LET’S DESIGN THE PROFESSION

There have been a spate of articles asking the question, will AI (Artificial Intelligence) make architects obsolete? Oliver Wainwright’s article in The Guardian is worth focusing on.  In the article, Wainwright interviews Ethan Mills, who says the following:

“What (architects) need to design right now is not another building, but the future of their profession.”  1.  

That’s a big statement.  And it is absolutely correct.  With increasingly automated software that can generate building geometries and handle production tasks, how will the human brain, the architect’s brain, integrate, or compete, with learned machines?   

Answer: go in the opposite direction.  

Do as much as you can analogue.  Draw with a pencil on a piece of paper, and show those drawings to your clients.  Construct chipboard concept models and show those to your clients. 

In my little design world, in which I am working mostly with existing structures in one way or another, clients are impressed that the drawings that I show to them are done by hand.  Other architects have commented to me that our construction of hand built models is rare, unique and distinctive.  Humans identify with objects made with human hands.

Other analogue industries which persist in the face of increasing automation include:
-Weaving:  multitudes have their own looms and weave their own fabric
-Boats: multiple firms will design and hand build a wood boat for you
-Furniture:  craftspeople will make anything you want
-Clothing:  the most expensive garments in the world are hand made
-Pottery:  there aren’t too many machine produced pieces in museums
-Music:  we still go to hear live music

With this, let’s design our profession.  

Architects produce drawings which describe how a building is going to work, feel, and be constructed.  There is a human connection in producing those drawings, analogue, with your hands. With care and attention, our buildings will prove to be unique.  Our clients will know that the knowledge of a human brain was primarily responsible.

Human to human connections are emotional.  This should not be taken lightly.  So, let’s generate designs using analogue tools.  That’s how we design our profession.

If you are in any way stuck, for starters, see a compendium of analogue modes in Transparent Drawing.  

1. Wainwright. 2023, August 7. It’s already way beyond what humans can do: will AI wipe out architects? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/aug/07/ai-architects-revolutionising-corbusier-architecture