Architectural Intelligence: the (future?) role of AI in architectural design methods

Promotors: Theo Dounas, Johan De Walsche, Sven Verbruggen

How can designers adapt their design methods to fully utilize today's available computational power? Can these opportunities be truly grounbreaking when creativity and computation are often seen as contradictory? This research project examines the role of artificial intelligence in architectural design methods amid a growing complexity and the rise of innovative digital tools.

The first part consists of gathering information on the intersection between artificial intelligence and architecture. A combination of a traditional literature study and several comparative analyses will contribute to a comparative state of the art.

The second part delves deeper into the challenges that designers need to overcome to be able to collaborate with an algorithm: the lack of architectural design data and an understanding of computational creativity.

The third part consists of developing applications, to assist the designer in an AI-driven design method. The purpose of creating such custom applications is to break through the barrier between talking about AI as a ‘black box’ and fully understanding how the algorithms work to realistically assess its true potential.

Together, all parts lead to a conclusion which aims to describe the future role of artificial intelligence in architectural design methods and how designers should adapt to utilize the full digital potential.

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