Artificial intelligence (AI) has transitioned from just a tech buzzword to a transformative force in architecture, reshaping how buildings are conceived, designed, and constructed. By taking over data-heavy tasks, it empowers designers to tackle challenges that are the need of the hour; resource efficiency, carbon reduction, and climate resilience to create sustainable architecture. This forges a partnership where technology and vision unite with the potential to rethink the built world.
Unlocking New Potential with AI
AI excels at processing colossal datasets and extracting actionable insights—a feat no human could achieve alone. When integrated with Building Information Modelling (BIM), AI enhances processes such as energy modelling, climate impact simulations, and material optimization. These tools can help in designing structures that are both innovative and sustainable.
Take for instance, a young architect working with generative adversarial networks (GANs), which are essentially a framework for refined generative artificial intelligence. Stanislas Chaillou’s work illustrates how AI enhances and optimises architectural innovation. By leveraging GANs trained on site-specific datasets, Chaillou generates many layout options that balance spatial efficiency, sustainability goals, and aesthetic considerations. Some of his AI-generated designs analyze sun exposure, airflow, and material usage to create environments that are not only functional but also tailored to their unique contexts. This approach transforms AI into an active collaborator in design—a tool that augments, rather than replaces, human ingenuity.
In practice, firms like Zaha Hadid Architects have utilised AI to achieve groundbreaking results. They employed AI within their parametric framework to create the design for Beijing Daxing International Airport, a project that seamlessly integrates form and function. The AI-driven approach optimizes the terminal’s natural lighting, strategically positioning skylights to reduce energy consumption while maintaining passenger comfort. Additionally, AI algorithms model efficient airflow patterns to ensure that the terminal remains naturally ventilated in key areas. These innovations reduce energy consumption and reliance on mechanical systems, delivering a sustainable and functional design that meets the demands of modern travel.
Redefining Sustainability
Sustainability isn’t just about slapping solar panels onto rooftops. There are countless ways to design buildings that coexist harmoniously with their environments, and modern technology makes it easier to see these visions come to life. Finding solutions for efficiency and environmental friendliness is a task that requires meticulous studying of related data in order to predict the building’s performance. These analyses can even integrate real-time data and provide insights on the smallest of changes that can go a long way in achieving sustainability. For example, suggestions for materials like optimized concrete mixes that reduce carbon emissions without compromising on strength and durability, or tailored rainwater harvesting and irrigation systems to conserve water. Energy consumption patterns can be studied to suggest ways that minimise the reliance on artificial climate control and lighting, or design renewable energy systems. AI can help form such predictions using past data to improve the architecture of tomorrow.
Visionary Applications of AI in Design
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) offers a compelling model of sustainable innovation. Their “Oceanix City” concept envisions self-sustaining, climate-resilient floating urban hubs, designed to adapt to rising sea levels while fostering inclusive community living. These futuristic urban environments incorporate renewable energy systems, closed-loop water management, and modular design for scalability. On land, their VIA 57 West project in New York demonstrates how environmental consciousness can harmonize with user-centred design. This “court scraper” integrates green spaces, natural light, and sustainable materials, creating an iconic structure that caters to diverse user needs while setting a benchmark for eco-conscious urban development.
Similarly, Zaha Hadid Architects’ projects highlight how AI can marry form and function to address global challenges. By integrating AI-driven solutions, they have set new benchmarks in sustainable and innovative architecture.
The Future of AI in Architecture
The world has barely scratched the surface of AI’s potential in architecture. Maybe the future would bring shapeshifting, adaptive buildings that adjust lighting, ventilation, and layouts based on real-time occupant behavior for efficiency and comfort. Dynamic and flexible walls, automatically changing layouts to accommodate the number of people, personalisation of spaces, the possibilities are truly endless. It won’t be entirely false to say that whatever one can imagine now will soon become possible.
Technology like 3-D printing is already making waves in the process of construction, even demonstrating the potential for off-world habitats. AI SpaceFactory’s 3D-printed Mars prototype, designed for NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, showcases this potential. These cylindrical structures, constructed from a “Martian polymer” potentially derived from resources available on the planet, are designed to be highly habitable and address the unique demands of a Mars mission. Such advancements could lead to ways to adjust construction for changing environmental conditions, or modify material properties to enhance longevity, both on Earth and beyond. AI is capable of examining every factor that impacts the design of a building. When equipped with a tool that takes multitudes into consideration, hopefully inclusivity would become the norm. Spaces that optimize functionality, allow sustainability and promote equality. After all, in the eyes of a machine we’d all be one and the same.
A Collaborative Vision
Joanna Maciejewska’s witty observation— “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing, not for AI to do my art and writing so that I can do my laundry and dishes”—perfectly encapsulates AI’s role in architecture. It’s here to handle the drudgery, not to steal the spotlight.
In this partnership, AI amplifies human creativity rather than replacing it. Together, architects and AI can design buildings that are not only visually stunning but also environmentally responsible and socially inclusive. This synergy isn’t just shaping the future of architecture; it’s redefining what’s possible for our built environment.
References:
Adewale, B.A., Ene, V.O., Ogunbayo, B.F. and Aigbavboa, C.O. (2024). Application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Sustainable Building Lifecycle; A Systematic Literature Review. [online] Preprints.org. doi:https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202405.2113.v1.
ArchDaily (2016). VIΛ 57 West / BIG. [online] ArchDaily. Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/794950/via-57-west-big.
Bjarke Ingels Group (n.d.). Oceanix City. [online] big.dk. Available at: https://big.dk/projects/oceanix-city-6399.
Chaillou, S. (2020). Space Layouts & GANs. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/spacemaker-research-blog/space-layouts-gans-2329c8f85fe8.
Gibson, E. (2019). BIG unveils Oceanix City concept for floating villages that can withstand hurricanes. [online] Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2019/04/04/oceanix-city-floating-big-mit-united-nations/.
Krausková, V. and Pifko, H. (2021). Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Field of Sustainable Architecture: Current Knowledge. Architecture Papers of the Faculty of Architecture and Design STU, 26(1), pp.20–29. doi:https://doi.org/10.2478/alfa-2021-0004.
Zaha Hadid Architects (2009). Beijing Daxing International Airport – Architecture – Zaha Hadid Architects. [online] Zaha-hadid.com. Available at: https://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/beijing-new-airport-terminal-building/.
