AI in Architecture: A New Era from Design to Construction
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Today on the podcast, I want to talk about some new software and ways that AI is revolutionizing construction and specifically architecture. And the question is, will AI completely replace architects and, you know, take their job? So today on the podcast, we'll be diving into it. So a lot of this comes from a recent report by The Guardian where they were covering...

a company called Xcool. And Xcool is a company based out of China, based out of Shenzhen, that they've essentially created this virtual AI that can help do a lot of things architects can do. So Wei-Yang He, who is an architect from Shenzhen and is kind of, you know, some would attribute as the visionary behind Xcool, demonstrated how AI can do

dynamically adjust hotel room layouts in real time with just a few clicks. She also revealed how the intricate network of wiring, lighting placements, and even cost breakdowns can all be done by AI. All of this was ready for immediate execution and surprisingly, a hotel complex conceptualized in minutes via this tool took just four and a half months to be physically realized. This is absolutely incredible.

The fact that, you know, you could say I would like to build a hotel and then in just a couple minutes, this technology would essentially, you know, give an entire layout, build the whole thing out, show the network of wiring, lighting. Like it goes into such great detail. It's absolutely insane. All of this being done with AI to to make this thing absolutely optimal.

and then these hotels can actually be built. And this could be houses, this could be skyscrapers, this could be anything. This AI software is able to do some really incredible things in architecture. So I think recent developments in AI tools like DALI, MidJourney, and Stable Diffusion are really what is currently allowing designers to bring their visions to life. And they're able to do this in really high-res environments

essentially images that are inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright or, you know, eccentric designs that are blending sci-fi and art

So I think these tools make visualization a breeze, right? So if you have an idea for what you would like your home to look like, you could go to Midjourney, you could give it a bunch of prompts and say, modern home, this many square feet, this size, this location, these color schemes, and it could generate you the outside. But I've also seen from interior designers some really incredible interior designs. They were like, I would like a kitchen that looks like X, Y, and Z, blah, blah, blah, modern, these styles. Gets all of these different design inspiration ideas

of the interior design. So it does interior exterior. And now with a cool, a tool like X tool, it's able to take this one step further and actually start doing the layouts and the, you know, a lot of the architects work on these buildings, which would be really incredible to go like, let's say, generate, you know, some really phenomenal looking buildings on mid journey and then having something like X cool go and actually give you the architects layout and blueprints for something like that. So

I think AI's impact is incredibly profound right now in this day and age. And we're seeing this from a perspective that a lot of architects, I think, will be using these tools to augment their capabilities 100%. And then the question remains, will this eventually replace architects? So I think according to Neil Leach, who's the author of Architecture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,

He says that AI's power lies in automating the entire design process from initial ideation to construction. He really believes that AI is going to take over the entire process here. Xcool is definitely at the forefront of this kind of AI-driven architectural revolution.

It was established back in 2016, and the company already has over 50,000 users in China. The English iteration of its AI tool is called LookX, and it has also launched. So the team behind Xcool, formerly associated with the architect Rem Koolhaus OMA, really envisioned a future where architecture harnesses the power of AI. And it was inspired by AlphaGo's historic win over a human

at the game of Go back in 2016. And when they saw that, I think they really kind of decided that if AI could beat humans in a game of Go, they could beat them in many things, including architecture. And that's, I think, when the inspiration for this platform really came to the forefront. So Xcool has an integrated platform, which essentially is assisting architects from high-level

with high-level master plan layouts down to intricate interior details. So while its early designs may seem somewhat mechanical, you know, like the robot-esque Shenzhen Hotel, I think the technology's promise is really, really incredible. This is what I say with a lot of AI advancements. When people are quick to dismiss it like, oh, you know, it just designed a hotel, but the hotel doesn't look as creative as like a human could make.

It's like, yes, but it is able to do a basic hotel. Therefore, it's able to do a very creative, very elaborate hotel in the future as these things improve, especially when like from the creative side platform.

platforms like Midjourney, I've seen the most creative looking buildings in the world on there. I've seen people create all sorts of, you know, castles from fantasy books and lands and all sorts of weird shaped hotels and crazy things on Midjourney. So we know that AI obviously is capable of doing these really creative tasks. And then all it comes down to is being able to integrate it with a platform like Xcool that can do a lot more of the actual integrate

or a lot more of the, you know, how this thing is, the nitty gritty of how this thing is actually pulled off. And I think pairing those two technologies is going to be the solution that essentially can create and design the most elaborate, most complex, most beautiful and creative buildings, and then actually make it so that these things are possible, architecturally sound and able to actually be pulled off. So

I think not everyone's sold on this vision, though. There's a lot of concerns about data misuse. Martha Tsikari of Foster and Partners in London emphasizes the importance of data quality and its implications for data privacy and intellectual property. AI's accuracy and reliability kind of hinge on the quality of the data that are fed into it. So some people are concerned.

that in architecture, there may be issues there. So I think for the last half a decade, Sicari's team has been leveraging AI to optimize materials and building designs. And their experiments include developing

facades with thermally responsive laminate materials that change shape with temperature variations. So I think additionally, you know, something else that AI is really great at doing is essentially providing really complex simulations that traditionally would have been very labor intensive, which I

which essentially could allow architects to instantly visualize the implications of design adjustments, which I think is really, really cool. And so I think the question then becomes, how is the broader architectural community embracing these changes? We're obviously seeing AIs able to do a lot of impressive things. So how are people actually embracing this? I think some architects use ChatGPT to really quickly create and analyze local planning policies. I've personally spoken to...

a number of, you know, architectural firms and engineering firms that are really interested in this technology. They're also using it to kind of evaluate material properties, while some others are also leveraging mid-journey for ideation during the conceptual phase, right? Like I mentioned, I think that's absolutely an amazing, amazing way to go. ZHA is a firm established by the late Zaha Hadid and Zaha

ZHA actually uses Midjourney to quickly turn out numerous design alternatives when they're trying to come up with their initial designs for something. So beyond visualization, I think AI's potential in the planning phase of development is absolutely massive. Yuan Mills is a co-founder of BlockType, and he envisions AI simplifying the planning process and potentially curbing land speculation. His tool that he has is

aims to assist developers in grasping the spatial potential of sites and provide local authorities with a cleaner framework for development permission. So while some of the industry may perceive architecture as, you know, exclusively, you know, isn't really something that's going to get mixed with code.

I think the reality is a lot more nuanced. And so I think the tech driven trajectory is absolutely undeniable that we're seeing here. AI is getting integrated into everything and that will 100% include architecture. We're seeing some amazing use cases and tools. And I think that if I was to make a prediction on where this goes in the future, this is going to be incredibly interesting.

This is going to be way more adopted. Architects are definitely going to have to learn to originally use these tools. And I think at the end of the day, these tools will be able to do a lot of what architects do. Does it replace architects? No, I don't think this replaces really anyone necessarily because there's always going to be creative architects that know all of the right architectural phrases and things to ask an AI.

And so they're going to be able to essentially the same way you get a better response when you ask a better prompt on ChatGPT. There's going to be experts that are able to do that. But I think that a lot of the perhaps

very specialized skill sets will be able to be learned by anyone through a YouTube video or online course that would have taken architects much longer because a lot of the heavy lifting and nitty gritty will be able to be done by AI. And then of course, you'll probably still have to send off whatever your designs are to an actual architect or engineer to do the final stamp of approval, similar to when you buy templates

online you still got to do the same thing to get your permits a lot of the time so i think there there's still gonna be that aspect of it but very very interesting um to see how this is really shaping an industry that you know previously people were not associating with ai very heavily and so i think architecture may just be the next frontier to see some massive disruption from ai

Thank you for listening to today's podcast episode, breaking down how AI is impacting your industry. Today's episode is sponsored by AI Box, a no-code AI app builder and marketplace, which just launched a crowdfunding campaign. If you are interested in investing in a new AI startup, you can go to republic.com slash AI dash box. I'll leave a link in the show notes as well to learn more. The minimum investment is $150 and the maximum investment is $100,000. Until next time, have a fantastic day.