Artificial Intelligence

When we think about artificial intelligence we usually think about robotics and the tech industry. But AI is taking over and all industries are taking advantage of this trend. Artificial intelligence is used in the architecture industry to generate ideas.

There’s a task that requires a lot of time and effort in the architecture industry: research. When designing projects, architects need to do research and test different designs. This takes hours of work for architects to find the right match. However, AI-assisted design gives you suggestions based on previously set data so you can spend less time on prototyping and doing research and more time on doing relevant tasks.

Machine Learning

Machine learning is a sub-discipline of artificial intelligence that refers to computers’ capability of learning new things without being programmed to do so. There’s no human intervention in this process. That’s why this is such a powerful technology for most industries.

Although it sounds like sci-fi, right now machine learning is something we use almost every day. When we use our mobile keyboard it usually learns from our writing habits. That’s why our keyboard becomes more accurate every time.

Now, due to the nature of this discipline, machine learning helps architects automate processes and make fast calculations. That’s why most architects are leveraging ML to create great projects.

An important figure of the architecture industry, Jim Stoddart says: “We can still leverage the things that humans are really good at—the human intelligence, the creativity—but then also leverage the machine intelligence, the specific capabilities for computers to solve problems really quickly.”

Robotics

Robotics is being used in construction in almost every step of the process. The reason for this is that many construction activities are repetitive and redundant. Therefore, robots look like a very good alternative for architects when it comes to physical work.

Robots can perform dangerous tasks that humans wouldn’t be able to perform. Besides, they can work 24/7 so construction companies can double their capacity by using robotics. However, robots are also being used on the initial site analysis. This is something that used to be a human’s task, but with the help of robots, it’s now more accurately done.

The term “robotics” is very broad so we cannot reduce the concept only to humanoid machines performing human tasks. In fact, most robots in the architecture industry don’t even look like humans. The most common version of robotics in architecture is cobots, which are robots that require partial human intervention.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

Virtual reality and augmented reality are widely used in most industries, but it’s usually used for entertainment purposes. However, other industries such as healthcare or architecture are using these trends to improve their processes.

When it comes to AR, it helps architects have a small preview or visualization of how the project would look like. This way, they can efficiently create strategies based on accurate information and it also helps them preview the limitations as well.

VR on the other hand, helps architects accurately understand the dimensions of the spatial relation and create better strategies. Architects get an immersive experience that helps them improve their creative process.