“Generate a floor plan for an organic shaped building. Create floor plans for the building with dimensions and elevations. Create renderings for the building as well. Create this building with organic shapes in mind, but also incorporate modern features. Incorporate large curtain walls and open spaces.”
As a full-time student at the University of Oklahoma, I am currently studying Architecture and plan to peruse a 5-year program. My heart has been with architecture since my freshman year of high school, and it was one of the only career pathways I could genuinely see myself succeeding in in the future.
Although I am studying and learning how to draw floor plans, draw buildings in perspective, and many more architectural techniques in my architecture classes, I have wondered how technology such as Generative AI could affect the industry.
Upon finding several image generation software, I stumbled upon Midjourney (which unfortunately I was not able to test out due to an expensive subscription) and ChatGPT, I found out that there are already companies such as Autodesk supporting these Generative AIs.
How generative AI for architecture is transforming design (autodesk.com)
Inserted above is an article about how Midjourney has affected the architectural community, while also explaining some of the pros to using it in the professional industry. It made me wonder about how if generative artificial intelligence improves and becomes more popular in the industry, will the original way that architecture is taught in school be forgotten?
I believe so.
Although the innovation and improvement of these generative AIs are a huge technological advancement that serves many positive purposes, I am left to wonder if relying too much on the new technology will result in us forgetting our old ways of sketching and drafting plans by hand. The work done with pen and paper will never compete with a robot, in my opinion. Although these AIs make it easy to draft a plan and render an image of a building, the time an architect spends drawing floor plans, elevations, sections, site plans, and more allow for the architect to understand his or her work more.
For the safety of the general public, as architects and aspiring architects we must fully understand the function and stability and overall composition of the building we design before we share it with the world. If we cannot understand out work in full, it would be more likely for a flaw in the project to be overlooked, resulting in a flaw in the actual building the public uses. The usage of Generative AI to construct a building not only stripes our understanding of future budlings to be built, but also buts the users of that building at risk because of our laziness to generate a mere image.
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