challenge

2023-07-11T12:00:00-04:00

Dystopian Dreams and Gigabyte Gleams by Mason Miles

Forming a representation of a nature-infused city of the future, hybridizing optimism and entropy, the project lends a satirical outlook on the AI city. The images are each accompanied by a correlating haiku, prodding at what the future may hold while providing space for the viewers' imagination to run free.