Presentazione of: The role of Artificial Intelligence in architectural design, conversation with designers and researchers S.Arch 2020 Tokyo

The proliferation of data together with the increase of computing power has triggered a new interest in artificial intelligence. Machine learning and Deep Learning techniques are omnipresent in contemporary discourse, generating new enthusiasms and fears in our society. The world of architecture has not remained external to this phenomenon. If on the one hand, these techniques promise great results, on the other we are still in an exploratory phase. It is then necessary, in our opinion, to understand what the roles of this technology could be within the architectural design process, and with which scopes they can facilitate such a complex profession as that of the architect. On this subject we made ten interviews with as many designers and researchers in the AEC industry, In the article we will report a summary of their testimonies, comparing and commenting on the responses of the designers, with the aim of understanding the potentials of using artificial intelligence methods within the design process, report their perceptions on how artificial intelligence techniques can affect the architect's approach to the project, concluding with some reflections on the critical issues identified during the interviews with the designers.

Transcript

1. The role of artificial intelligence in architectural design Conversation with designers and researchers Giuseppe Gallo Giovanni Francesco Tuzzolino University of Palermo Fulvio Wirz University of East London S.ARCH April 2020 Tokyo 7th International conference on Architecture and built environment
2. The field of Artificial Intelligence. 1950 Alan Turing: Can a computer imitate human intelligence? 1955 Artificial intelligence described as a research field by John Mc Carthy From ruled based systems to machine learning, natural language processing neural networks, etc. 2000 Proliferation of Big Data and GPU Deep Neural networks Larger applications of AI Now
3. What do we mean by Artificial Intelligence? Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning
4. A powerful technology. In March 2016 AlphaGo beat Lee Sedol.
5. A possible threat? “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race”. Stephen Hawking, 2014.
6. Will Artificial intelligence be useful in Architecture? Answers to: Order the following technologies for the usefulness they will have in Architecture over the next 10 years. Digital Manufacturing 7 5 5 6 1 6 6 6 5 4 Machine Learning 4 3 6 7 2 4 7 7 6 7 VR 1 1 3 3 3 3 4 4 6 2 AR 3 4 4 4 4 3 5 4 5 1 IOT 2 2 2 5 5 5 2 5 4 6 Other Comp. Methods 6 7 1 2 7 7 3 3 7 4 BIM 5 6 7 1 7 2 1 2 3 3 Arthur Mamou Mani Al Fisher Andres Klok Pedersen Aurélie de Boissieu Daniel Davies Edoardo Tibuzzi Harry Ibbs Irene Gallou Pablo Zamorano Xavier de Kestellier 51 53 30 37 38 47 37 Total (70)
7. A moment of Experimentation. A totally different approach. More skills in programming and statistics. Higher computing power. Training an AI can take even weeks of CPU time.
8. Power and limits of data. Data largerly influence outputs. We need a lot data to obtain coherent results. Data means responsibility.
9. Data define the capabilities of an algorithm. “If you show them modern architecture, they will only be able to create modern architecture”.
10. Which data can Architects use? Offices can use their legacy knowledge. Architects can acquire new data, or create them.
11. Simulations as a source of data. A Deep neural network trained with billions of Computational fluid dynamics simulations can instantly provide a building wind behaviour model.
12. Current contributions and expectations. Advanced AI showed great capabilites in areas with a well defined set of rules. Not to be considered as a magic bullet, it is a difficult and complex technology. Best results come from coordinative approachs.
13. Can AI face the multidimensional complexity of Architecture? Fields disrupted by AI have linear nature than our field. Can we describe architecture processes complexity so that a machine can process it? Surely not now.
14. Present and near future. A magnificent assistant able to remember all the experience acquired throught well organized data and quickly return feedbacks.
15. Conclusions There is confidence that AI will have a major role in Architecture over the next ten years. The relationship between profession and advanced AI methods is in a pioneering state. Data must be many and coherently organized. A distruptive effect on our profession is excluded right now. AI strategies require confidence with statistics, programming skills and parallel computing capabilities. Great results in a limited areas, even proposing spatial configurations when boundary conditions are duly defined. Advanced AI will erode the architect’s practice. The role of software houses remains to be investigated.
16. Contacts Giuseppe Gallo, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Palermo Architect e designer, former visiting academic at the University of East London and creative director of the interdisciplinary design agency Mirabilia. The topics on which he focuses his research are the evolution of the architectural project, digital design methods, communication design and participation. giuseppe.gallo03@unipa.it Fulvio Wirz, Senior Lecturer, University of East London Architect and senior lecturer at the University of East London where he is also Head of dFUEL (digital fabrication UEL). He holds a PhD in digital design and long experience in the field as an associate at Zaha Hadid Architects where he led multiple international projects. f.wirz@uel.ac.uk Giovanni Francesco Tuzzolino, Full Professor, University of Palermo Architect, Full Professor of Architecture and Urban Composition at the University of Palermo, he taught at several foreign universities as al-Al Bayth University Jordan, Drexel University USA, ENSA Paris France. Author of numerous essays and books, founder of Tuzzolino-Margagliotta Associates, architectural which carried out international projects and won prizes and awards. giovannifrancesco.tuzzoIino@unipa.it