Archinect - News

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...

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...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Augmented Architect"

2023-07-07T11:32:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented or adopted vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring a term that was recently cited in our conversation with Molly Wright Steenson on the historic relationship between architecture and artificial intelligence.

The "Augmented Architect" is a concept introduced by Douglas Engelbart, who was an influential figure in the field of human-computer interaction, and is best known for inventing the computer mouse. Engelbart's idea of the Augmented Architect originates from his broader theory of Augmented Human Intellect (AHI), which advocates for the use of technology and computers to enhance human problem-solving capabilities.

In Engelbart's view, the challenges and problems faced by humanity are progressively growing more complex, and traditional proble...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Positionality"

2023-06-30T11:53:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented or adopted vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring a term that featured heavily in our recent conversation with Felecia Davis on biases in artificial intelligence.

"Positionality" refers to the social and political context that creates your identity in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability status. Positionality also describes how your own identity influences, and potentially biases, your understanding of and outlook on the world. It is a critical concept in various fields, including cultural studies, gender studies, and social sciences, among others.

AI development is influenced by the positionality of the developers, and it can manifest in many ways. For instance, if an AI system is primarily developed by a particular demographic group, there's a risk that it might unintentionally favor that group due to implicit biases. Facial recognition systems, for example, have been shown ...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Spatial Computing"

2023-06-23T11:31:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented (or adopted) vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring a term that recently found prominence with the unveiling of the new Apple Vision Pro device.

"Spatial computing" represents a fusion of diverse digital technologies that engage with physical spaces and their human inhabitants. This complex discipline involves merging real and virtual worlds, where digital systems and software function within three dimensions. It combines various technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI).

A significant example of spatial computing in action is Apple's newly-released Vision Pro spatial computer. This cutting-edge device allows users to interact with digital objects and information in their surrounding physical environment, thereby blurring the line between the physical and digital worlds. The term is also interlinked ...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Semanticism"

2023-06-16T12:03:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented (or adopted) vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring a term that was recently presented in an Archinect feature article on the architectural implications of generative AI tools such as Midjourney and DALL-E.

"Semanticism" is a term used within the realms of architecture and design, describing the theoretical approach that emphasizes the significant role of semantics, or meaning, in shaping architectural forms. It postulates that the forms and structures within architecture are shaped by their intended meanings and context, aligning with the dictum "form follows meanings." The approach dictates that the study and creation of architecture necessitate the unraveling of the various significations inherent in built forms.

Under the purview of Semanticism, the construction of new architecture corresponds to the crafting of forms that best express a design's intended meanings within its specific cont...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Hallucination"

2023-06-09T11:22:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented (or adopted) vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring a term that has risen to prominence with the advent of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and DALL-E.

"Hallucination" in the context of artificial intelligence refers to the phenomenon where an AI model generates or interprets something that isn't grounded in the actual input data it was given. This can happen when AI is asked to create content such as text, images, or speech. The AI may infer patterns or details based on its training but doesn't truly comprehend the information it is handling. It can produce results that seem plausible but might not correspond accurately with the provided input or real-world context.

In the field of building design and architecture, AI hallucinations might be relevant in several ways:

Genera...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Ubiquitous Computing"

2023-06-02T08:03:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented (or adopted) vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring a term central to how technology and artificial intelligence may be seamlessly incorporated into future buildings and cities.

"Ubiquitous computing," also known as pervasive computing, is a concept in computer science and engineering where computing is made to appear anytime and everywhere. In this type of computing, technology becomes virtually invisible in our lives. Instead of a dedicated device such as a desktop computer, ubiquitous computing can occur using any device, in any location, and in any format. A user interacts with the computer, which can exist in many different forms including laptop computers, tablets, and terminals in everyday objects such as a refrigerator or a pair of glasses.

The goal of ubiquitous computing is to create ambient intelligence where network devices embedded in the environment provide unobtrusive connectiv...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Generative Design"

2023-05-26T12:09:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon focuses on newly invented (or adopted) vocabulary within the architectural community. For this installment, we're featuring a term central to current conversations on how architects can use artificial intelligence in the design process.

"Generative design" is a technology-driven design process that employs algorithms and/or artificial intelligence (AI) to develop optimized design solutions. It represents an iterative design approach inspired by natural evolutionary processes, leveraging computing power to explore a large number of possible permutations of a solution, quickly and in real-time.

In the context of computer-aided design (CAD), a designer will input into the generative design software specific parameters such as material types, manufacturing methods, budget constraints, and performance criteria. The software then explores all possible permutations of a solution, testing and learning from each iteration what works and what doesn't.

Generative design can...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Prompt Engineer"

2023-05-19T09:00:00-04:00

A "Prompt Engineer" is a professional who specializes in crafting and designing effective prompts to guide the behavior of artificial intelligence models, such as GPT-3 and GPT-4, or to facilitate cognitive engagement in learning environments or user interfaces. In the context of AI, this role entails understanding the intricacies of the AI model's responses and being able to strategically design prompts that elicit the desired output. They study the pattern of the AI's responses, tweak the wording, tone, or structure of prompts, and keep iterating until the model's output aligns with the expected or desired response. This role requires a deep understanding of natural language processing, AI model behavior, and human psychology to effective...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Sisu"

2015-06-26T13:02:00-04:00

"Sisu" is a Finnish word, describing a trait with no precise English translation, but conveyed through the following qualities: stoic determination, bravery, guts, resilience, perseverance and hardiness. It is a quality strongly associated with Finnish identity, from a history of being bullied geopolitically by neighbors Russia and Sweden, and the paralyzingly cold, dark winters. According to its robust English-language Wikipedia entry, "Sisu is about taking action against the odds and displaying courage and resoluteness in the face of adversity. Deciding on a course of action and then sticking to that decision against repeated failures is Sisu. It is similar to equanimity, with the addition of a grim quality of stress management."

I first came across "sisu" in the Glossary on Free Cooper Union's website, a compendium resource of the protest movement against the school's decision to begin charging tuition. The "sisu" entry is accompanied by a definition adapted from Wikipedia, and wh...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Intern"

2015-05-08T18:24:00-04:00

Archinect's Lexicon usually focuses on newly invented (or adopted) architectural vocabulary. For this installment, we're featuring a very well-known, and comparably contentious, term.

Outside of architecture, the word “intern” (n.) is generally defined as “a student or trainee who works, sometimes without pay, at a trade or occupation in order to gain work experience.” In general professional parlance, when one does an “internship”, they become an intern. The word is used differently within architecture. NCARB defines “intern” as “any person who by means of their education or experience has qualified to enter the IDP… the term intern refers to any individual in the process of satisfying a registration board’s experience requirements. This includes anyone not registered to practice architecture in a U.S. or Canadian jurisdiction, graduates from NAAB-accredited programs, architecture students who acquire acceptable experience prior to graduation, and other qualified individuals identi...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Neuromorphic Architecture"

2015-03-16T20:28:00-04:00

neuromorphic [nʊər oʊ môrf ik] architecture: in the words of Dr. Michael Arbib at the 2014 Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture conference: “what happens if architecture incorporates in itself some of the lessons of the brain. If, in a sense, you give a brain to a building.”

Arbib, professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience and Psychology (among others) at USC, first formally proposed the term in a 2012 paper for Intelligent Buildings International: “Brains, machines and buildings: towards a neuromorphic architecture". The abstract for the paper explains the intent behind such neuromorphic architecture as: "exploring ways to incorporate lessons from studying real, biological brains to devise computational systems based on the findings of neuroscience that can be used in intelligent buildings". The paper continues with the argument that, under the premise that future buildings will be "perceiving, acting and adapting entities," neuroscientific research will lend a degree of empir...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Ethnoburb"

2015-02-27T14:01:00-05:00

ethnoburbs (noun): "suburban ethnic clusters of residential areas and business districts in large American metropolitan areas. They are multi-ethnic communities, in which one ethnic minority group has a significant concentration, but does not necessarily comprise a majority."

Dr. Wei Li, currently a professor of Asian Pacific American Studies at ASU, coined the term while a PhD student at USC in the 1990s. The above definition is quoted from the abstract of "Anatomy of a New Ethnic Settlement: The Chinese Ethnoburb in Los Angeles", Li's 1998 paper where the term was first published, when Li was an assistant professor of geography and Asian American studies at the University of Connecticut.

(Google's ngram charting published instances of "ethnoburb".)

The word grew out of Li's research on Los Angeles, where high concentrations of non-white ethnicities were settling in suburban areas, such as the San Gabriel Valley, during the 1980s and 1990s. The term has since been applied to demograph...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Magpie Architecture"

2015-01-30T18:55:00-05:00

magpie [maɡˌpī], adjective: architecture that is, in the words of Copenhagenize's Mikael Colville-Andersen, “attempting to attract people to big shiny things that dazzle but that have little functional value in the development of a city”.

Colville-Andersen uses the term to chastize Norman Foster's "Skycycle" proposal for London, published in Copenhagenize on January 20, 2014: "Now of course this isn't a good idea." His use of "magpie architecture" is less about critiquing design elements, and more about deriding Foster's entire concept: "Ideas like these are city killers. Removing great numbers of citizens who could be cycling down city streets past shops and cafés on their way to work or school and placing them on a shelf, far away from everything else."

Given that the author is an urban designer specializing in urban mobility, and whose Copenhagenize blog champions cycling as a key aspect of thriving cities, it's no surprise that Colville-Andersen isn't a fan of pushing cycling towa...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Hermit Crab"

2015-01-16T18:09:00-05:00

Hermit Crab [hərmət krab], noun: a museum typology where the art is exhibited in a structure not originally or usually meant for exhibiting and/or selling art.

The term was coined by Nicholas Korody in his piece, White Space: The Architecture of the Art Fair:

"the Hermit Crab typology refers to the temporary takeover of an existing building that is not normally used for the display and sale of art works, such as with the use of hotel rooms by NADA (New Art Dealers Association), a periphery art fair of Art Basel Miami Beach. Such parasitic or interventionary events often still require architectural construction, but this consists primarily of interior design, chiefly the organization of walls and booths. [...]

New York’s Armory Show intentionally invokes the legacy of an older example of a Hermit Crab exhibition: the 1914 International Exhibition of Modern Art which was held in one of the vast spaces of U.S. National Guard armories and helped introduce European modern art to American au...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Dark Tourism"

2015-01-09T10:21:00-05:00

dark tourism, noun: "tourism involving travel to sites historically associated with death and tragedy" (Wikipedia).

The term was coined in a 1996 report published in the International Journal of Heritage Studies, entitled “JFK and Dark Tourism: a fascination with assassination”. As authors Malcolm Foley and J. John Lennon suggest in the title, the term was born out of an investigation of sites related to John F. Kennedy’s life and death, that had been turned into tourist “destinations”. Foley and Lennon were interested in the legitimacy and ethics of how these sites were presented, both by the tourism bodies and the media.

Foley and Lennon explain dark tourism as: “positioned at the cross-roads of the recent history of inhuman acts and the representation of these in news and film media. Interpretations of such events and their commercial development or exploitation are central to consideration of this area.”

But the business of touring places associated with death or tragedy is nothing...

Archinect's Lexicon: "One-story peanut butter"

2014-12-19T19:07:00-05:00

one-story peanut butter, noun: in reference to urban sprawl, how it spreads and oozes.

The term comes courtesy of Archinector and Archinect Sessions co-host, Donna Sink, who recalls W. Kirby Lockard (1930-2007), Professor of Architecture at University of Arizona, using it to describe sprawl during an urban design studio in 1988:

"The only other recollection I have is that he said it as if "...this is the way we build now". That was in the mid-80s, when sprawl really ballooned, I think. The movie Poltergeist was an indictment of it, certainly. The studio class was looking at different ways to build in the desert, in an environmentally friendly and climate-appropriate way - this was before terms like green and eco and sustainable were popular - so we studied historic Native American settlements and Italian hill towns and talked about transit vs. car."

"He spoke about how, in Tucson, which is a valley, "suburban sprawl was one story going mountain to mountain, spread out like peanut butte...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Serendipity Machine"

2014-12-12T12:43:00-05:00

serendipity machine, noun: a space (often workplace) that has been designed to maximize chance encounters towards beneficial, ideally innovative, results. This definition is Archinect's own wording, culled from a variety of "serendipity" citations in design briefs – but most notably, from Sebastian Olma's book, The Serendipity Machine (2013).

Self-described "consultant on all things to do with the creative economy", Olma is likely to be the originator of the term. He describes the "serendipity machine" as it pertains to the workplace in his book:

The importance of unexpected conversations and knowledge exchange in innovation has been noted in the management literature for many years. What is new is actually building a business – a machine – that systematically facilitates serendipity. This book presents a disruptive business model that allows you to do exactly that. It is based on a study of Seats2meet.com, the Dutch network of physical coworking, office and meeting spaces. By reinven...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Parametric Slug"

2014-12-04T19:33:00-05:00

Here at Archinect, we receive countless submissions of people's work, hoping to be published. Within recent memory (exactly when it began is uncertain), a particular type of work started popping up frequently.

"Saltworks" from Washington University in St. Louis.

The pieces were recognizable as parametrically-designed pavilions, and often (but not exclusively) were student-built, part of a studio program. Photos show these pieces installed on campus quads, somewhere in a public park, or elsewhere with a open, semi-public function – a structure that gives people an opportunity to gather and linger, but often without any more specific programming. More often than not, these projects look like giant armored slugs.

Singapore University of Technology and Design Library Pavilion

So it is respectfully and in the tradition of Venturi and Scott Brown's "duck vs. shed", that Archinect submits the "parametric slug" to Archinect's Lexicon. A "slug" is a typology defined by a simple tubular form, str...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Duplitecture"

2014-11-21T14:28:00-05:00

duplitecture [d(y)o͞oplətek(t)SHər], noun: an intentional, functioning copy of a pre-existing, and often familiar, piece of architecture. For example, "Hangzhou's replication of Venice takes duplitecture to the city-level." This definition is Archinect's own wording.

A few examples in China, the site of the term's inspiration, include an Eiffel Tower in Hangzhou and Shanghai's "Thames Town" (images here). Ranging from single structures to entire communities, duplitecture is distinguished from mere models or miniatures (as are common in theme parks or historical institutions) by its use – duplitecture is not decorative or merely artistic.

The term was coined by Bianca Bosker in her 2013 book, Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China. She points out that while China is notorious for knocking off intellectual property (in the case of consumer technology and fashion as well as duplitecture), copying isn't considered bad in and of itself. In Chinese aesthetic tradition,...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Casting Couch"

2014-11-13T18:17:00-05:00

casting couch [kas-ting kouch], noun: the process by which an architect or firm is propositioned to do something unpleasant by an elite client with either the hopes of future commissions or to avoid risk of being discarded.

This term and definition were initially submitted anonymously to the "Architecture encyclopedia?" forum discussion on January 15, 2014. As of yet, there are no other uses of the term in its architectural sense documented online. However, the term is widely used in reference to the entertainment industry, as "a couch in an entertainment executive's office on which aspiring actresses are reputed to perform sexual acts in exchange for desired roles; broadly : the practice of abusing one's power to obtain sexual partners." (Merriam Webster)

The anonymous forum poster exemplifies "casting-couch architecture" as Diller Scofidio + Renfro agreeing to demolish the neighboring Folk Art Museum, to accommodate designs for MoMA's expanding galleries. Other generalist examples ...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Bike-Wash"

2014-11-06T14:05:00-05:00

Welcome to Archinect's Lexicon. Architecture notoriously appropriates and invents new language – sometimes to make appeals, sometimes to fill conceptual gaps, sometimes nonsensically. But once a word is used, it's alive, and part of the conversation. We're here to take notes.

bike-wash [baɪk - ˈwɒʃ], noun: a pejorative term for the PR spin-tactic of making a design appear more bike-friendly than it actually is.

This definition was derived from what may likely be the term's first appearance, on Archinect's Working out of the Box interview with architect and cycling advocate, Steven Fleming:

Then there are people who really surprise you, like the developers I met in America a few months ago. I thought talking to them about space for bikes inside apartments, to really incentivize riding, would be going too far—that they would only want to bike-wash their project with something like a shower down in the basement. They surprised me as well. But then they're like the government in Singapore:...

Archinect's Lexicon: "Anthropocene"

2014-10-30T15:34:00-04:00

Anthropocene [ænθrəˈ poʊ sin], noun: "the era of geological time during which human activity is considered to be the dominant influence on the environment, climate, and ecology of the earth" (Oxford English Dictionary).

The term "Anthropocene" first appeared on Archinect in April of 2007, in a news post recommending a series of lectures by economist Jeffrey Sachs. In June of 2014, the Oxford English Dictionary officially adopted it:

The -cene suffix, derived from the Greek for ‘new’ or ‘recent’, has been used since the 1830s to form names denoting the epochs and strata of the present Cenozoic era of geological time, ranging from the Palaeocene to the Holocene. The Holocene epoch covers roughly the past 10,000 year...