How AI software will change architecture and design
AI text-to-image software like Midjourney, DALL-E and Stable Diffusion has the potential to change the way that architects approach the creation and concept stages of designing buildings and products, experts say.
In the past year, numerous technology companies have released software that uses AI systems called neural networks to convert users’ text inputs into AI-generated images.
The images created by these bots – including eerily real-looking imaginary buildings – have become an internet sensation and led to discussions about how they could impact the future of design and architecture.
Bill Cusick is the creative director at one such company, Stability AI – which has released text-to-image software called Stable Diffusion and DreamStudio – and also has experience working with the software of the popular visualisation company Midjourney. He believes that the software is “the foundation for the future of creativity”.
“I’m seeing a sort of playfulness in design that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before in terms of architectural design and renderings,” he told Dezeen.
However, future applications of the technology are still up for debate, even among designers known for using it.
“It’s meant to capture a vision of a project quickly”
Andrew Kudless, who works under the moniker Matys Design, said the technology may come to be essential in the early stages of projects, taking the place of sketching and idea creation.
Like architectural sketches, AI imagery is often colourful and dreamlike, but not necessarily actionable as a detailed plan, he explained.
“Whenever I’m sketching with a pencil, I don’t worry if the column or whatever is in exactly the right place,” Kudless told Dezeen.
“Because that’s not the goal of a sketch. It’s not meant to be incredibly accurate or precise. It’s meant to capture a vision of a project quickly.”
Indian designer and Midjourney user Manas Bhatia, who creates conceptual art showing futuristic cityscapes that depict complex integrations of structures and nature, agreed.
“AI has a huge potential in solving the ‘thought-to-execution delay’,” he told Dezeen.
“Currently, we are witnessing designers and creative professionals use AI for concept generation purposes, but with time AI will become an important part of the overall design process.”
A trained architect, Kudless works in Midjourney to create evocative structures – often draped in fabric – that he believes show how material and scenery not typically included in initial architectural plans can change the way that projects are presented to clients.
Architecture studios are currently often awarded projects based on renderings that are expected to bear as close a resemblance as possible to the building eventually constructed.
“I think we should be showing [clients] renderings almost from day one, and getting them used to the fact that they’re going to change,” he said.
“That’s actually a better thing for the relationship between the client and the designer because it engages them in the process in a way that’s really important.”
Designers acknowledged that the software has the potential to change the way in which labour is executed in architecture and design offices.
“It’s incredibly frustrating at times the amount of labor that especially younger people are being asked to do within firms to produce [render] images,” said Kudless.
“And I think if we can automate some of that and still gain control, then I’m all for that.”
“This isn’t going to upend anything”
He added that some more menial tasks like repeats for offices and parking lots – designs that take simple patterns and repeat them in different instances – could be helpful in augmenting the design process.
Cusick agreed that the technology, which produces its images by taking established aesthetic and formal concepts and mixing them in imaginative ways, creates huge potential for freeing up labour at the early design stages.
