Dearest fellow rulers,
Allow me to indulge you in a cup of coffee, tea, wine or beverage. As you listen to my words and read my lines, set your music to cool Afro vibes and let nature be your sound. May these words become another little light in our very dark world.
The Architecture World.
To paint the future, one must first unravel the mysteries of the past and apply the lessons drawn to the present. The world in its beginning was created by God, the Master Architect. His creations display a multi-functional, trans-planar, interconnectedness rooted in His divine nature. After creating man as His last creation, He gave that responsibility of creating and sustaining to man. Man became an architect by design. He had to respond to his needs and let these solutions be shaped by his environment. The late Professor Aradeon calls it ‘an adaptation to your rotation’. Man had no interest in aesthetics as a prime focus because it was a natural consequence of the design process. A well-thought-out process resulted in a beautifully designed piece (Aradeon, 2000).
Over decades as the need for specializations came in, man was taught to be the architect of just his life but to leave creating and building to men who spent their time learning and researching it. They were fast-oriented, disruptive in their thinking, and revolutionary in their process. Thus, epochal architecture ages were created. The first ‘known’ architect, Imhotep, who is thought to be at the helm of the development of the Egyptian Empire from the pyramids to columns to architectural medical texts. He was the chief innovator, engineer, artist, historian, etc. This same pattern repeated all the way down to the Roman Empire that produced concrete, aqueduct systems, Roman road systems, apartment housing, urban planning, and public spaces (Harris, 1996).
The Challenge
Today, the architectural world is in shambles, as evidenced by a loss of authentic architectural identity, a contribution of over 40% of CO2 emissions through thoughtless designs that are also contributing factors of socio-economic and socio-cultural crises. The people we serve are now challenging what it means to become an architect. The architectural world is challenging the norms and developments wrapped up in tech and now AI. It has redefined the standard of creativity and design (Jones, 2018).
If technology is a simple creative solution to a problem, that poses three questions:
- Why is the advancement of technology taking the architecture world by surprise?
- Why aren’t architects at the helm of affairs in creativity?
- Why are we just regurgitating patterns and no longer thinking?
- Why have we become less humane than we were—just robots?
AI/Tech as a Pathfinder or disguised nuisance?
Advancement in technology in recent times has shaken the entire architectural world. It has left many questioning what really is the role of the architect. Would we even exist in the future? The truth is that architects fell in love with ‘tools’ and began to see these tools as the source of creativity rather than what they are—just tools. The early architects didn’t have access to such tools, ‘according to history.’ Though recent architectural discoveries of complex, special, and industrial constructs infer otherwise, we moved from using stone tablets to paper, ink, and then other drafting tools. Most of the time in the design process was devoted to painfully drafting plans on large sheets for construction as technology evolved.
The invention of computer-aided design (CAD) allowed for the quicker creation of working drawings. Later advancements allowed holistic Building Information Modeling (BIM), maximizing efficiency in the construction process and easy integration of sustainability practices. Evolution in AI brought quick advancements in conceptual development, accurate environmental impact assessment, project management, and even automation of some design and construction processes (Miller, 2019). It is even predicted that in the near future, we would be able to automate working drawings, generate accurate models, and create realistic visualizations from simple sketches. Even complex designs and processes, like those in parametric architecture, can be easily generated and automated (Williams, 2022).
Evolution of Tech/AI: Three Architect Types
The evolution of technology/AI has clearly defined three types of architects in the architecture world:
- The Traditional Architect: Dependent on traditions (the way things have always been done). This type sees these traditions as the real wisdom. It’s a paradox because such traditions are still within an epoch—they have predecessors and have also become predecessors to the ones after. These architects are too dependent, stubborn to learn and evolve with development, and advancement. They’d rather stick to traditions than drawing principles and wisdom from them and building on them.
- The Tech-Dependent Architect: This architect has replaced creativity with tools. They no longer want to think creatively and are okay with whatever outputs AI gives them—garbage in, garbage out. They are no longer the architects of their ideas.
- The Adaptable Architect: This architect sees tech/AI as an assistant. A tool, a system, a platform that allows them to focus more on their original role—to think, to create, and to design for the man, his spirit, and his environment. They leverage tech to assist them in repetitive and analytical processes, using it as a feedback platform that utilizes big data, language models, and unique datasets. This type of architect focuses on developing and improving their thoughts, process, creativity, and outcomes (Hughes, 2020).
Back to the Root: Adaptability and resilience.
The challenge that faces the architectural world today and even in the future due to the advent of tech/AI is the sporadic speed of invention and innovation. People we design for have had their ‘veils removed,’ and we, the architects, have been caught up in that chaos. The ability of AI to create things that were once thought “mind-blowing miracles of the human mind” has pushed people to seek something greater. It has forced humans to go back to their roots. We want to return to the way God created us—the traditional way, the natural way, the African way. Africa is the mother of civilization, and all modern patterns and processes discovered and celebrated in modern times are simply enhanced solutions created by the African man in his quest to adapt to his rotation (Achebe, 1958). This same pattern occurs in other constructs and cultures—the ability to adapt while remaining resilient to your ‘genius loci’.
A Re-Awakening: The Architect’s Return
We want to live by nature, with nature, and through nature. This has challenged the status quo in the architectural world. It will easily manifest the irrelevance of the Type 1 Architect who cannot improve their standard and quality because they fail to unlearn, relearn, and learn. It will shatter the façade of the Type 2 architect who has left creativity in the hands of AI and technology, showing repetitions, lack of ingenuity, and the lack of the human touch. But it will lay the red carpet at the feet of the Type 3 Architect, who is able to:
- Unlearn: Redefine their mindset, remove the mindset of the threat of AI to the architecture world, and embrace it. They are easy to teach.
- Relearn: Go back to the basics of who the architect is. They relearn the standard they must uphold and leverage advancements and developments to help them achieve this. They are resilient in their creative processes, cutting time in their systems by easily automating tasks, leaving them more time to think, create, and design.
- Learn: Grow, adapt, and move. These are the architects who will shape the new architectural world. They craft designs that shape their legacies.
The Path Forward
So the question is, are we going to sit back with our hands in our mouths and blame the world for no longer believing in us? Are we going to lament the loss of pride and the threat of irrelevance that the architectural world allegedly faces? Are we going to be the Type 1 and Type 2 architect, or are we going to look at traditions and unravel the principles, the purpose, and the processes behind them, then use them as a platform to cause a paradigm shift in the architectural world? Are we going to go back to our roots and review the past with a futuristic lens? Are we going to understand that the tech/AI is actually a result, in part, of our own creativity and innovation? Are we going to return to being the architect God created and showed us to be? Are we going to become the architect who sits at the helm of the creative realm and leverages all resources to design for man, his spirit, and his environment?
May we not watch as the world passes by till we become like the stars forgotten in the sands of time.
Till next time, Cheers.
References:
Achebe, C. (1958). Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann.
Aradeon, D. (2000). Architecture as a Spiritual Practice. Lagos: Adebayo Press.
Harris, M. (1996). Imhotep: The World’s First Architect. Cairo: Pyramid Publishers.
Hughes, R. (2020). The Rise of AI in Architecture. Journal of Modern Design, 12(3), pp. 45-56. Available from: www.journalofmoderndesign.com/ai_architecture [Accessed 28 April 2025].
Jones, F. (2018). Designing the Future: AI and Architecture. Architectural Review, 56(2), pp. 32-40.
Miller, P. (2019). The Impact of Technology on Architecture. Building Futures, 17(4), pp. 101-112.
Williams, A. (2022). The Future of Design: Tech in Architecture. Journal of Architecture and Technology, 33
