Architects Say AI Is Both Threat & Aid for the Profession
"AI is already way beyond what human architects are capable of."
Shenzhen Bay International Hotel, designed and built using XKool. Image: XKool
AI has been a daunting presence for many in the past couple of years. While we often talk about how it affects artists, there is another profession that may suffer – architects.
The Guardian talked to Wanyu He, the founder of XKool, a company focusing on applying artificial intelligence to urban planning and architectural design. The reporter watched a 500-room hotel complex being designed in minutes with help from AI and marveled at how easy it all looked.
But while pretty pictures are certainly a strong point of generative tools like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and DALL-E, there is another aspect architects should worry about.
“The problem with architects is that we almost entirely focus on images,” said Neil Leach, author of Architecture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. “But the most revolutionary change is in the less sexy area: the automation of the entire design package, from developing initial options right through to construction. In terms of strategic thinking and real-time analysis, AI is already way beyond what human architects are capable of. This could be the final nail in the coffin of a struggling profession.”
Image: Saj Shafique
Wanyu He founded XKool in 2016 with people who worked for OMA, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, an architectural firm "operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism." They needed more innovations and wanted to create a new tool that could help with working with algorithmic design.
XKool aims to provide a platform that will assist with "everything from generating masterplan layouts, using given parameters such as daylight requirements, space standards and local planning regulations, right down to generating interiors and construction details," according to The Guardian.
Naturally, not everybody is as excited about this or similar AI creations. First of all, people are cautious of data leaks – something that has happened before with ChatGPT.
“We have to be careful,” says Martha Tsigkari, head of applied research and development at Foster + Partners in London. “It can be dangerous if you don’t know what data was used to train the model, or if you haven’t classified it properly. Data is everything: if you put garbage in, you’ll get garbage out. The implications for data privacy and intellectual property are huge – is our data secured from other users? Is it being used to retrain these models in the background?”
Image: Jimmy Chang
Another big issue is the source of AI's training materials and the fact that artists don't have a say in whether or not their works get to be a basis for a newly generated picture.
And, of course, it all causes anxiety among professionals, who fear being replaced by the almighty intelligence. Some illustrators in China, for example, have already faced this new reality.
Different companies adopt AI in their own way. One told The Guardian it uses ChatGPT to summarise local planning policies and compare the performance of different materials. “It’s the kind of task you would have given a junior to do,” they said. “It’s not perfect, but it makes fewer mistakes than someone who hasn’t written a specification before.”
The problem I see with this is if you give such junior-level work to AI, how are actual, human juniors supposed to learn and grow? Doesn't it mean the company won't have experienced architects if it proceeds with the initiative?
Well, not everyone uses AI this way. Some teams use Midjourney to help brainstorm ideas during the concept phase, which sounds more like an ideal way to implement the tool without getting rid of human input.
“I like to think we are augmenting, not replacing, architects,” said Carl Christensen, a software engineer who co-founded the Spacemaker AI tool, acquired by Autodesk and rebranded as Forma. “I call it ‘AI on the shoulder’ to emphasise that you’re still in control.”
I'd say the most important in this power struggle is to make AI a helper for our human tasks and not something that can overthrow us in the future.
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