Artificial intelligence will soon replace designers and architects! Supercomputers will permanently remove engineering from the university program. Soon everyone will be able to build a house on a 3D printer.
The media circulates these headlines en masse, but let’s see if this is so. Definition of artificial intelligence according to Wikipedia.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines instead of natural intelligence displayed by animals, including humans. Leading AI textbooks define the field as the study of “intelligent agents”. This means that any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals.
Recently, technology and automation in architecture have acquired a grand scale. Many processes that used to take weeks or even months are now on the verge of automation. Modern architects and designers need to keep track of all technological innovations. After all, technology always has such advantages as saving time and money. It is automating routine processes, and freeing specialists time for creativity.
Let’s look at the usage of artificial intelligence in practical cases:
VR glasses
Imagine that you are thinking about a design. And you need to understand how beautiful or functional it will be for the client. What tools do you have?
You can show the 3D model to several clients or vote for the best layout on your Facebook. But virtual reality glasses give us truly limitless resources.
We can put our design into a program and let hundreds of clients “walk-around” the space. The program will be able to assess where the gaze of a virtual reality guest lingers for a long time. It will also assess the functionality of the area.
You come with the customers to an empty object to show them the future design. To see it you offer them to put on augmented reality glasses with a programmed design. To do that you can use Morpholio Unveils AR Sketchwalk or DAQRI Smart Helmet.
Design Preparation
Artificial intelligence programs can help avoid hours of research and computation at the early stages of work. You can program your expectations and load plans for previous projects because AI is able to collect unlimited amounts of data.
The architect can test several ideas simultaneously. For example, you need to design an office. You should think about the needs and expectations of the client, the functions of the office, the peculiarities of the area, and the laws of construction.
With an AI system, an architect could pull all zoning data, building codes, and disabled design data. He can also generate design variations that follow a specific design vocabulary, and offer countless options. You can use Cedreo software.
Digital Asset Management
Artificial intelligence can help designers and architects work with vast amounts of data. For example, you are working simultaneously on numerous projects, and want to organize your data for further review and analysis quickly.
Auto-tagging
Auto-tagging could be a great addition to manage visual data, such as images, pictures, and photos. AI will automatically recognize the content of the visual data and sign relevant tags. These tags could be further used to access needed photos quickly.
Automatic tone recognition
Another situation when AI could help digital asset management is automatic tone recognition. This will help a lot in cases when professionals are looking for specific examples of design elements or interiors. Automatic tone recognition will help to filter all photos and images with clear dominant tone or color out of terabytes of data. Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it?
Or for example, you have a million photos in your archive, and you urgently need to find images of the following projects:
- The first project that was in 2000 in New York #bridge construction, project manager Brandon, he doesn’t work anymore,
- The second project that was in Washington DC #bridge construction in 2003, project manager Stephen, but he’s retired.
What will you do in such cases? Use the Daminion system, of course. Artificial intelligence will help you find the desired photo by tag/color/geolocation in seconds. Then you can upload the images you want to Photoshop or InDesign and make a proposal or a brochure.
Parametric design
Parametric design is a process based on algorithmic thinking. It enables the expression of parameters and rules in a way that together they define, encode and clarify the connection between design intent and design response.
A new word in architecture has become possible thanks to AI. You can design objects by playing with the type and volume of different shapes. With AI you bring algebra and geometry to the scale of a building.
Plugins such as Grasshopper architecture, Paneling Tools allow architects to work with complex algorithms, creating a new language in architecture.
Construction
The process of construction is long. You use many resources, including human resources, and you can’t avoid banal human factor. But AI is ready to help you. MIT trained artificial intelligence to collaborate, added this AI to the drones. And the trained drones could build small objects.
The construction process will soon be much faster and more technologically advanced.
City design
How can you design a city that everybody likes? You have to consider million different things, and this is just impossible. And how to make the city life like a living ecosystem and hear people’s needs?
AI can adjust traffic lights depending on the traffic in particular moment, programs city lighting depending on actual day light, and so on.
Top smart cities:
- Singapore (intelligent, energy-efficient lighting for all public roads; solar panels on rooftops of 6,000 buildings);
- Oslo (separate smart city with the fully automatized process of city management);
- Dubai (AI monitors system for bus drivers, roads etc.);
- Copenhagen (the system that monitors traffic, air quality, waste management, energy use, and other items. It compares parking systems and traffic lights to direct traffic in real-time. It also optimize energy use according to fuel prices, traffic movement, and weather);
- Hong Kong (AI manages all city logistics and lighting).
Neom will be the city of the future. It will be placed along the coast of the Read Sea in the far northwest of Saudi Arabia. Neom will not have roads for cars and land transport. All transport and transportation will be lowered underground. Solar panels and other renewable energy sources will provide electricity.
You can read more about smart cities on The American Society of Mechanical Engineers site.
There must be a smart home inside a smart city.
When you think about house design, you already consider how to implement voice control to manage Siri and Google Assistant because such services are becoming more and more popular. Hisense recently revealed a next-gen AI television system dubbed VIDAA-AI. This TV promises to develop an intelligent advertising platform based on real-time object recognition and generate media clips simply from a description. And, of course, learn your tastes and preferences on a scarily personal level.
Conclusion
Yes, AI is increasingly changing our lives. But, no, it does not replace the profession of architect and designer. It rather takes over all the routine work, leaving people with the opportunity to create.
If you want to work with modern methods and give the AI all the routine and monotonous tasks, please sign up for a free trial. Daminion artificial intelligence will save you from boring tasks and add more time for creativity in your life.
