Immeasurably Important: Artificial intelligence and the soft values of architecture
19 July 2024 - 1 September 2024
The exhibition Immeasurably Important by architecture firm TANGRAM explores the possibilities and limitations of AI in architecture. The firm advocates training AI not only with hard data, such as cost, square metres and building codes, but rather with soft values, such as social connection and historical awareness. The exhibition features realised works by TANGRAM and work by knowledge institutions, software giants, developers and builders demonstrating the state of the art in various fields.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is ubiquitous and has raised significant expectations, including in the field of architecture. Architects are already using AI tools for image generation and developing floor plans. Some train machine-learning models on images of their buildings, while others enhance their concepts with the help of AI. This technology distinguishes itself from traditional tools such as Revit or Photoshop by its potential to ‘think’ creatively. The firm TANGRAM utilizes AI tools such as ChatGPT, Xkool, and Midjourney for idea and image generation, but they do not yet consider their design process to be AI-driven. They think substantial development is still required to create structurally and integrally high-quality designs.
Hypothesis
AI models are trained on large amounts of data to recognize complex patterns, making them particularly useful for spatial design processes. However, this technology can only learn from the dataset it is trained on. Currently, these data describe primarily what we consider to be ‘hard values’ such as costs, square meters, building codes, and so forth. To enable such models to work with topics relevant for truly sustainable architecture, soft values such as social connection, intuitive readability, community spirit, and historical awareness must also be incorporated.
Mission
The mission of TANGRAM is to raise awareness of the current state of the technology, the risk of overlooking such soft values in the training of design-oriented machine-learning models and what needs to happen to elevate AI to that level, where it can truly add value to architectural design. As guardians of the human, soft side of architecture, architects must be involved in the development of AI to ensure that these systems learn the right values, to design human-centric and sustainable architecture. An example of this is the collaboration with the TU Delft and architecture master student Feras Alsagaff, who has attempted to quantify human perception of space for AI-driven design. The results are shown at the exhibition.
Exhibition
The exhibition Immeasurably Important will travel through the Netherlands until early 2025, and includes contributions from knowledge institutions such as TU Eindhoven , TU Delft and Academy of Architecture Amsterdam, software giants like Xkool and TYGRON accelerated simulations platform, and developers and builders Smits and de Nijs. Per theme, suggestions are made in a mini-cinema with an AI-configured 'avatar' on how we can better train the models and bring the two worlds together.