AI for architects

Text: Kincső Mária Tankó

Artificial intelligence is making huge advances every day and is becoming more and more prominent in many fields, such as architecture. This raises a common question among architects: At the moment, what can artificial intelligence do? What versions of it can we apply to architectural design? Can it become a useful tool in the design process of today’s architect? What design phases can it be applied to? This research presents the variants of AI used in architectural design, AIs that generate 2D outputs and AIs that generate 3D outputs. Both variants have several subcategories, depending on what the inputs are, so that several types per category are presented and compared, based on specific criteria. The research reveals that AIs that generate 2D outputs, while generating very impressive results, are not suitable for design phases other than conceptual design. AIs that generate 3D outputs are still in their infancy. The most useful AIs in this group are those that use scanning to generate 3D models of existing objects, elements, buildings, spaces. They can also be used for survey plans. In conclusion, AIs are currently only really useful in the first stages of architectural design, and are not suitable for more complex and accurate design. For the AIs researched, it was important that they should be exclusively AIs and not AI-based programs and applications, and that they should be have free access, so that all architects can easily familiarise themselves with and choose from the colourful palette of AIs.