Niall Patrick Walsh spoke with Neil Leach, author of Architecture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction to AI for Architects, as part of the ongoing Archinect In-Depth: Artificial Intelligence series.

Therein he provocatively suggests:

"I think the model of the self-driving car is important for architects because just as a self-driving car doesn’t need a driver, so a fully capable AI AEC tool doesn’t need an architect…personally, I take the view that insurance premiums will encourage the phasing out of human architects, not protect them...The most important advice I have is that right now for architects is that they need to design not just another building but the very future of their profession itself…if architects do not move with the times in the age of AI, they risk the danger of becoming extinct."

It doesn’t sound like Chad Miller is personally worried yet: "ANI is a tool, no different than modeling or drafting software. It' neither good or bad. Ultimately it's all about how people use it that will determine how 'successful' it is," but he isn’t so sure about the future: "AGI is a different matter however."

Plus, Stanislas Chaillou unpacks Semanticism (which is not a style but a design process or toolset) and identifies "three clear avenues of contribution…each one directly addressing a key concern of the architectural agenda."

News

Code compliance platform UpCodes rolled out an AI assistant and raised a few million. square. was hopeful "things like this won't lead to job replacement, but like every other piece of technology, it will make us more productive...meaning that instead of reducing hours we'll just be doing more work in the same amount of hours."

reallynotmyname has no faith "in the ability or willingness of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission to protect" the Whitney Museum following its purchase by Sotheby’s.

The 2023 Serpentine Pavilion designed by Lina Ghotmeh reminds Orhan Ayyüce "of seasonal nightclubs on the mediterranean shores which are often abandoned after the summer…really nice with beautiful space and details."

midlander wishes Evelyn Lee "much success in making the profession more accessible for new talent and more useful for everyone else" during her term as 2025 AIA President.

While some argued SF’s Millennium Tower should just be torn down, zonker countered, "at this stage it's cheaper to just keep fortifying the building to bedrock - you just don't truncate a massive 60 story conc. building."

Gary Garvin was quite impressed with Sou Fujimoto Architects' latest in Ishinomaki, Japan. Will Galloway offered more details: "This project is part of the reconstruction effort after the 2011 Tohoku disaster…The upshot is that it is policy, culture, and a symbolic response to a massive disaster that is creating the inertia for the project. Sou Fujimoto takes all of that and delivers an impressive building…oriented to the people".

OMA shared photos of the newly-reopened Buffalo AKG ARt Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox Gallery). Thomas Wensing was just looking for someone "to explain the parti / concept and analyze if the design lives up to the stated claims". x-jla couldn’t put their finger on it, "but this seems like it belongs there. It’s not something that I particularly like, it’s geometry is a little weird, but I personally think it works as an object in that spot. Not sure about the gallery spaces. Maybe I’m just being wooed by the clever use of the marble that matches the adjacent classical building."

R.I.P. Hopkins Architects co-founder Sir Michael Hopkins, at the age of 88.

Blogs/Firms/Work Updates

rzlbd’s Kyoto Towers entry in their 100 series makes use of the "Casigliani Kyoto dish set…designed by Massimo and Lella Vignelli in 1979."

After only the first year of operation, a retrofit of a former printworks by Collective Architecture’s, designed to EnerPHit standards, has already proven itself a significant net energy generator.

Looking for work?

• In Brooklyn and interested in advancing project sustainability, then consider applying to FXCollaborative.
• If committed to NY state, there is also Albany (remote possible) working for New York State Homes and Community Renewal as a Senior Architect.
• Or on the West Coast, Lehrer Architects is hiring a Project Architect and needs someone who can handle being responsible for "Supervision of the architectural project team during production."

Schools

In academic hiring news, as of July 1st, Frank Jacobus is the new head of the Department of Architecture at Penn State, and Chingwen Cheng is the school’s new director.

Heather Woofter is the new dean of the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Architecture (UTSOA), and Julia Czerniak dean of the University at Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning.

If you are looking for a new gig in higher ed, Taubman College is looking for a Chair for the architecture program and interested candidates should submit a CV and a letter of interest by September 5, 2023.

Otherwise, The University of Hong Kong has multiple openings.

Discussion/Threads

‘Nectors restarted a thread from 2022.

For JLC-1, "the only really bad was about 15 years ago, got an irresistible offer to move to spain and be part of the first european office for a miami/caribbean company - long story short, management was inept to say the least, there was no team work, oversold a good dozen of projects to anxious russians and arabs, and in the end couldn't deliver anything". Later Chad Miller remembered "a short stint (one month) at a firm that was plagued nepotism (kids without any arch experience worked there) and a horrible office manager (the wife) who micro managed everything."

Folks also felt compelled to start sharing (again) design moments that make them go mmmm. The first entry was GRIMSHAW’s font (and lack of kerning) choice. For go do it, it’s "Stacked Ghorfas (a Berber term used to describe a vaulted room used for storing grain) at a complex in Medenine."

Finally, to round off a hat trick, Frit acknowledged they were resurrecting a thread "almost a year old, but I searched ‘burnout’ and this was top of the list…This profession takes all you have to give…I'm pretty sure it's killing me. The fucked up thing is I still convince myself I enjoy it." Jovan Millet had this advice: "I made a commitment to myself this year that, regardless of the work I have on my plate, I won't work weekends on active client projects. The only work I do on weekends (if at all) is on pro-bono smaller things now. It's helped a lot with the constant take-take-take of this profession. For me at least." sameolddoctor took it one step further: "How about not work weekends at all? It just not worth it".