Studio BA6 (Huang)

AR-302(k) / 12 credits

Teacher: Huang Jeffrey

Language: English

Withdrawal: It is not allowed to withdraw from this subject after the registration deadline.

Remark: Inscription faite par la section

Summary

The studio examines the effects of artificial intelligence on architecture and cities. Generative tools are approached as cultural and political instruments, shaping design through data grounded in territory, economy, identity, imagery, and ecology.

Content

In the wake of rogue LLMs, autonomous agents, opaque algorithms, and AI slop, architectural tools are undergoing a profound reconfiguration. Generative design workflows and computational surrogates offer immense modeling power but also contribute to homogenization, "slopification," and erosion of critical authorship. The goals of the studio are threefold: (1) to critically explore the use of generative AI in architectural design, tracing its risks and potentials beyond aesthetic automation; (2) to invent new architectural typologies that counters the tendency toward isolated, opaque, extractive techno-capitalist systems; (3) to articulate a new architectural process and language for intelligence where form is shaped as much by functional demands, as by the need for commons, symbolic resonance, public trust, and poetry. This experimental studio will employ advanced digital tools and generative AI for "vibecoding" architecture. Experimental and remote LLMs and MCP agents will be introduced as exploratory digital modeling tools. A range of software, scripts, and plugins for mapping and open geodata analysis (e.g., Rhino & Grasshopper, QGIS), along with GenAI tools for representation (such as Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, and DALL-E), may act as co-design agents throughout the studio's successive phases. No prior programming or software knowledge is required, but curiosity and strong motivation to learn are essential.

Keywords

  • Architectural elements
  • New Typologies
  • Data-driven design
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Vibecoding
  • Urban Design

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

  • Critique a specific project brief and a specific context and respond with a meaningful data-driven design concept.
  • Translate an AI-driven design concept into meaningful architectural and/or urban propositions at appropriate scales and levels of granularity.
  • Produce coherent architectural representations and models at sufficient levels of detail.
  • Formulate Formulate the morphogenetic narrative and create convincing arguments for the design propositions.
  • Develop convincing final diagrams, drawings, renderings, simulations, physical and digital models.

Transversal skills

  • Collect data.
  • Design and present a poster.
  • Make an oral presentation.
  • Demonstrate the capacity for critical thinking
  • Demonstrate a capacity for creativity.

Teaching methods

  • Presentations
  • Mapping exercises
  • Hands-on design activities
  • Design reviews
  • Group projects.

 

Expected student activities

  • Architectural projects will be developed individually or in groups.
  • Some collective work may occur in the analysis stages.

Assessment methods

Grading will be based upon the quality of the projects in the preliminary stages, intermediary reviews, and in the final review. Projects will be assessed based on:

(1) their conceptual strength and innovation,

(2) the coherence and resolution of their architectural translation,

(3) their representative clarity and expressive power, and

(4) the persuasiveness of their communication, both orally, and through the physical and digital artifacts.

 

 

Supervision

Office hours Yes
Assistant.e.s Yes

Resources

Bibliography

On GANs, NLP and Architecture: Combining Human and Machine Intelligences for the Generation and Evaluation of Meaningful Designs, J Huang, M Johanes, F Kim, C Doumpioti, and C Holz. In Technology, Architecture + Design 5 (2): 207-24, 2021

Growth Typologies, Localities and Defamiliarisation: Experiments with Artificial Urbanism in Sichuan, Guangzhou and Beijing, J Huang. In: Archit. Design, 85: 70-75, 2015

Ressources en bibliothèque

Websites

In the programs

  • Semester: Spring
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Studio BA6 (Huang)
  • Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Project: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Type: mandatory
  • Semester: Spring
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Studio BA6 (Huang)
  • Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Project: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Type: mandatory
  • Semester: Spring
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Studio BA6 (Huang)
  • Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Project: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Type: optional
  • Semester: Spring
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Studio BA6 (Huang)
  • Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Project: 4 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
  • Type: mandatory

Reference week

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