No Time to Think: A Theory about What Architects Do in the Age of Artificial Intelligence [AI]

History tells us that the nine-square grid did not ignite the education of an architect,1 blobitecture did not stifle it,2 and DIY software is not killing the profession.3 Instead, the duration of time allotted to aggregate knowledge and implement research in both learning and practice is under attack. At risk is the logic for how humans cede cognitive praxes to machines.4 In other words, for space thinkers and designers, the time to out-put results is vastly shrinking, challenging the ways we teach, learn, and gain the ability to apply innovative research outputs mindfully. Should having no time to evaluate and assimilate the particularities of our cognitive experiences in meaningful ways worry us? The answer is an emphatic Yes! At the crux of this response lies the claim that Artificial Intelligence [AI] and deep learning are singularly computational systems capable of evolutionary acts and random mutations that will continuously deliver optimal answers upon request. 5 How and in what ways has Architecture (AIA 2018) concede that design development, construction documents, and building construction are a mundane task, left for machines to execute in the absence of design innovators? If so, what are the tasks of architects, and how will innovation and creative-thinking continue to evolve beyond AI?

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Teach.2019.36

Volume Editors
Richard Blythe & Johan De Walsche

ISBN
978-1-944214-23-4