Trialling AI Tools within Architectural Design Teaching

AI tools are evolving at an incredible pace with both immediate and future implications for both our teaching and professions overall. This academic year I began to include AI tools for image generation, currently the most widely and freely available of these tools, within architectural design teaching. Tools such as DALL-E and Midjourney are undeniably very powerful, but are just the start of a potentially huge shift in the ground of the discipline as 3D generative tools evolve. The aim of this first engagement was to firstly empower students in their use of these freely accessible tools. This was approached by building understanding of what these tools actually currently offer through contextualisation within the nature and role of design. We then began to test potential modes of deployment within the design process. This exploration aimed to identify how collaboration with these tools might support design development and learning as opposed to undermining it.

The session offers an overview of work with postgraduate spatial design students within architecture and urban design exploring the application of AI tools. The teaching settings included taught sessions for a design module within the MA Architectural and Urban Design Course, and an international workshop run with the University of Universities where our students collaborated with those from other Universities. In both cases the students were tasked to design within the context of evolving technologies such as AI and also engage with these in their design process.