Commercial architects often pride themselves on the creativity and artistic flair they use to turn glass, steel and concrete into functional works that inspire. Now one firm is seeing whether artificial intelligence can do the same — or better.
Hickok Cole, an architecture firm based in Washington, D.C., is exploring how — and whether — it should use artificial intelligence-enabled software to design buildings.
John Lynch, an architect at Hickok Cole, created a design for a 24-story mixed-use building on a hypothetical site in the nation's capital using ChatGPT and Midjourney, two applications that rely on artificial intelligence. Lynch’s design was not created for a client, but as a research project for Hickok Cole.
While Lynch liked the final product, he said the process was difficult and tedious because the programs kept misunderstanding his directions and creating errors that he had to fix. He chose D.C. for the research project because he thought AI might be a good solution for dense areas where commercial building heights are capped by law at 130 feet.
Some architecture firms have started using AI as technology advances have created the ability to convert written language into detailed designs. In addition to Hickok Cole, the firms Zaha Hadid Architects in London and 3XN in Copenhagen, Denmark, have publicly disclosed that they are using AI to create designs for specific projects and clients. Hickok Cole is only testing the use of AI and has not yet created a design for a client.
Some artificial intelligence software used for predicting certain events like weather and stock prices have been around for a while, James McPhillips, a technology industry attorney at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, told CoStar News. But programs like ChatGPT represent a new type of artificial intelligence: so-called generative AI.
“The new thing about ChatGPT and generative AI is that it creates novel and new content,” said McPhillips, who wasn’t involved in the Hickok Cole project.
Instead of merely predicting events, generative AI collects information from a wide range of sources and uses that data to produce new ideas, language and images, McPhillips said.
Since OpenAI’s chatbot launched in November, real estate professionals across the country have experimented with it to help with tasks like checking grammar or tweaking the tone of an email to a disgruntled client.
How It Works
Hickok Cole’s Lynch wrote specific instructions in ChatGPT for the features that he wanted to include in the building's design, he told CoStar News. The AI tools took that information and then essentially “crowdsourced the internet” for data about architectural designs to create the end product.
Lynch dealt with a trial-and-error process of correcting the program’s mistakes and refining the design of the residential, office and hotel tower with a green roof and swimming pool to make it closer to what he wanted it to be.
Because AI created the design based on information gleaned from other sources, it’s essential for an architect to confirm and fact-check that information, said Lynch, who works primarily on single-family and multifamily residential projects. His portfolio includes a luxury beach residence on Long Island in Amagansett, New York, and several multifamily developments in Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia.
There's another potential issue: ChatGPT's reliance on data from other sources could make it vulnerable to accusations of plagiarism and invasion of privacy. An unnamed group filed a class action lawsuit against ChatGPT creator OpenAI and its investors on June 28 alleging several violations of privacy acts and other complaints because of the program's method of gathering material, according to Bloomberg. The suit was filed in federal court in San Francisco, seeking $3 billion in potential damages.
But AI appears to be taking hold in the field of architecture. Other technology companies that make software for architects have already added AI functionality to some of their products, including Adobe Firefly and Autodesk Forma.
AI technology can help architects by automating the kind of time-consuming functions that would normally be performed manually, Lynch said.
But even when AI may be better suited to create designs in certain situations, the technology won’t replace human architects, Lynch said. Its best use may simply be to help architects generate ideas.
“We’re just trying to understand its potential benefit for our work,” Lynch said.