Adore it or hate it, new applied sciences have been more and more current within the artistic area, and so they appear to be right here to remain. Famend studios resembling Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) have been engaged on their very own methods of utilizing AI in structure by means of bespoke software program and a devoted collaboration with NVIDIA; whereas social media is bursting with AI-generated photographs and visions, permitting everybody to have a go.
On the similar time, it is a subject which divides deeply, throwing up challenges regarding authenticity of voice, plagiarism, accountability and ethics (can a machine ever do what a human mind – and coronary heart – can?). As thrilling as having a brand new design assistant with the information of the whole World Large Internet at their digital fingertips might sound, potential pitfalls abound and studying the way to work on this courageous new world is paramount in transferring ahead. Laws and pointers needs to be coming into play, too.
So, when does one even start? It is very important tackle AI as a instrument, suggests architect Tim Fu, who has been utilizing AI with an open thoughts since he based his younger and dynamic studio in 2023.
(Picture credit score: Studio Tim Fu)
The right way to use AI in structure
London-based Fu not too long ago launched the ‘world’s first absolutely AI-driven architectural undertaking’ – a residential scheme in Slovenia’s Lake Bled. Dedicated to pushing the boundaries of the brand new AI digital instruments in a sustainable and regarded approach in his each day follow, the architect talked to us, providing sensible recommendation on the way to use AI in structure – together with actual examples that assist information and recommend concepts surrounding when to make use of it, and what to be careful for. Scroll down to seek out out extra.
Tim Fu’s tips about utilizing AI in structure
Wallpaper*: What attracts you to AI?
Tim Fu: I’ve at all times been fascinated by the intersection of artwork and expertise. AI, for me, is not only a instrument — it is a collaborator that opens new artistic horizons. It attracts me in as a result of it challenges conventional workflows and invitations a very completely different mind-set about design, type, and course of. There is a form of poetic stress between human instinct and machine intelligence, and I take pleasure in navigating that area.
W*: Why ought to an structure studio use AI in its each day work? What’s the acquire?
TF: The acquire is twofold: velocity and imaginative and prescient. AI augments our means to iterate quickly and check a number of eventualities with out being bottlenecked by guide processes. However greater than that, it helps uncover sudden options — formal expressions or spatial relationships we’d not arrive at by means of conventional means. For studios pushing boundaries, AI turns into an amplifier of creativity, not simply productiveness.
(Picture credit score: Studio Tim Fu)
W*: Is there a real-life scheme that you simply used AI on? Please may you give an instance of the way it enhanced your work inside it?
TF: Sure, a superb instance is our Lake Bled Estates undertaking. We built-in AI into the conceptual design part to discover site-sensitive natural massing. By feeding contextual information — topography, viewsheds, photo voltaic paths — right into a generative AI mannequin, we produced a number of choices that maintained design integrity whereas optimising for sustainability and visible affect. It gave us a place to begin that felt each grounded and sudden. That’s the form of artistic leverage AI can supply.
(Picture credit score: Studio Tim Fu)
W*: At what stage of an structure undertaking does the AI factor are available?
TF: We use AI throughout all levels of a undertaking — it’s not simply restricted to early ideation anymore. Within the conceptual part, it helps us quickly discover type, temper, and spatial methods. However because the undertaking progresses, AI continues to play a key position. Throughout design improvement and detailing, we use generative instruments and LLMs to synthesise precedents, codes, and consumer briefs into actionable design logic. In later phases, particularly in documentation and manufacturing, AI assists in organising and navigating giant datasets — whether or not it’s automating schedules, optimising layouts, and even drafting elements.
(Picture credit score: Studio Tim Fu)
W*: What software program or platforms do you utilize?
T: We construct {custom} workflows that combine platforms like Midjourney, Steady Diffusion, and our custom-trained fashions for visible ideation; Rhino/Grasshopper with plugins for modelling and parametric optimisation; and we’ve been growing UrbanGPT, our personal text-to-model engine that makes use of LLMs for real-time city planning. So it’s a mixture of proprietary, open-source, and bespoke instruments relying on the problem.
(Picture credit score: Studio Tim Fu)
W*: Are there areas within the design course of that AI can particularly — or can’t in any respect — assist an structure studio with, in your view?
TF: AI excels at sample recognition, picture era, and optimisation — so it’s improbable for conceptualising type, producing visuals, or analysing giant datasets like solar publicity or pedestrian movement. However it’s much less succesful in relation to nuanced decision-making, like understanding the emotional resonance of an area or navigating the politics of a stakeholder assembly. These human layers of design — empathy, context, ethics — are nonetheless irreplaceable.
W*: What’s probably the most stunning factor you’ve requested AI to do?
TF: We as soon as tasked AI with creating speculative city layouts based mostly on poetic prompts. One was: ‘Design a metropolis the place reminiscence flows like water.’ The output was surreal, but one way or the other spatially coherent — fluid zones, nested loops of public area, architectural ‘eddies.’ It sparked a full design dialog. I really like these moments when AI pushes you into the uncanny and makes you rethink your assumptions.
Mall inside visible from Studio Tim Fu’s designs
(Picture credit score: Studio Tim Fu)
W*: What ought to an architect utilizing AI watch out about? What are potential pitfalls?
FT: The largest pitfall is mistaking AI’s output for fact or finality. It’s solely ever a suggestion — a immediate, not a prescription. There’s additionally the moral aspect: AI can replicate biases, plagiarise unintentionally, or overrepresent aesthetics which can be well-liked on-line however contextually irrelevant. It’s a must to hold a essential eye within the room, at all times.
W*: How do you mitigate these pitfalls?
TF: By sustaining a human-in-the-loop strategy. We deal with AI like an assistant with a vivid creativeness, not a decision-maker. Each output goes by means of a rigorous filtering course of the place we query, reframe, and generally utterly discard what AI suggests. We additionally construct our personal datasets when doable to minimise bias and guarantee context alignment.
A wellness centre, created with the assistant of AI by Studio Tim Fu
(Picture credit score: Studio Tim Fu)
W*: What’s the most fun factor AI can deliver into the structure course of?
TF: Essentially the most thrilling factor is its potential to democratise and de-limit design. AI will help younger studios punch above their weight, empower underserved communities to visualise their very own futures, and supply architects completely new typologies that have been beforehand inconceivable. It’s a generative drive that — when guided ethically — can result in a renaissance in how we think about and construct.
W*: How do you see using AI growing within the close to future inside the structure realm?
TF: I see AI turning into extra embedded, extra real-time, and extra spatially conscious. We’ll seemingly see a shift from image-based instruments to geometry-native AI that works natively with BIM and CAD environments. There’ll even be extra collaborative fashions — the place AI integrates not simply into the design, however into stakeholder engagement, sustainability monitoring, and even allowing. It’s not going to switch architects — however it’ll completely redefine what being an architect means.
A excessive rise proposition by Studio Tim Fu
(Picture credit score: Studio Tim Fu)
timfu.com
Supply: Wallpaper
