Erin Zearfoss 鈥�23 (standing) shares her findings with fellow students, faculty and external critics. Her project was inspired by the Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture.
鈥淭echnology is the answer, but what was the question?鈥� asked British architect Cedric Price some 50 years ago.
Architecture Professors Mark Linder and Emily Pellicano 鈥�00, G鈥�04 co-teach courses that are part of the University鈥檚 response to the AI boom.
Students in 51爆料网鈥檚 are putting his provocation to the test in professional programs that are as compelling as the technology informing them. Under the guidance of Professors Mark Linder and Emily Pellicano 鈥�00, G鈥�04, graduate and undergraduate students alike are discovering how new advances in artificial intelligence (AI) can impact architectural design.
Linder and Pellicano co-lead a two-course series that reflects not only their own research interests, but also the University鈥檚 response to the AI boom. 鈥淏y working collaboratively with our students, we engage in a range of architectural problems, identities and projects,鈥� Pellicano says. 鈥淭his creates a shared framework where we teach and learn from one another.鈥�
Redefining the Role and Identity of the Architect
This past year, six teams of students participated in what Linder describes as 鈥渞esearch-driven, speculative architectural imaging projects.鈥� Over two semesters, students worked in a cloud-based environment, curating AI-generated elements鈥攚ords, sounds, images and video鈥攊n real time. In April, they presented their findings via a large-format triple projector while leading a spirited discussion about research techniques and potential applications.
Some students used chatbots, like ChatGPT, to gather, analyze and generate content. Others relied on image generators, like DALL-E and Midjourney, to create uncanny synthetic photos.
By working collaboratively with our students, we engage in a range of architectural problems, identities and projects.
Professor Emily Pellicano 鈥�00, G鈥�04
The goal wasn鈥檛 to design buildings鈥攁lthough each project had the 鈥減otential to be further developed, aesthetically and materially,鈥� Pellicano says. Rather, students experimented with new techniques and processes. 鈥淲e鈥檙e redefining the role and identity of the architect who collaborates with machine intelligence,鈥� she continues. 鈥淭his means rethinking the traditional phases of design.鈥�
Architecture students work in a cloud-based environment, curating AI-generated elements in real time.
Projects ranged from 鈥渧isualizing possible futures鈥� of a mobile home park destroyed by climate change to conceiving immersive spaces that respond to human emotions.
Seniors Xinqi 鈥淐indy鈥� Meng 鈥�23 and Haihui 鈥淧hilip鈥� Zhu 鈥�23 re-imagined Cedric Price鈥檚 Fun Palace鈥攁n interactive cultural complex that was designed in 1964 but never built. Using a mix of AI-generated imagery, they devised an entirely new virtual version of Price鈥檚 building. The narrator was none other than Price himself, courtesy of an AI voice generator.
鈥淲e鈥檙e complementing traditional memorials with a new approach to commemoration,鈥� Zhu says.
Likewise, seniors Madeline Alves 鈥�23 and Erin Zearfoss 鈥�23 breathed new life into the Bauhaus, a mid-20th-century school of art, design and architecture. The result was 鈥淭he Babhaus,鈥� a curious collection of digitally generated images.
AI is unprecedented because of its capacity to autonomously mimic human intelligence in peculiar ways and to operate as a collaborator in real time.
Professor Mark Linder
鈥淚n imagining a possible future with AI, the past becomes altered through our understanding of its contributions to an alternate present,鈥� says Alves, noting her and Zearfoss鈥� interpretations of Bauhaus stage designs, furniture, textiles and figurines.
The duo also showcased contributions from textile designer Anni Albers and dancer Lo茂e Fuller, giving the male-dominated Bauhaus a counterfactual edge.
Julia Kazubowski (left) and Chloe DeMarco, both from the Class of 2023, use AI to conceive immersive spaces that respond to human emotions.
Pushing the Boundaries of Artificial Intelligence Imagination
鈥淎t least since the invention of perspective, architectural theory and design has used technologies as forms of artificial imagination,鈥� Linder says. 鈥淎I is unprecedented because of its capacity to autonomously mimic human intelligence in peculiar ways and to operate as a collaborator in real time.鈥�
His and Pellicano鈥檚 work continues next year as a fall seminar and, in the spring, as an inaugural Directed Research course鈥攐ne of the first of its kind in Architecture. Moreover, they will compile, archive and test AI-related content with help from three research assistants funded by the .
鈥淭hese AI projects raise a lot of ethical and philosophical questions,鈥� says architect and theorist David Ruy, one of three external critics invited to comment on the students鈥� work. 鈥淎 big one is 鈥榃hat鈥檚 the role of play in architecture?鈥� AI doesn鈥檛 have to be dark and moody. It can be fun and beneficial to the entire learning process.鈥�
