Generative AI and Architectural Object Generation

Abstract

The incorporation of generative artificial intelligence into the production practices of architectural objects represents a significant evolution in design. Challenging traditional design paradigms necessitates reassessment of the roles of technology and human agency in design processes. Examining this dynamic interaction through various philosophical and theoretical frameworks allows us to understand the potential impact of generative AI as an actor in architectural design on the production of objects in the field of architecture.  These changes in architectural design and representation processes require a redefinition of the traditional categories of objects and subjects in architecture as art forms. Here, an object can be a representation of the design or a physical architectural structure.  This study adopts the perspective of the new realist movement to redefine an object. New realism is based on an understanding of an object (non-human) as an agent rather than a passive construct.  This study aims to redefine the traditional object and its position in the production process.  For this definition, Bruno Latour's actor-agent and quasi-object in Actor-Network Theory (ANT), Michel Serres' quasi-object theory, Timothy Morton's concept of hyper-objects, which are gathered under the umbrella of new realism, are utilized and explained with the concept of genera-topia produced through these concepts. Going beyond humanist discourses, these concepts make it possible to reveal the hybrid and heterotopic structure and agency of spaces/relationships created by the contact between subject and object in the process of digital transformation, especially in the context of generative artificial intelligence.