S24_IARD_4845_Omnibus Studio with Advanced Technologies by Jinoh Park

Omnibus Studio with Advanced Technologies

Clark, Gavin C

Clupka, Morgan A

Crofts, Nathan Crow, Amanda

Cully, Logan Brooke

Flores, Jampiere L

Gemmiti, Vincent Matthew

Harris, Jackson Raymond

Harris, Olivia Jane

Hopkins, Emma Jiang, Tao

Martin, Campbell L

Newberry, Mary F

Price, Abigail J

Sanchez Tenorio, Rodrigo

Smith, Madison Margaret

Witten, Emma Caroline

Zamorano, Israel E

Studio Description

The purpose of this studio is to provide students with the opportunity to experience advanced technologies in established interior architecture and design processes. The advanced technologies include AI, 3D printing, Generative Design, VR with Eye tracking, and (tentatively, purchase in progress) Neurofeedback with EEG. Four team projects and one review experience will be carried out by students in teams of four to five members. The studio will undoubtedly be challenging. Your challenge will, however, be rewarded as valuable portfolio.

Students

Clark, Gavin C Clupka, Morgan A Crofts, Nathan Crow, Amanda Cully, Logan Brooke Flores, Jampiere L Gemmiti, Vincent Matthew Harris, Jackson Raymond Harris, Olivia Jane Hopkins, Emma Jiang, Tao Martin, Campbell L Newberry, Mary F

Price, Abigail J Sanchez Tenorio, Rodrigo Smith, Madison Margaret Witten, Emma Caroline Zamorano, Israel E

NYC Tour Supporting Offices

AvroKo | Daniel Hong, Savanah Lee, and Vittoria Le Donne CIVILIAN projects | Nicko Elliott, Ksenia Kagner, Amy Larson, and Eli Liebenow

Stonehill Taylor | Adam Blatner, Sara Duffy, and Shannon Pioquinto Woods Bagot | Shanna Y. Chan, Jennifer Levy, Johnson Pun, Katy Mercer, Sergio Sandoval Berrocal, and Matt Stephenson

WORKac | Daniel Confroy

Workstead | Amy Bear and Maria Harmon

INSTRUCTOR

Jinoh Park

*. There is no restriction on academic use of the contents of this book.

*. The copyright of all design results contained in this book belongs to each (student) designer.

Clark, Gavin C 10 Clupka, Morgan A

16 Crofts, Nathan

20 Crow, Amanda

24 Cully, Logan Brooke 30 Flores, Jampiere L

34 Gemmiti, Vincent Matthew 40 Harris, Jackson Raymond

44 Harris, Olivia Jane 50 Hopkins, Emma

Jiang, Tao 58 Martin, Campbell L

Newberry, Mary F

Price, Abigail J

Sanchez Tenorio, Rodrigo

Smith, Madison Margaret

Witten, Emma Caroline

Zamorano, Israel E

AI Technology Exploration

At the beginning of the Spring 2024 semester, there was a workshop on the use of AI in Interior Architecture and Design. It was originally designed to allow students to explore how AI technology can be applied to the traditional design process they have been learning during the seven or nine semesters of the program. This workshop lasted one hour and was designed to provide participants with a hands-on experience with AI tools, including demonstrations and templates for their participation in the workshop. The above is the student outcomes from the workshop.

Students: Clark, Gavin C; Clupka, Morgan A; Crofts, Nathan; Crow, Amanda; Cully, Logan Brooke; Flores, Jampiere L; Gemmiti, Vincent Matthew; Harris, Jackson Raymond; Harris, Olivia Jane; Hopkins, Emma; Jiang, Tao; Martin, Campbell L; Newberry, Mary F; Price, Abigail J; Sanchez Tenorio, Rodrigo; Smith, Madison Margaret; Witten, Emma Caroline; and Zamorano, Israel E

1. Overall Sentiment:

- Positive: Most essays express a positive outlook on AI technology, considering it as a valuable tool to enhance and expedite the design process.

- Neutral: Some essays acknowledge limitations and challenges of AI but still see its potential benefits.

2. Application of AI in Design:

- Positive Applications: AI is viewed positively for generating design ideas, suggesting materials, aiding in concept development, and providing inspiration.

- Limitations: Some essays mention limitations in AI’s ability to create accurate final renderings, especially for complex or abstract designs. Post-processing is often required.

3. AI in Architecture and Interior Design:

- Usefulness: AI is seen as useful in generating concepts, renderings, and exploring material and color palettes.

- Specific Areas of Success: AI is reported to be more successful in rendering interior spaces than exterior perspectives. It is considered effective for conceptual design studies.

4. Educational Use of AI:

- Positive Impact: AI is acknowledged for its potential to revolutionize learning, personalize educational experiences, and provide real-time assistance.

5. Role of AI in Design Workflow:

- Early Phase: AI is often recommended for early phase design studies, quick iterations, and exploring ideas efficiently.

- Conceptual Design: AI is seen as a helpful tool in conceptual design, generating renders, and providing a variety of outcomes for consideration.

6. Potential Future Developments:

- Evolution of AI: Some essays discuss the current state of AI, with expectations that AI will become a staple in the architect’s repertoire of programs as more tools are developed.

7. Challenges and Adjustments:

- Learning Curve: Some essays mention a learning curve when adapting to AI technology, and adjustments may be needed in workflows.

- Post-Processing: Recognition of the need for post-processing in AI-generated images to achieve the desired outcome.

8. Visualization and Communication:

- Visualization Tool: AI is seen as a tool for visualizing creative ideas, exploring possibilities, and communicating design concepts more effectively.

9. AI in Different Design Phases:

- Schematic Phase: AI is often recommended for use in the schematic phase rather than for producing final images due to limitations in accuracy.

10. Incorporating AI into Career:

- Career Enhancement: Some essays express the intention to incorporate AI into interior design careers to enhance the creative process and offer innovative designs to clients.

11. Acknowledgment of AI Limitations:

- Recognizing Differences: Essays acknowledge the differences between AI-generated work and human-created work, with some aspects needing improvement.

12. Future Exploration and Experimentation:

- Experimentation: Designers express a willingness to experiment with AI and see how it can be incorporated into their design processes.

Overall, the essays reflect a positive attitude towards AI as a tool that can be beneficial in various aspects of the design process, while also recognizing the need for human input and post-processing to achieve the desired outcomes.

Clark, Gavin C

I want to be someone who can adapt and overcome any situation that I am put into. I believe that working hard will make you successful, and that perseverance can take me a long way. I enjoy problem solving and using my creativity skills to best find a solution to any situation. No matter the situation I want to persevere and get it done. This can happen better and more efficiently with others. I enjoy working with others to allow for multiple perspectives on things, and to gain critical input. I am honest in my work and am not afraid to give critical feedback to others when necessary. I want to remain humble and positive, knowing my place in the area that I work and giving others the benefit of the doubt. While working with others I seek recognition and a respectful relationship and give that in return. I try to be humorous and positive to everyone I meet to bring joy to myself and others around me.

#1 Ideation (Text to Image)

The building exudes an air of luxury with its blocky architecture, showcasing a combination of light wood and concrete. The use of these materials give the structure a modern yet warm appeal. There is a presence of greenery all around. Lush plants, trees, and bushes surround the building, providing a refreshing and serene environment.

Your Work with AI Exploration

I am relatively new to generative AI technology. I have used chat GPT to ask questions as well as mid journey to generate images from conceptual models. Using AI makes it seem like tasks can be done more efficiently and quickly. This will allow for more in depth exploration of projects in a shorter amounts of time. This will not happen over night; It will take time and manual effort to shift workflows towards utilizing AI. I do not believe that it is more difficult, I just may need time to adjust. AI generated images are not usually the final product. They need post processing and the final touch of a human. There is still a noticeable difference in AI generated work and human created work. I see AI at its current place as a tool to assist in the beginning stages of design, and with the more simple or tedious design tasks. I am excited to utilize AI technology and begin to learn how I can incorporate it into my designs, but also into my skill sets.

#2 Pictures 01

The building stands tall on the street corner, commanding attention from passersby. Its lower levels have lots of light to encourage movement inside. The architectural style of the building is voxel. The building has a changing presence of thin vertical louvers throughout its facade.

#2 Pictures 02

The architectural design consists of a voxel style building with light wood louvers as its primary façade element. The building is made of darker grey concrete and complimented by dark wood.

A towering and ominous hotel building with bright neon ights that illuminate the sign. After the sun has gone down to emphasize the lights.

#4 Material Boards

A material board featuring a combination of black and white stone and marble, complemented by lighter variations of wood.

An office building that exudes a vibrant atmosphere with Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) floors. The columns and beams in the building are constructed using steel, providing a robust structure. The windows are adorned with light metal louvers, allowing just the right amount of natural light to filter through. This is a busy and productive work environment.

An office building with cross-laminated timber (CLT) floors and ceilings providing a warm and natural atmosphere. The supporting structure is made from steel. As you walk through the building, you can see office desks cluttered with papers and ongoing projects, reflecting the busy and productive nature of the workplace.

Clupka, Morgan A

My friends and family often call me determined because I’m a hard-worker and I never give up. As a hard-worker I am also known to be reliable. I always work to do what I say I’m going to do. I enjoy learning new things and thinking deeply which leads me to the words insightful and open-minded. I like to think of myself as a genuine person because I am not afraid to say what I am thinking and be myself around others. I get that trait from my mom. I also get my practicality from my mom; she is an extreme realist. I enjoy helping others, I like to volunteer, make things for my friends, and help students as a TA. As someone who like to help others learn, I like to thing of my self as patient. I also often enjoy doing crafts that others say they would not have the patients for. Being considerate is very important to me, thinking about how actions effect others is an important trait I look for in friends. Finally, I am creative, I like to think I have a vast imagination that makes me a good designer.

#1 Ideation (Text to Image)

A library full of cooking supplies. The space is colorful and fun. It is inspired by a smoothie and blender. There is a grand spiral staircase. The building is industrial with brick walls.

Your Work with AI Exploration

I have applied AI to the traditional design process of steps of ideation, conceptual modeling and sketching, material selection and layout, and final perspectives. It was interesting to see what AI produced when I inserted my finished perspectives. I was easy for the AI to understand the space, but it was harder to get it to understand the materials and color in the space. Colors and materials were assigned randomly. This helped to expand my ideas for materials in the space. I had to mess with the text prompt quite a bit to get a product close to what I was looking for. I noticed that if I put too much detail, then the AI would get confused and delete elements or jumble it all up. I also messed around with the reference image percentages. It was better to have a lower reference percent for the sketch so that the AI could take the idea a little farther. I also messed around with the detail levels. I noticed that the faces and some objects were blurred in the standard detail. The higher detail added more things to the image and created a clearer image. Some post-production may be helpful. I think a better process would be to have the base interior elements in the image, no extra objects or people. Then in post processing you can add any extra people or objects needed. In general, I feel AI works better for producing ideas not necessary as a final image. There are too many glitches. I feel AI like this could be helpful with taking conceptual ideas farther to more realistic ideas. It can also be used to take an idea that is just words and create an image. These images can be helpful to show an idea to group members. I like the idea of using the AI to also help with exploring more dramatic materials and different material placements. It is easy for me to adapt to this new technology; it just took me a few tries at writing the prompts to figure out what the AI responded best to.

Conceptual model of a library filled with culinary items. This space is inspired by a smoothie. The colorful straws in the back represent colorful tubes like lava lamps.

#2 Pictures 02

This is a conceptual collage. For a library inspired by smoothies. The goal is cozy and colorful.

This is a sketch of a grand spiral staircase surrounded by curved shelves that have cooking equipment and cookbooks on them. The space is colorful and fun. It is inspired by smoothies.

#4 Material Boards

This is a material board inspired by smoothies. It is colorful with orange, pink, yellow, and blue glass tiles. There is ombre wallpaper. There is a black slate tile, white marble, and a wood plank.

This is a smoothie bar. The back wall is colorful translucent material. The space is light and bright with a reflective ceiling. The sign on the back wall says VORTEX. The tables are light wood.

Entrance to a culinary library that is inspired by smoothies and a blender. This space is colorful and fun. The building is industrial.

Crofts, Nathan

I am very self-determined with a passion and Idealism towards most of what I do including my work and projects. I am purposeful and responsible in what I do and would like to call myself reliable but there’s always room to improve. I hope to honor previous works and projects while having the courage and respect to build upon them taking what they were trying to do and elevate it. I am mostly diligent in how I work but more because of my obsession with whatever that is I might be doing.

#1 Ideation (Text to Image)

10 buildings based on honey Honey Hive Library: A library designed to resemble a giant honeycomb, with individual study pods shaped like honey cells. The interior could have warm, honey-colored lighting and honey-themed book displays.

Namul-inspired Outdoor Dining Area:

Design an outdoor dining area with a Namul-inspired theme. Use low seating arrangements and low tables, similar to traditional Korean dining style, and surround the area with Namul plants to create a serene and authentic dining experience.

Chocolate Spa: A wellness center where visitors can indulge in chocolate-infused treatments such as chocolate body wraps, chocolate facials, and chocolate massages. The building could have relaxing chocolate-themed lounges and a café serving chocolate-based drinks and desserts.

Your Work with AI Exploration

We are currently in the first true Artificial Intelligence Boom. Although we are far from artificial general intelligence there are a lot of tools that are coming out that are based off some form of a true artificial intelligence. As we are in this first boom, we are gaining a lot of insight and myths about artificial intelligence. Currently the more easily accessible form of AI is generative artificial intelligence through chat interfaces outputting text primary text and pictures. As AI gets more developed into more specific fields such as architecture, I see AI as a tool such as Rhino, Grasshopper, or Revit aiding in design but not formulating a design from concept, to studies, through irritation to final product. I think it can defiantly help some of the more mundane parts of architecture and can be combines with generative design to create something truly unique that wouldn’t normally be thought up of.

I believe AI is mostly used currently to touch up renders and or images, as well as help with concepts. I think generating concepts are better with AI, worst case scenario it is another source of ideas, but it might give back a wild response that carries though to the end of the project. Because of its back catalog of every single building it has been fed it can use those to come up with ideas that we could never and although most of them at this point would not become buildings we can take ideas from the images and work them into something that can be built. With renders AI can make a decent looking render from a 2d drawing, and it can add foliage and people pretty well as it can understand those simple ideas well. However, the control u loose compared to tweaking all the settings one has access in Lumion/Enscape/Blender or even Photoshop leaves some to be desired. As more and more tools are developed for spiffily architecture AI will become a staple in every architect repertoire of programs.

As for how I am using AI and have in past projects is mainly for quickly generating concepts, or render out perspectives with different materials, finishes, furnishings, etc. Which is how this exploration has been. I think this program has a far better understanding of some of the factors we would want to change than a Dall-e, midjourny, or Stable diffusion. In the past I have mainly used Dall-e to generate quick perspectives asking it to change materials of both a single building and seeing how it would look over a larger project. Some were in context of more ‘regular’ architecture and material use around to get a better feel of how this project would interreact at the city scale. Interiors were harder as it would change materials almost at random when asked to. I think Fabrie has a better understanding of materiality and how it acts and reacts in different settings, although Fabrie uses other programs API such as Stable Diffusion, ChatGPT, and ControlNet.

#2 Pictures

Realistic render with orange thermalized pine facade and dark grey standing seam metal roofs ONLY. Cobblestone pavement with green around the trees

#3 Sketch

render this with thermalized pine exterior standing seam metal roofs

Chat GPT given a picture of a model and told “Can you render this with a metal roof being the grey material and thermalized wood being the orange yellow material, and light blue being windows? Limit the windows to 3-4? it is 3 stories, SIP panel construction, single family ADU around 1000 square feet to be built in Arkansas.”

#4 Material Boards

Material board for an interior space based off of honey

Material board for an interior space based off of numel

Material board for an interior space based off of chocolate

#5 Perspective

Crow, Amanda

Throughout my life, I have shown bravery and individualism, specifically when I decided to come to Arkansas from Texas for my freshman year with no one from my high school. I consider myself to be a strong and dependable friend to my peers, always being there when they need me. Through my years of college, and my major change into the design program, I have learned to have integrity, determination, and restraint. My parents always taught me to live an altruistic lifestyle through volunteering and giving back to my society. No matter how hard life gets I will always admire the life of design. I would not be where I am without the continuous affection and support of my friends, family, peers, and professors.

#1 Ideation (Text to Image)

Homegrown Haven came to be through the personal emotional and physical journey through Heifer Ranch. The main emotions that came through our visits were: connection with nature, joy, and grounded, while at times lost, misplaced, and disconnected. Going through the original Heifer Hilton and show barn the interactive art that was painted along the walls made the connection of community and heifer stand out even more. While on-site the only space to hang out all together was a single pavilion with picnic tables or the cook shack, while nice spaces, not very exciting spaces. By using these emotions, the design for a community gathering space came to be. Using the original show barn structure as well as my new addition to the north side of the building, Homegrown Haven was created. A new space on the ranch for visitors, overnighters, and employees a space to connect, recharge, and learn. In the design you will see sustainable design aspects as well as educational pit stops that will hit all 5 senses, connecting the visitors to the education.

Your Work with AI Exploration

I intend to incorporate AI into my Interior design career to enhance my creative process by generating innovative ideas and concepts. By utilizing AI, I aim to break away from conventional norms and explore the vast realm of design possibilities. I intend to leverage AI technology to explore various design options and offer clients unique and innovative designs. Through my experience with AI, I have witnessed its ability to transform a chaotic collection of ideas into extraordinary designs.

#3 Sketch

Cully, Logan Brooke

I strive to live to my fullest potential by pursuing my passions with courage and confidence. I also aim to be selfless and thoughtful with my relationships and establish trust with others. I believe it is important to stay self-motivated and hold yourself and others to high standards. While accountability is important, I believe it is important to uphold it in a positive and uplifting way. I also believe in the importance of innovation and creativity and its ability to change lives.

#1 Ideation (Text to Image)

Your Work with AI Exploration

AI design technology is a vey useful tool and has great potential in speeding up and enriching the design process. By harnessing the capabilities of AI, it serves as a valuable tool in providing a solid foundation for conceptualizing new design ideas. The technology’s ability to analyze and produce vast types of images, drawings and renderings allows designers to look through a different design lense. Moving forward I plan to integrate AI design technology to help me earlier on in the design process and help me visualize different concepts and design methods. I think AI can aid me in designing in a more time efficient way and allow me to explore designs I would not have before.

Interior design, design studio, earthy tones, wooden furniture, plants, studio lighting, bright, open and lively

#2 Pictures 02

#3 Sketch 02

Flores, Jampiere L

I pride myself on believing I embody reliability and ambition. My diligence is evident in every endeavor I undertake, showcasing a work ethic that I use to try and set myself apart. Generosity and consideration define my interactions, as I consistently try to display a caring and giving nature. I always try to be truthful and honest that way my colleagues can depend on me. Despite my ambitious pursuits, I try to remain flexible, adapting to change with a respectful demeanor. Love and respect are to very important ideals that I try to pursue and keep to my nature every day.

Entering a Chicago skyscraper is like stepping into a world where architectural marvels blend seamlessly with captivating interiors. The lobby, adorned with sleek, modern designs and artistic elements, creates an immediate sense of sophistication. As you ascend through the building, the panoramic views of the city unfold, framed by expansive windows that showcase the dynamic urban landscape. The interior spaces, bathed in natural light, often feature a blend of contemporary furnishings and unique artwork, offering a harmonious mix of functionality and aesthetic appeal. The Chicago skyscraper interior, with its captivating design, becomes a testament to the city’s architectural prowess and a visual treat for anyone fortunate enough to experience it.

Your Work with AI Exploration

AI technology can revolutionize learning by personalizing educational experiences, fixating content, and expediting the process to accommodate individual students’ needs. Through adaptive learning algorithms, AI can analyze students’ strengths and weaknesses, offering very precise and also giving additional resources for improvement. Digital tutorials based on and powered by AI can provide real-time assistance, creating a supportive learning environment outside traditional classroom hours. Additionally, AI enables the creation of immersive simulations and interactive content, it can also enhance engagement and understanding across a wide range of subjects. Ultimately AI technology is a very useful tool that can not only show us how innovative it can be but can also shows how we can accelerate the process.

A physical model holds paramount importance for architecture students as it serves as a tangible representation of their design concepts, providing a three-dimensional realization of abstract ideas. This hands-on approach allows students to explore spatial relationships, proportions, and design nuances that may be challenging to grasp through digital simulations alone. Ultimately, physical models serve as a crucial tool in the learning process, fostering a deeper understanding of architectural principles and enhancing the students’ ability to communicate and refine their design visions.

#3 Sketch

In the bustling atmosphere of a New York office space, the chair plays a pivotal role in balancing functionality and modern design. The ergonomic chair, carefully selected for comfort during long work hours, seamlessly integrates into the dynamic workspace, promoting productivity and well-being. Its sleek and contemporary aesthetic not only complements the office decor but also reflects the city’s fast-paced and forward-thinking professional environment.

An exotic material board serves as a captivating visual compilation, showcasing a diverse array of unique and rare materials for interior design projects. From luxurious marble with intricate veining to rare woods with distinctive grains, the board becomes a tactile and visual feast, inspiring creativity and adding a touch of opulence. Each carefully selected material, whether it be iridescent metals or vibrant textiles, contributes to an atmosphere of exclusivity, transforming spaces into bespoke havens that reflect the allure of the exotic.

A Los Angeles office building captivates with its architectural allure, embodying the city’s unique blend of innovation and laid-back sophistication. The exterior often features sleek lines and modern facades, while expansive glass windows invite abundant natural light, offering panoramic views of the iconic Los Angeles skyline. The interior spaces showcase a harmonious fusion of contemporary design and creative work environments, creating a dynamic atmosphere that resonates with the city’s vibrant energy. From rooftop terraces to collaborative spaces adorned with local art, a Los Angeles office building captivates not only as a workspace but as a reflection of the city’s diverse and inspiring spirit.

#4 Material Board

#5 Perspective

Gemmiti, Vincent Matthew

To me personally, Honesty and Trust are two of the best traits a person can have. Not only honesty and trust in others, but also in oneself, to be honest and trusting that they will do the right thing when it’s needed, such as making sure one gets enough to eat today or to not skip out on something because their brain told them it would be better by not doing it. Pretty close after that would be the ability to be personable, and to be able to connect with others, not as superiors or inferiors, but as human beings, and to realize effort and productivity goes into things on all fronts, but maybe not up to one’s expectations if they are wildly out of reach. If I were in a position such as that, expected superiority, I would be patient with someone and personable with them, being able to be contacted in any manner and not giving any different reaction or response. Having a response which is similar no matter the manner is another reason I value consistency in people so highly as well. The meaning of consistency has a far greater value in people than many would like to think, in my own opinion. Being creative and iconic also are important to be able to stand out from a crowd and to be recognizable and memorable.

Your Work with AI Exploration

Artificial Intelligence as a tool has become an increasingly popular option among designers, using it to help touch up perspectives or images, or perhaps to even gain a completely new aesthetic for that image or drawing, so that they may work towards a drawing with any given style or theme hat may have spurred from an idea or render proposed with AI. Similarly, that is how I wish to use AI, as an aid to further improve and clarify and unite my work and drawings in a set to promote better and more appealing design.

I think, however, it could be very interesting to see the results of a project and its constituent drawings realized all from AI, including the styles and cohesion of a board produced for it, as well as how much generative design comes out of it. I do not believe I would ever get to that level of AI usage, nor do I think I would really want to get to that level, where I would much rather myself doing most of the work, at least in the DD or SD phases. How much use AI is in the CD phase is minimal, in my opinion. If I am wrong, I would very much like to see the amount of work AI could help with and provide during this Phase, but I do wholeheartedly think most of CD’s is human designer work.

#2 Pictures 02

#3 Sketch

Harris, Jackson Raymond

Some of the most important character traits I believe a person can exhibit and I try to possess are consideration and compassion. By being considerate of others, we nurture a kindness for others and a personality of friendliness. It starts with being considerate, thinking of others, and bearing in mind feelings and concerns of others when making decisions. Another important character trait is generosity. Generosity I previously have defined as giving without the expectation of acknowledgement or something in return; it comes from the goodness of people’s hearts. Generosity is being friendly, helpful, good, and willing to see the good in people and things. Consistently helping people makes you reliable – meaning people can depend on you and trust you. Consistency is continuous action. Trust is a fragile and vital trait for real relationships. It takes time to establish a connection with people and even more time to establish trust. That’s why I have patience as another key word in this essay and important attribute in people. Patience is the capacity for a person to accept or tolerate delay, trouble and suffering. It is letting things come to fruition, not jumping in, rushing into a decision. Patience is waiting until the time is right. Determination is following through to accomplish a goal and is one’s firmness of purpose. Fortuitous means happening by accident or chance rather than by design. A better word may be serendipitous – occurring or discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way. Like Bob Ross preached in his painting tutorials and workshops, there are no mistakes, just happy accidents. Imagination stems from creativity and the ability to think – important things for a designer to possess.

Create a captivating architectural rendering of a modern living room that seamlessly blends contemporary design with comfort. Emphasize natural light, sleek furniture, and a harmonious color palette. Showcase attention to detail in textures, such as luxurious fabrics and polished surfaces. Incorporate elements of sophistication and functionality, while maintaining a warm and inviting atmosphere. Consider the placement of art pieces, lighting fixtures, and foliage to enhance the overall aesthetic. Your rendering should evoke a sense of modern elegance and serve as an inspiring representation of a stylish and comfortable living space.

Your Work with AI Exploration

I can see AI being used within my current workflow as a method in conceptual design. Using it to quickly create renders and easily vary the outcome. It’s a way to quickly test an idea without having to spend unnecessary hours on an idea that doesn’t fit within what is desired. One thing I have noticed is the AI’s inability to be as detailed in its rendering as someone who might render and image from scratch and by hand. Now nothing is perfect, but this rendering software takes the image placed in it and skews some of the lines. The people it places are wisp and scratches of humanoid figures. I tell the AI the location of the project is LA and it surrounds the building with pools. Working with generative fill AI in photoshop and illustrator, I could also see AI having a deeper role in architectural design. Specifically, I could see myself using this AI (Fabrie) to create a rough rendering of an image and filter it through the program until a desired point is met. At this point it could be brought into photoshop to fix mistakes, clean up the drawing, and add entourage. With the still recent development of Generative Fill in Photoshop I have been able to create the renderings for a conceptual park project and, last semester, the renderings for my adaptive re-use art exhibition space.

#3 Sketch

#5 Perspective

Harris, Olivia Jane

I work very hard at things I am passionate about and strive to overachieve and be outstanding in my work. I try my best to be diligent and disciplined in my work effort, and to never slack off or put in less than my 100%. I hope to be respected by my piers in my abilities and be trusted and credible in the things I do and say. I am passionate about design in a multitude of fields, such as, architecture, fashion, and product design, therefore I try to grow my skills so that my design work is versatile and reaches beyond disciplines. Beyond my technical skills and work, humility and modesty are very important core values for me. I strive to remain humble even when I am succeeding. I believe my interpersonal relationships are equally as important as my work and outside of my professional aspirations I try my best to treat everyone with kindness and understanding and work to develop loving, meaningful relationships.

Your Work with AI Exploration

I can see AI being an efficient tool for early phase design studies, and as a way to make quick iterations for material and color palettes. I did find that the AI images were not very accurate and there were places where elements of the image would merge and be incomprehensible. I don’t think the technology is at the point to make accurate final renderings, especially if the design contains abstract geometry. The AI generations seemed to work better on a smaller scale, such as simple rooms, or furniture arrangements. I also found that the images generated more accurately when I input specific styles and referenced other architects. When I just input specific color palettes or material palettes the images became very distorted and unrealistic. However, I do believe many of the issues I encountered with the AI was due to the complex geometry of my project. When I experimented with some of my other projects that were less complex, I got better results. I look forward to implementing this technology in my workflow as a way to gain inspiration, and experiment with material and color palettes.

Interior of a library, wood floors, comfortable furniture, in a snowy landscape, people reading books, warm lighting.

#3 Sketches 01

#4 Material Board

Hopkins, Emma

In my life I am constantly trying to be mindful of the wonderful things I have. I always admire those who are accomplished but never forget to love and appreciate the things around them no matter how small. I try to have faith in the work that I’m doing, because I know my passion and determination towards creativity can take me far. Finding trust in others is especially important to me because with it comes reliability. And making genuine connections with the people around me brings a sense of harmony in my life.

Office, lobby, light, Scandinavian, natural, linear light, daylight, bright, Los Angeles, glass, screen with pattern, transparent, mural on wall, bookshelf, warm light, plants, mid century modern, stained glass, elegant, intricate, highly detailed, sharp focus, warm color.

Your Work with AI Exploration

AI is an efficient and useful design tool for designers. I used my traditional design method by starting with sketching and 3D modeling simple geometries in order to build the general space of the interior that I envisioned for the project. Generating AI images also has a fast-paced learning curve when first starting out. I found that the generating tool was most helpful for choosing a successful material palette for the project. However, post-production would be necessary when adding specific elements or scale figures into a perspective. Overall, adapting to this new practice is a smooth transition and incredibly productive. I look forward to implementing it into my own design process.

#3 Sketch

Twisting Ecosystems is an innovative office project in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. The design of the office aims to connect occupants with natural elements through the use of an extensive outdoor terrace, connection to the adjacent park, and a twisted form that removes the rigidity and stoic feel to the tower. and replaces it with more opportunities for light and greenery. There are twelve total floors with retail space occupying the first two levels in order to bring in foot traffic from the street. The exterior facade, made from perforated individual panels, eliminates harsh sunlight to maintain energy efficiency and rainwater is collected using cisterns that are then used to water the vegetation on site.

#5 Perspective

Jiang, Tao

There are core beliefs that make a person successful. Resolutions, Genuineness, and hard work allow a person to succeed despite unfortunate events or external factors. Within the core beliefs are the sub-genre that makes a person happy : trust and honesty. Having those qualities would allow someone to uphold their ideals. Resolutions to acquire happiness, such as relaxation and courage, will enable a person to achieve a state of mind that goes beyond the limits of success. Self-determinism is crucial in acquiring these traits or qualities, but it is essential to appreciate your qualities rather than compare them to others. Appreciation is vital to being happy with things you do, and gentleness is critical to bringing happiness/success to others. Those qualities allow a person to be successful rather than bring success to others.

This project seeks a harmonious balance between user demands and building requirements. By employing sustainable design principles, biophilic elements, and advanced technologies, we aim to create spaces that enhance user experiences while minimizing environmental impact. Our goal is to shape a future where buildings and users thrive in a symbiotic relationship, fostering a sustainable and enriching built environment.

Your Work with AI Exploration

I found the AI rending of stylistic rending isn’t great if there are too few details that are done for aesthetic reasoning; however, it offers more insight into how the AI views the drawing vs the designer’s intentions. I found that model pictures or rendering done with 3D objects works better for the AI to process, and anything with bases such as material board would be easier to generate. The AI needs a direct choice of wording to have better results. Of course the building would still look uncannying due to Ai inability to process things with a lot of detailing.

#3 Sketch

#4 Material Board

I ask the AI to generate an material Boards based off the rendering from the interior perspective.

#5 Perspective

Martin, Campbell L

In school I have always been very driven and always want my work to be the best it can be. Many people have pointed out that I can be a “perfectionist” with my work, which used to be more of a curse than a blessing. I have had to learn to not be too hard on myself and refrain from perfecting every little sketch or model I complete. Over time I have learned how to create quality work that I am proud of and shows my dedication I have to my work. Through school I have developed greater trust in others and their capabilities. I always try to be put in my best work, whether I am working individually or in collaboration with others. I always try to be a person that people would enjoy working with or just being around. Both in and out of school I am always conscious of those around me try to treat everyone with kindness. I feel that it is always important to be intentional with people and in your work to be successful.

#1 Ideation

Your Work with AI Exploration

I applied AI exploration through initial ideation, interior, and exterior perspectives. I was surprised how well the software recognized the interior spaces. I was able to specify materials I wanted for columns or trusses; however, the coloring or texture was not always consistent. The software was more successful rendering interior spaces versus the exterior perspectives. I did find the cladding and landscape options in the exterior perspectives to be relatively successful. I think that AI rendering software is great for inspiration of different materials and lighting options when used on perspectives. It can help run through multiple iterations so narrow down how you want your final design to look. I do not think that AI generated perspectives should be used as a final rendered image. I believe parts of each render could be used in a final representation after going through additional post-processing. AI is very powerful with running design possibilities, but it lacks the ability to completely understand a project fully to convey a design in the best way, as a designer can do.

Create a lobby to a sports and recreation facility. Include a main stairway, large windows, and seating.

#5 Perspective 01

#5 Perspective 02

The upstairs lobby of a sports and recreation center. The space has café seating and sofas and lounge chairs.

Interior lobby of a sports and recreation center. Seating area and welcome desk in the lobby.

Perspective

A building built on a hill. Metal facade and windows. Stone pathway with planters and seating.

Building built on a hill. Dense landscaping with walking paths and sports activities.

Newberry, Mary F

I’ve always thought it was incredibly important to be as genuine to your own nature as you can be. It’s easy to get caught up with day-to-day life and forget your passions and lose sight of your motivations. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do when I graduated college the first time with a BA and ended up working at a public library for a couple of years. It was a very peaceful time which required a lot of hard work, creativity, and empathy for the public we served. I think working there helped me figure out that interior design was the right path for me. I had enjoyed studying graphic design in the Art program, but it had never felt like quite the right fit. The library showed me that I need a human connection to feel truly fulfilled. Working with people requires you to be patient, thoughtful, and flexible, which are things I feel I am naturally inclined towards. I want to excel and live an outstanding and self-determined life, and my time working at the library helped me find a way to do that.

This gallery is located in the historic Soulard District of St. Louis, Missouri and housed in a Federal-period structure. The area has a rich architectural tradition and honoring it was a driving force behind the design. Rather than an exact reconstruction, the gallery is a comfortable space for modern sensibilities which utilizes historical elements. This was primarily achieved through the use of silhouette and a period-accurate palette. Ovals were a very common motif of the period and were utilized to create ceiling pieces for four of the five galleries. The space is extremely flexible due to the combination of moveable walls and the modular ceiling, which houses point lights. The space examines art history; It celebrates artists and art forms who/that have been marginalized throughout the history of this country and challenges viewers to reframe who they think of as fine artists. The galleries are chronological and offer visitors the ability to move from the Federal-period to present day. The final gallery on the second floor houses the most contemporary pieces and is the most modern space in the building

Your Work with AI Exploration

AI technology has a lot of potential as a tool to be used during the interior design process, especially during the schematic phases. It enables users to quickly ideate and brainstorm a wide range of design possibilities. I do not believe it poses a threat to designers, as the images produced from AI generators need post-production and are often not extremely accurate. While using AI to produce images based on previous projects, I found that the details are often incorrect. This is why I think it has so much more potential for a schematic tool rather than one to produce final images. Those details do not matter as much early on, and AI can help designers more clearly communicate their ideas with others by producing images such as diagrams and conceptual perspectives.

#3 Sketch

#5 Perspective

Price, Abigail J

I think it is important to always be respectful towards others, treating them how you would want to be treated; showing kindness in all that you do. A key to having relationships in my life is having trust in one another and understanding why someone may feel or act the way they do out of emotion. Having devotion, whether that be for someone or something, can be a primal part of the happiness in one’s life. I love to be creative in all aspects of my life and hard-working when it comes to my future. Being selfless and helping those less fortunate than us is something I strive to act on every day, as well as my actions always being genuine or sincere.

#1 Ideation

Thrive design will work to employ a sense of prosperity in a two-story space using nature, prioritizing coexistence within the community, and elements that will stimulate creativity. The hub is further connected to the Seaport District through a kaleidoscope of colors from Spanish Contemporary Artist, Okuda San Miguel, and his monumental sculptures lining Seaport Boulevard. In this office space one there are playful furnishings, natural materials, nested spaces, ambient lighting, and many vibrant colors.

The concept will come to fruition through incorporating textures, vibrant colors, and elements into the kitchen library. The space will have cooking utensils as inventory and the biophilic design will enhance creativity, as well as general wellbeing. Elements within this design will bring the outside in through the plentiful ambient lighting and plant-life.

Your Work with AI Exploration

In my exploration of working with AI in Fabrie, I truly enjoyed the process while noticing not only the positive effects, but negative ones as well. This AI tool helped me to expand my design thinking and even seeing concepts, materials, or installations that I thought of but was having difficulty bringing to fruition on my own. As unique and creative as these ideas may be, they are not as applicable and realistic as it appears; therefor this tool could be extremely helpful during schematic or concept development, but probably not towards the end as a finalizing tool. I was inspired and intrigued to see how AI would change or evolve a perspective and even bring my concept models to life. I think that this tool does not pose as a threat to designers in the future, but as a useful tool to expand our minds in the design realm. Especially as the future comes with technological advances, some of these things may very well be possible to design in a decade or two.

#2 Pictures 02

#4 Material Boards 02

Sanchez Tenorio, Rodrigo

As an architecture student at the university of Arkansas, there are challenges that I need to overcome. I have found useful be persistence in moments of adversity, be consistent and eventually become discipline. I consider that creating a space of respect where other opinions, thoughts are taken in consideration could potentially elevate imagination to solve problems e indecisions. The student must be brave and trust the progress. Finding a purpose is essential to create a sense of commitment. Personally, I believe if the previous mention strategies are taken in consideration would make the student capable and distinguished over the time.

X OFFICES is an ecological multi-story retail and office building in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles made from CLT and steel. The form of the building was designed to integrate ecosystem configurations including solar, water, and natural elements. Terraces and balconies are part of these configurations, and they also add to the experience of users by interacting with nature and being in connection with the city.

AI ideation. Downtown LA. Urban environment. (Day-Nighttime) Abstract office building, CLT and Steel, Sustainable design, seeking for good performance while reducing environmental impact.

Your Work with AI Exploration

The use of AI in architecture and interior design is useful for its algorithms that are used to generate design ideas. AI can help to choose materials; it suggests a variety of materials but not all materials meet the architectural requirements. The visualization AI creates are useful but are limited to styles or design schemes. When it comes to modern architecture or interior design is useful but for making exterior visualization and/or including abstract elements it’s quality decreases. Images resolution are limited to small sizes. Lastly, I think using AI for architecture shouldn’t be use for final products but as a tool to help the designer get to the final product. There are currently software that maintain the conventional tools but speeds up the process by using AI. The results are great in image size options and quality.

#3 Sketches 01

#4 Material Board

Smith, Madison Margaret

I pride myself on being reliable and taking responsibility for my actions, ensuring that I approach tasks and commitments with a dedicated and accountable mindset. My generosity and kind nature drive me to create a positive and inclusive environment, where I actively seek opportunities to contribute to the well-being of those around me. Embracing creativeness and dedication, I find joy in tackling challenges with innovative solutions and a persistent commitment to excellence. Skillful and self-determined, I approach my endeavors with precision, continuously striving to improve and achieve success. Lastly, my selfless and helpful nature guides my interactions, as I am always eager to support others and contribute to the collective growth and well-being of my community.

#1 Ideation

Located in the heart of Los Angeles, an office building that seamlessly blends modern aesthetics with industrial elements, featuring expansive glass walls that flood the space with abundant natural light. The open floor plan encourages a collaborative and dynamic work environment, enhanced by the use of natural materials that evoke warmth and elegance. A touch of vibrancy is added through carefully curated pops of color, creating an inviting and detailed atmosphere for a truly inspiring workspace.

Your Work with AI Exploration

Utilizing AI for renderings has proven to be both a simple and fascinating process, transforming static concepts into vivid, dynamic representations effortlessly. The ability to breathe life into renderings is a remarkable aspect of AI technology, providing a streamlined approach to visualizing ideas. However, my experience suggests that refining the description of the desired image is crucial to achieving the intended outcome. Despite using detailed descriptions and reference photos, the AI renderings did not align precisely with my expectations. Recognizing the need for improved clarity in articulating the visual elements and perhaps opting for a more minimalist approach with a focus on foundational elements, such as architecture and layout, might yield more accurate and satisfying results.

In future endeavors, I am inclined to experiment with a simplified base and limit contextual details, omitting people to refine the focus on architectural features. This adjustment aims to enhance the AI’s ability to interpret and translate the essential components of the rendering. Striving for precision in descriptions and adapting the approach based on the AI’s response can contribute to a more effective collaboration, ensuring that the generated renderings better align with the envisioned concepts and design objectives.

#5 Perspective 01 #4 Material Board

R3’s main relationships to the site are Pershing Square and the Los Angeles Metro. The ground floor, then, becomes about how to create amenities for both the Los Angeles public and the tenants of the building. The public and tenants have access to the coffee shop and restaurant on the ground floor, which turns into a food pantry on the weekend. Only the tenants of the building have access to the gym located on 6th floor. Office spaces consist of desking, meeting/conference, and socializing/ lounging areas, while also consisting of smaller floor amenities located on each office level. Daylight is controlled by the façade strategy. This strategy not only condenses glare and harsh daylight from entering the building, but it also represents the fast pace lifestyle of Los Angeles. Water and ecosystem strategies work together to provide daylight for native plants and work spaces located throughout the building.

Witten, Emma Caroline

My outgoing nature and adventurous spirit makes me a joy to be around, as I actively seek new experiences and embrace life with enthusiasm. In friendships, I demonstrate a deep sense of acknowledgement, always recognizing and appreciating the uniqueness of everyone. Accommodating by nature, I effortlessly make others feel comfortable and valued. The directness in my communication style ensures clarity and honesty, reflecting a fearlessness in expressing my thoughts and emotions. My fearless approach to life extends to my persistence in pursuing goals and overcoming challenges. In essence, I embody a harmonious blend of kindness, respect, friendship, outgoingness, adventure, acknowledgement, accommodation, directness, fearlessness, and persistence, creating a magnetic and uplifting presence in any social or personal context.

#1 Ideation

interior of a studio Ghibli inspired

make it have 2 stories and a spiral staircase with a bear in the kitchen.

Your Work with AI Exploration

Ai technology help me visualize creative ideas and understand what they could look like before the final production. AI creates new concepts for old ideas based on a few words and is easily interchangeable. It makes it possible to see multiple outcomes and different aesthetics for the same product. Using it in the future will produce more out of the box thinking and can assist in emerging concepts.

treehouse.

interior design of a studio Ghibli inspired ramen shop with ghosts eating lunch

interior design of a studio Ghibli inspired waterpark with people having fun

make this desk neon glow in the dark material

make this semi realistic with wes anderson style

#3 Sketch

make this desk neon glow in the dark material

change the background to new york city

Zamorano, Israel E

In embracing the complex tapestry of my identity, I find a profound sense of responsibility guiding my actions as I continue to learn every day. With a humble demeanor, I navigate life, recognizing the importance of empathy and understanding with my family and friends. An eccentric spirit fuels my creativity, allowing me to approach challenges with a unique perspective when I have a new project in studio. Grounded in the principle of self-determinism, I believe in shaping my own destiny through intentional choices and thoughtful decisions. A deep conviction in my beliefs propels me forward, infusing my endeavors with passion and purpose, and practicing my beliefs by attending church. Generosity is woven into the fabric of my character, as I strive to contribute positively to my peers and friends. Consistency serves as my compass, fostering stability in both personal and professional spheres where I practice building an agenda and schedule every week to help me complete all my tasks. As a visionary, I constantly seek to explore new horizons and innovate, driven by a desire to make a meaningful impact. Discipline forms the bedrock of my achievements, providing the structure necessary to turn dreams into reality; working hard always pays off. In the intricate dance of these qualities, I discover the harmonious symphony that defines my unique self.

#1 Ideation

In the heart of New York, an Eastern-inspired modern interior captivates with its harmonious blend of contemporary design and traditional Eastern elements. The space, located within the bustling cityscape, seamlessly marries the city’s vibrant energy with the serene and timeless beauty of Eastern architecture. Clean lines and minimalist aesthetics form the foundation, providing an open and uncluttered atmosphere. Neutral tones dominate the color palette, creating a tranquil backdrop reminiscent of traditional Eastern design. The strategic use of natural materials like bamboo, wood, and stone infuses the space with an organic warmth. Large windows allow the dynamic New York skyline to become an integral part of the interior, while traditional Eastern screens or dividers offer a sense of privacy and separation within the open layout. Thoughtfully selected Eastern art pieces and artifacts adorn the space, providing focal points that celebrate the rich cultural heritage. Innovative lighting fixtures, inspired by Eastern lanterns, cast a warm and inviting glow, enhancing the ambiance. This Eastern-inspired modern interior in New York serves as a sophisticated testament to the fusion of two worlds, creating a unique and captivating environment where East meets West in the heart of the city that never sleeps.

Your Work with AI Exploration

In leveraging AI Technology for architecture, my approach is rooted in enhancing the creative and technical aspects of the design process. It can help in picking out interior or exterior materials. The mood of the space, or what kind of context do you want in the background. Through text-based interactions, users can seek guidance on design principles, material choices, or even receive ideas for spatial layouts. Additionally, I can aid in generating written content for project presentations or descriptions accompanying architectural renders and photographs. The use of this AI is moderately responsive yet involves knowing how to utilize the collaborative tools for an easy workflow. This workflow is also heavily based on generative design, where I had to run different ideas for the final product. The tools on this website were a tremendous amount of help, in either deciding its interior, architecture, or a just a professional shot. During this exploration, I learned how you can use a lot of there tools to elevate a simple shot of a project as a designer.

A physical architecture model encapsulates the essence of contemporary design with its sleek simplicity, meticulous attention to detail, and innovative use of materials. Crafted with precision, the model showcases clean lines, accurate scale, and thoughtful integration of diverse materials such as acrylic, metal, and 3D-printed components. This expressive and sustainable model not only captures the architectural vision but also serves as a presentation-quality representation, embodying the sophistication and creativity inherent in modern architectural design.

#3 Sketch

The space exudes a harmonious balance, featuring clean lines and minimalist design that create an open and serene atmosphere. Neutral tones, reminiscent of traditional Eastern aesthetics, are complemented by strategic use of natural materials, and subtle accents like bamboo or silk textiles evoke a sense of tranquility. Thoughtfully incorporated Eastern elements, such as screens or intricate art pieces, coalesce with the city’s dynamic energy, resulting in a sophisticated fusion of East-meets-West within the vibrant urban landscape of New York.

Neutral tones, reminiscent of traditional Eastern aesthetics, re complemented by strategic use of natural materials, and subtle accents like bamboo or silk textiles evoke a sense of tranquility. Thoughtfully incorporated Eastern elements, such as screens or intricate art pieces, coalesce with the city’s dynamic energy, resulting in a sophisticated fusion of Eastmeets-West within the vibrant urban landscape of New York.

#5 Perspective

The art class interior is a vibrant and inspiring space where creativity flourishes. Sunlight streams through large windows, illuminating the room filled with olorful artworks and student projects adorning the walls. Easels, paint palettes, and various artistic tools are neatly arranged, inviting students to engage in diverse forms of expression. The atmosphere is dynamic yet focused, with workstations equipped for drawing, painting, and sculpting. A central display area showcases ongoing projects, fostering a sense of community and collaboration among aspiring artists. The art class interior exudes an eclectic charm, encouraging experimentation and the free flow of artistic ideas.

Phase #1

AI Integrated Design

Following the completion of the AI Image Generator workshop, students formed groups of four to five people and prepared two teams for the IDEC and IIDA contests, respectively. The participants solved the competition assignments using what they had learned over the past 3.5 to 4.5 years without regard to tool limitations. In accordance with the theme “Mind-Scape,” the IDEC competition teams designed “A Place of Restoration and Respite for College Students.” Team members of IIDA designed a new pediatric primary care clinic in Baltimore, Maryland. In the end, one team that participated in the IDEC student design competition received the Honorable Mention award.

IDEC Team #1: Price, Abigail J; Clark, Gavin C; Witten, Emma Caroline; and Zamorano, Israel E

IDEC Team #2: Clupka, Morgan A; Harris, Olivia Jane; Newberry, Mary F; and Smith, Madison Margaret (Honorable Mention)

IIDA Team #1: Crofts, Nathan; Crow, Amanda; Cully, Logan Brooke; Gemmiti, Vincent Matthew; and Jiang, Tao

IIDA Team #2: Sanchez Tenorio, Rodrigo; Flores, Jampiere L; Martin, Campbell L; Hopkins, Emma; and Harris, Jackson Raymond

DESIGN CONCEPT: The concept for this remodel of a relaxing and restorative space is centered around the principle of Biophilic Design. This aims to reconnect people with nature by integrating natural forms, materials, light, and other elements, fostering a healthier and more balanced space in the built environment. Natural forms are seen in the custom veroni perforated panel, built-in bookcase, and furniture selections. Sunlight is brought into the space by the full height glass door and circular windows providing a glimpse into the surrounding environment. The materiality works further to bring the outdoors in by implementing colors and textures derived from nature.

SECTION PERSPECTIVE

In a post pandemic world many college students find themselves struggling more with mental health and wellbeing. One out of eight people are considered neurodiverse but fewer than 50% know it. This design approach recognizes and values diversity of neurological abilities and considers the needs of people with conditions such as autism, adhd, dyslexia, others, through user centered approach, inclusive design, sensory conditions, flexibility and customization, and social inclusion. To accommodate for sensory conditions controlled lighting, noise reducing materials, and custom tactile design elements, such as the sliding Veroni perforated panel, are incorporated in the lounge. Students are able to connect with the surrounding environment through circular windows that are constructed to provide views and natural light from the outside.

Students who utilize this space will first be presented with an electronic drop off to encourage a work and tech free environment. Adjacent to the electronic drop off, students can grab coffee and snacks before heading into the lounge to relax. Inside the lounge, built-in bookcases provide individual or group entertainment such as magazines, books, board games, and puzzles.

Within Zenscape, users are provided with a variety of furnishings allowing for flexibility and personalization. The materiality of the furniture is derived from colors that influence mood and even have a physical impact. Brown is associated with safety and security, reminds us of nature, and makes you feel relaxed. Green is very calming, relieves stress, and creates a tranquil environment. Yellow and orange are known for relieving depression and anxiety while encouraging creativity and positive thinking. Zenscape is a respite and restorative space that combines biophilic design while engaging the senses to create an environment that is more inclusive and supportive for all students.

PERSPECTIVE IN LOUNGE AREA

YELLOW:

Promotes a sense of warmth and optimism, fostering a cheerful atmosphere in the relaxation room, encouraging feelings of joy and relaxation.

ORANGE:

Stimulates energy and enthusiasm, adding a vibrant touch to the recovery space, helping users feel invigorated and motivated during their relaxation sessions.

BROWN:

Reminiscent of earthy tones, instills a sense of stability and comfort, grounding users and creating a cozy ambiance for deep relaxation and recovery.

GREEN:

Associated with nature and tranquility, creates a calming environment, reducing stress and promoting a sense of balance and rejuvenation.

AXON ELEVATION

Scale: 1’- 0” = 1/4”

SITE PLAN

RENOVATED PLAN

Scale: 1’- 0” = 1/4”

IDEC Team #2: Clupka, Morgan A; Harris, Olivia Jane; Newberry, Mary F; and Smith, Madison Margaret (Honorable Mention)

NEST

DESIGN CONCEPT

The design concept for this mental health space draws inspiration from the growth rings found in tree trunks, symbolizing strength, resilience, and the cyclical nature of personal growth. The circular patterns of the rings are integrated into the architectural elements and interior design, creating a serene and contemplative environment. Natural materials, soothing colors, and ample greenery will be incorporated to evoke a connection with nature, promoting a calming atmosphere that supports mental wellbeing. This design concept seeks to provide a sanctuary for neurodivergent individuals, encouraging self-reflection, growth, and a positive sense of renewal within the comforting embrace of nature-inspired aesthetics.

system, it also helps to calm down our sensory system.

Touch: Natural surroundings can provide a sensory detox while also being restorative. Simply sitting outdoors and focusing on the sensations around you can help through connecting with nature. Engaging in tactile sensory experiences can stimulate the sense of touch and provide a calming and satisfying experience. Essential oils for autism, ADHD and other neurodivergence. (n.d.). https://www.baseformula.com/blog/essentialoils-for-neurodivergence Neff, M. A. (2024, January 13). Sensory soothers checklist. Insights of a Neurodivergent Clinician. https:// neurodivergentinsights.com/blog/sensory-calming-techniques Nadeem, S. (2024, January 19). Unlocking focus: How color palettes can help neurodivergent students thrive. Walturn. https://www.walturn.com/insights/unlocking-focus-how-color-palettes-can-help-neurodivergent-students-thrive Summa, M. (2016, August 19). The benefits of music for therapy and the neurodiverse. DIFFERENT BRAINS. https://differentbrains.org/the-benefits-of-music-for-therapy-neurodiverse/ Antonio. (2023, January 7). Panning music for neurodivergence music therapy for neurodiversity. therapist with poor boundaries. https://michigancrs.com/neurodiversity/music-for-neurodivergence/ Damian, T. (2021, December 8). Adelphi updates innovative sensory room for neurodivergent students for inperson fall semester. Adelphi University. https://www.adelphi.edu/news/adelphi-updates-innovative-sensory-roomfor-neurodivergent-students-for-in-person-fall-semester/ Well. (n.d.). Standard: Well V2. WELL Standard. https://v2.wellcertified.com/en/wellv2/mind/feature/7 Aybe. (2022, July 21). 31 evidence-based mindfulness strategies for Neurodivergents. https://www.aybeapp.com/ get-support/evidence-based-mindfulness-strategies-for-neurodivergents/ Kendra Cherry, Mse. (2022, November 29). Can color affect your mood and behavior?. Verywell Mind. https:// www.verywellmind.com/color-psychology-2795824#toc-color-psychology-as-therapy

CharmHealth Pediatric Clinic

The design concept for the pediatric health clinic in Baltimore draws inspiration from the serene and dynamic natural environment of the Chesapeake Bay, aiming to create an inviting and healing space for children and their families. By emphasizing the tranquility and vitality of marine life, the clinic’s design seeks to provide a holistic approach to healthcare that acknowledges the interconnectedness of well-being and nature.

IIDA Team #1: Crofts, Nathan; Crow, Amanda; Cully, Logan Brooke; Gemmiti, Vincent Matthew; and Jiang, Tao

CONCEPT DIAGRAM

IIDA Team #2: Sanchez Tenorio, Rodrigo; Flores, Jampiere L; Martin, Campbell L; Hopkins, Emma; and Harris, Jackson Raymond

Phase #2 Design Research

From February 13th to 17th, students went on a field trip to New York City after completing two to four weeks of competition work. As part of this field trip, 6 office tours were conducted better to understand the working environment and methods in use. During this field trip, we visited AvroKo, Stonehill Taylor, Workstead, Woods Bagot, WORKac, and CIVILIAN PROJECT. Additionally, each team had free time after the office tour. In this context, each team was tasked with analyzing the user experience of the Moxy Hotel, where we stayed in NYC and identifying the most impressive brands they encountered while visiting NYC. Below are the results of the students’ learning and use of Positioning Maps and SWOT Analyses that can be used from a business perspective.

Team #1: Price, Abigail J; Clupka, Morgan A; Cully, Logan Brooke; Sanchez Tenorio, Rodrigo; and Crofts, Nathan

Team #2: Clark, Gavin C; Harris, Olivia Jane; Jiang, Tao; Flores, Jampiere L; and Harris, Jackson Raymond

Team #3: Witten, Emma Caroline; Newberry, Mary F; Crow, Amanda; and Crow, Amanda

Team #4: Zamorano, Israel E; Smith, Madison Margaret; Gemmiti, Vincent Matthew; and Hopkins, Emma

NYC Tour Supporting Offices

AvroKo | Daniel Hong, Savanah Lee, and Vittoria Le Donne

CIVILIAN projects | Nicko Elliott, Ksenia Kagner, Amy Larson, and Eli Liebenow

Stonehill Taylor | Adam Blatner, Sara Duffy, and Shannon Pioquinto

Woods Bagot | Shanna Y. Chan, Jennifer Levy, Johnson Pun, Katy Mercer, Sergio Sandoval Berrocal, and Matt Stephenson

WORKac | Daniel Confroy

Workstead | Amy Bear and Maria Harmon

AvroKo

Stonehill Taylor

CIVILIAN projects

Workstead

Woods Bagot

WORKac

One of my favorite experiences was the subway. The mosaic art on the walls was unique to each station and gave creative life to the city. Fun performances also broke out in the subway.

nt visiting New York City for the first time, tried to hit as many classic landmarks as walked the Brooklyn Bridge through re at night, visited the Empire State nd viewed the Statue of Liberty from afar.

Moxy boldly breaks the rules of a conventional hotel stay – starting with check-in at the Bar. The animated brand combines stylish, industrial design and sociable service at an a ordable price point, so that guests can save on space and splurge on experiences. Created for the young at heart, Moxy celebrates nonconformity, open-mindedness, and originality above all.

for this new hotel room design aims to implement New York’s dynamic, diverse and creative experience by combining the atmosphere of Rudy’s bar and grill with Moxy’s existing core values. It seeks to merge the atmosoheric essence of Rudy’s Bar and Grill/ with Moxy’s foundational values, crafting an immersive experince for guest. Through a curated selection of materials adn design features, the room encapsulate the allure of a speakeasy-characterized by its use of dark, rich materials, strategic focal lighting and cleverly concealed details throughout the space.

•

Incorporate an eating area with folding chairs & a folding table. Include a mini-fridge for guest to store left over food. Consider murphy beds for maximized circulation space.

• Keep oating night stands with electrical outlets and charging ports underneath.

• Incorporate more shelving near bed for storage of personal items.

• Keep a personal task light at each bed.

• 60 hooks are included in the space for storage. Update these hooks as so are broken and falling o the wall. Include hangers to hang on

• An

Rudy’s, while classi ed as an upper-low-class dive bar, manages to encapsulate the vibrant, diverse, and creative spirit of New York. It embodies the quintessential “in-the-know” vibe prevalent in the city; where having the right connections or knowledge is key to accessing certain experiences. At Rudy’s, this concept manifests in a simple yet charming tradition: asking for a hot-dog grants you a complimentary one to enjoy alongside your drink.

Hotel

(noun): A brand of boutique hotels owned by Marriott International, characterized by stylish design, contemporary amenities, and a vibrant, playful atmosphere. Targeting a younger demographic, Moxy Hotels offer modern and affordable lodging experiences with a focus on social spaces and adventure.

“that

• The Moxy Hotel in Times Square stands out with competitive pricing, keeping quad room rates between $200 to $300, which is approximately 20-30% lower than the average quad room rates in Manhattan.

• With rates averaging around $280 per night for the quad bunk room, the Moxy Hotel remains highly competitive, offering an attractive option for budget-conscious travelers.

• Its strategic location in the heart of Times Square adds to its appeal, with approximately 90% of Manhattan's tourist attractions within walking distance.

• Compared to other hotels in the area, the Moxy Hotel in Times Square boasts a modern design and trendy ambiance, attracting a younger demographic of travelers.

• The hotel's innovative amenities, such as co-working spaces and unique dining options, set it apart, contributing to its reputation as a stylish yet affordable accommodation choice in Manhattan.

Paris Baquette

(noun): is a bakery café chain originating from South Korea, renowned for its extensive selection of pastries, cakes, bread, sandwiches, and beverages. The brand name reflects its French-inspired bakery concept. Paris Baguette establishments typically offer freshly baked goods in a modern café environment. With a global presence, Paris Baguette is esteemed for its high-quality baked products and casual dining atmosphere.

Most Requested Items

Why Paris Baguette?

• Diverse Menu: Paris Baguette has a diverse menu that includes not only pastries but also sandwiches, bread, cakes, and beverages. This variety ensures that there is something for everyone, whether they're looking for a quick snack or a full meal.

• Consistent Quality: Paris Baguette is known for its consistent quality across all of its locations. Customers can expect freshly baked goods made with high-quality ingredients every time they visit.

• Convenience: With multiple locations throughout New York City, Paris Baguette offers convenience for customers who may not want to travel far to satisfy their cravings for baked goods.

• Modern Atmosphere: Many Paris Baguette locations feature a modern and stylish atmosphere, making them a pleasant place to sit and enjoy a pastry or a cup of coffee.

Most Expensive Bakeries in Manhattan

ing atmosphere.

• Comfortable bedding: Invest in high-quality mattresses, plush pillows, and soft linens to ensure guests have a comfortable sleep experience.

• Cozy textiles: Incorporate soft textures such as throw blankets, area rugs, and upholstered furniture to add warmth and comfort to the space: a sense of touching a warm bread.

• Personal touches: Such as decorative accents, and locally inspired decor to create a sense of homeliness and connection to the destination.

• Functional layout: Maximize space and functionality, ensuring that guests have everything they need within easy reach, by having shelfs in between the bed area.

• Relaxing color palette: Choose soothing, neutral colors for the walls and furnishings to create a calming environment conducive to seating near warm baking oven during wintertimes.

The LEGO brand is a beloved cornerstone of childhood creativity, igniting the imaginations of children worldwide for generations. With its iconic plastic bricks, LEGO offers more than just a toy; it provides a platform for boundless exploration and innovation. Children can build anything they can dream of, from towering skyscrapers to fantastical creatures, fostering crucial skills like problem-solving, spatial awareness, and fine motor dexterity along the way. Beyond its bricks, LEGO encompasses a vibrant universe of characters and themes, from timeless classics like LEGO City and LEGO Star Wars to imaginative realms like LEGO Friends and LEGO Ninjago, ensuring there's something for every child's interests. With its emphasis on play, learning, and endless possibilities, LEGO continues to captivate and inspire young minds, making it a cherished brand in the hearts of kids worldwide.

When comparing LEGO to its competitors in terms of cost, LEGO often tends to be pricier. While there are alternative construction toy brands offering similar building experiences at lower prices, LEGO's higher cost is typically attributed to its premium quality, precise manufacturing, and extensive licensing agreements with popular franchises. Despite the initial investment, many argue that LEGO's durability and potential for value retention justify the higher price tag. However, for those seeking more budget-friendly options, there are alternatives available that provide similar creative experiences at a lower cost, albeit with potential compromises in quality and brand recognition. Ultimately, the choice between LEGO and its competitors depends on individual preferences and budget considerations.

Moxy Hotels is a Marriott based brand focused on creating personal and fun experiences in the location each Moxy is set in, promoting exploration and time spent outside the hotel. Subtle design tricks such as the lack of a true lobby, or small but smart rooms, induce the visitor to want to explore discover the city being traveled in. Another key pillar that Moxy Hotels employ is the independence of the traveler, believeing being in control and self-service is the best service. Moxy’s target audience is psychographic, not demographic--appealing to those young at heart, calling target guests “Fun Hunters,” or those who live in moment and don’t take themselves or life too seriously. Moxy as a branch of Marriott international boutique hotel, is an extremely pet friendly hotel, highlighted by the face that every Moxy propoerty is required to have a on-property rescue dog, Stella Mox, on its record of staff.

Twin Quad Floorplans

Phase #3 Hotel Room Design

Using the design research results from the previous stage, the next team members remodelled the quad-bunk bed room in the Moxy hotel where they stayed. Designing a hotel room was covered at this time at the practical level, and the students went through endless red lines to develop their designs.

Team #1: Clark, Gavin; Newberry, Mary; Gemmiti, Vincent; and Sanchez Tenorio, Rodrigo

Team #2: Witten, Emma Caroline; Smith, Madison Margaret; and Flores, Jampiere L

Team #3: Zamorano, Israel E; Clupka, Morgan A; Jiang, Tao; Martin, Campbell L; and Harris, Jackson Raymond

Team #4: Harris, Olivia Jane; Price, Abigail J; Crow, Amanda; Hopkins, Emma; and Crofts, Nathan

Concrete Garden

HOTELS

PROJECT STATEMENT:

The project at the Moxy Hotel in Times Square aims to reimagine a vibrant and dynamic design while maintaining the hotel’s energetic atmosphere. With a focus on attracting young adventurers, the redesign of the twin quad-bunk rooms addresses challenges like limited space and existing layouts, while integrating the Moxy brand identity and values.

CONCEPT STATEMENT:

BATHROOM AXON

BUILT IN AXON

F-108Existing

F-109Custom

Phase #4 Generative Design

Last but not least, students were introduced to three generative design tools: Architechture, Plan Finder, and Magnetizing Plan. There was only a brief introduction to using each tool by the instructor. He then encouraged the students to use their past work freely and explore other possibilities with each tool. The process may have led to new discoveries, but the students were able to move away from the fantasy of AI tools and begin to think about practical applications.

1. Comparisons:

- Utilizing a project from third year, an apartment complex located in the Mar Vista neighborhood in Los Angeles California, I was able to rapidly expand the apartment complex. At the early stages of this project, we were tasked with developing massing ideas for an apartment complex that takes over 20 housing lots of the neighborhood. Moving forward we only focused on a small scope, and developed 8 of the original lots. Without these new Ai tools this was a tedious task. Developing the original project, the apartment layout was difficult to cultivate manually, causing each unit to be developed separately. This was a problem that would not exist when using the program Architechtures due to the ability to set all of the parameters for the design and generate mass iterations of apartment complexes. Using only generic outlines from the project’s programmatic plans in Architechtures, I was able to generate and view various iterations of apartment layouts for the entire site, including the full 20 lots of the project. This program generates multiple floors that all correspond and can be manipulated however necessary to meet the needs of the project. This provides an amazing opportunity to generate a mass amount of plans and ideas following strict pre-determined guidelines, and adapt them further for project development.

- For these apartments, I opted for vertical cores featuring stairs leading directly to two apartments that shared a circulation lobby space, as opposed to double-loaded corridors connecting all units. The AI determined the unit totals and distribution, after which I decided on the number of rooms and bathrooms for each unit, as well as adding laundry rooms and closets. I manually adjusted halls and corridors to enhance circulation, aiming for a more open layout. While I kept the kitchens enclosed, they could easily be modified for a more open concept. Master bedrooms were designed to be at least 20 square meters, and I aimed to ensure bathroom accessibility from the hall rather than solely through the bedroom. In instances of one-bathroom units, I included a door for entry through the hall and another through the bedroom. However, compared to the original layouts, the AI accommodated significantly fewer units. For example, while the original plan included 48 units, the AI could only fit 24 units into building 5.

- Architectures feels like an alpha or beta ‘software.’ This ‘program’ is heavily limited by being a browser only ‘software,’ The GUI is unintuitive, there is no documentation, only some videos with limited knowledge. The GUI is very un-intuitive with most simple commands and keystrokes not working as intended. After sending the ‘building’ to the server the error message doesn’t show up and or it disappears making it super confusing to see what went wrong/if its still working/if it failed and has stopped working. The scroll wheel worked to move the sliders once and never again. It hides parameters randomly, severely limiting what can be done with this AI in this ‘software.’ The delete button doesn’t work half the time and the upload feature could have been done much better. The import feature is broken, it does not work as intended, it doesn’t grab closed polylines and create a building rectangle no matter how simple. The feature only ‘works’ half the time and the other half it puts the plot, building, and environment in 2 different places. It is hard to make the building outline. The building outline can’t be a complex shape, and that one simple shape isn’t even easily editable. Its snap features are weird at best, giving a glimpse of what I might want but then falling short and doing something else right at the end. The move line and points on the line are weird and un-initiative doing different things for random reasons I can’t seem to figure out. Some walls aren’t selectable by normal standard means making it really hard to delete some walls that really shouldn’t be there. The undo button/control z is super slow because it has to communicate with a server instead of having that one simple change locally. It makes it super laggy and hard to use quickly. It doesn’t understand a courtyard, and I have to do a lot of things manually making the AI ‘feature’ useless if I’m drawing everything manually anyways. There is no way to make a single story building which would have helped me get around some of this ‘program’s’ pitfalls. It doesn’t have a good drawing system like autocad, or revit. So it makes it really hard to do edits on the fly. This program at its best is the worst parts of Revit, limiting design by assuming a lot of things and not being able to change those assumptions/hard to change them and or look into all the variables to change things. This ‘program’ makes really simple buildings that any developer or civil engineer could make. Even as a stand alone application. I think they cheaped out on development (web app instead of local app) and or are piggybacking off of some AI online model and didn’t want to develop a DRM like system, or a system to keep their AI model to Themselves.

- Upon completing this assignment, I recognize the immense potential of this technology in shaping the future of design. Some benefits are quite apparent, with the most notable one being time savings. Understanding the substantial time investment required for designing a complete apartment complex, the ability to utilize Al-generated ideas to kick-start the process is invaluable. Additionally, this software offers designers insights into more creative design avenues based on specific parameters such as building function, site constraints, goals, room numbers, and sustainability factors. This functionality not only ensures visually appealing designs but also promotes environmental consciousness and forward-looking solutions. Moreover, the software’s urban planning capabilities are particularly advantageous. It emphasizes the creation of inclusive, livable, and resilient urban environments. This empowers urban planners and designers to enhance community well-being, foster connectivity, integrate green spaces, and ensure equitable access to amenities.

- When using ARCHITECHTURES.COM, a key emphasis the website draws and the maximization of space and how properly to utilize it. Through analysis, a very important thing when decision making was to help create an efficiently approved space that no longer had orange or red zones within it. Closet and kitchen space felt too cluttered and undersized, so the approach was to make it more spacious in an effort to decompress the unit. Some bedroom spaces felt the same way as well so the same efforts were used to help give them more space.

- Architechtures is a AI design tool, meant to help coordinate and draw floor plan layouts of large sized spaces, to help break them down and draw plans for specific units, with its main use being for residential, both single family and multi family. While the plan that it generates encompasses a large floor plan, the plans it makes are just empty spaces, so without graphics being

employed to give a sense of scale, such as furniture or humans, it can be hard to get a good representation of the space. The generation of the space is another issue. The user interface can be daunting and unintuitive and the inner workings of the program can be unintelligent as well. The program being a browser-based software should help the program run in its caches and help with remembering history, which even still it can have an issue with. The steps one must take to be able to actually use the generative abilities of Architechtures is also preposterous. There is an ability to import .dwg/.dxf file types, and to separate layers into site, buildings, basement, and environment layers, with one reference layer. This however does not correlate at all to how you generate the floor plan, as instead of importing the file and selecting the layers to use to generate, you must recreate your layer you wish to generate for it to actually have the ability to produce a result. Having the ability to produce a result does not guarantee a result, however. This issue is also poorly received as there seems to be hidden size requirements that are not shown, especially for the scale of the buildings it seems to work with, despite being able to fully recreate the layer. The creation of the new layer to generate is the last major issue, and perhaps the most jarring. Not only, must you recreate the whole layer to be used for generation if that is what you wish, but you cannot select spaces. You must draw them in following vector linework, and only straight lines. The snapping of the control points works only when convenient and is otherwise a pain, the limit of shapes and profiles you can make is horrendous, and to make a space you only need a line and a width, generating only simple space that can be constructed from rectangular shapes. There is a possibility to make less simple shapes and introducing angles, however this “complex geometry” I speak of is only a bent bar typology. The creating of spaces for generation is an abomination. The interface leaves much to be desired. The only somewhat redeeming quality is the ability to make a large number of spaces in a fairly decent time duration and having a quick calculation of the cost of materials and construction.

- Architechtures is an architecture program for the design of an apartment complex floor plans and basic models.Using artificial intelligence, apartment unit plans can be created quickly and easily by the click of a button. The website offers a plethora of variables based on regulations, adjacencies, unit dimensions, and details such as stair height and number of steps per floor that quickly and efficiently change the design of the complex. The website generates various layouts and optimizes them based on the variables set. For this project I imported the linework for my Mar Vista project - an ampartment complex situated in a housing tract in Los Angeles. The linear bars are tilted diagonally from the houses in the surrounding neighborhood. Remaking the units in the program was easy; drawing lines and setting parameters. The building of interest for this test is building 2 of 7. The apartment units created are not ideal and feature rooms that are not to the standards set by the parameters, highlighted by the orange, red, and blue colors. Green means they fit within a range around the desired parameter. Blue indicates rooms that are much larger than the input. Orange means a room is slightly smaller and red means one is a lot smaller. These colors are seen in the image on the left. The floor plans for these apartment units were altered through the manual adjustment mode that allows greater customization of the layout. Walls were pulled, divisions were made, and doors were added to uncomfortable and undesired spaces to ensure all spaces were “green” - that they fit within a close range of the inputted variable. The smaller two images are close-up images of apartment 5 before and after the manual changes were made.

- The Organic Community apartment complex is located in Mar Vista, California, and is designed to accommodate for elderly and supportive housing. With this client base in mind I found that one and two bedroom units were most reasonable to accommodate for demographics such as: Elderly individuals living alone, or a parent and child. I decided to use a single-loaded corridor system on all of the buildings to create connection and circulation around the courtyard. The proposed design using Architechtures explores the aggregation of one, two, and three bedroom apartments. These unit types are separated between buildings. Two of the buildings serve single bedroom apartments, while the other two serve two and three bedroom units. Using Architechtures I decided to expand upon my original design by providing a three bedroom apartment to accommodate for a wider variety of living situations. By separating the unit types by buildings, individuals are more closely surrounded by other people within their demographic, encouraging a sense of community and mutual support.

- The design of the apartment complex with the help of Architechtures took a different design approach than the original South Yard Lofts. The complex primarily holds studio-2 bedroom apartments and maintains more intimate spaces within them than the existing apartments. For example, the kitchen spaces are closed off from the rest of the living/dining room areas rather than having an open concept layout. The new design doesn’t incorporate the use of the loft. All of the bedrooms are closed and there are only single-story units throughout.

- This study explores apartment complex near Bentonville, Arkansas. During the research regarding the exploration of the plan and 3d model, the ai was quickly able to produce both in mere secs offering ability to changing the layout. The original South Yard Loft Apartments have studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom layouts, and many of these options have additional loft space. The unit layouts generated with Architectures generated primarily two-bedroom options, second with some studio layouts, and only one one-bedroom layout.

- The Architechtures iteration primarily generated 2-bedroom units, when the original plan had far less 2-bedrooms than 1-bedrooms and studios. It also only generated one staircase rather than the two which were present in the original. The layout of the South Yard Lofts in Fayetteville, Arkansas had a variety of floor plans, mostly with an open plan. During my explorations in the generative design tool, Architechture, I used the generator to explore the most efficient use of space according to the tool in comparison to the previous floor plans. Adjusting walls to achieve certain guidelines, indicated by the green circles on the plan, this was the final outcome of the re-planned South Yard Loft building using the site, Architechture. Architectures is an online tool crafted to streamline development processes through the integration of AI systems. It focuses on residential design; it allows users to effortlessly create multi-story buildings within minutes. I was intrigued by its intuitive interface, allowing users to simply sketch a single line to initiate a project. The program’s versatility shines through its numerous iterations, which enable users to fine-tune their designs by adjusting various parameters such as room types and sizes One notable feature is its seamless generation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) data, aligning with the initial plans. This BIM

data can be exported to conventional architecture software like AutoCAD or Rhino, and subsequently to BIM platforms like Revit. By utilizing BIM, the model not only embodies architectural elements but also incorporates essential information regarding area and pricing.

- In the first image with green, red, and orange circles, the presence of red and orange circles indicates areas within the units where space is insufficient and not considered comfortable. This suggests that certain aspects of the floor plan may need adjustments, such as moving walls or reconfiguring layouts, to improve spatial efficiency and comfort. On the other hand, in the second image where all circles are green, it signifies that the floor plan has been successfully optimized to maximize space and comfort. By making adjustments such as relocating walls, resizing rooms, or altering layouts, the architect has achieved a design where all areas of the units meet the criteria for comfort and efficiency, as indicated by the absence of red or orange circles. Overall, the comparison between the two images highlights the importance of careful planning and design optimization in creating apartment complexes that provide comfortable living spaces while maximizing spatial efficiency.

- The South Yard Lofts offer typical floor plans with a variety of layouts including studios, on beds, two beds, and also some lofts. The floor plans I designed with Architectures ranged from Studio to 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. I focused on having a spacious kitchen and living area. The kitchens were based on a horizontal layout similar to what South Yard Lofts already had in some of their floor plans. Having 2 bathrooms in floor plans with more than 1 bedroom felt necessary to provide each tenant with their personal space. The software automatically generated corridors and hallways in some areas where it was not necessary or too small so I had to manually change some of the apartment floor plans to fix that issue.

- In exploring AI in generative design for a residential project opens up exciting possibilities for designers. Architechtures uses AI to quickly come up with many different floor plan options based on specific requirements like size, budget, and style preferences. One great thing about generative design is how fast it can generate and change floor plans. Architects can try out lots of different layouts and room sizes, and the AI will create new designs each time they make a change. This flexibility lets architects fine-tune the design to fit exactly what the client wants. Generative design also helps architects make sure their designs are efficient and practical. They can set goals like making sure rooms have enough natural light or are energy-efficient, and the AI will come up with designs that meet those goals while still looking good. Other edits were to have minimal red and yellow circles that define area and zoning, and turning them into green circles.

2. Essays:

- This generative technology will help to increase productivity. Being able to generate numerous design ideas and iterations in seconds will allow for rapid development of projects and initial ideas. As Ai continues to develop and get “smarter”, projects will also be able to be completed with greater optimization of whatever field is necessary. Paired with other programs such as the Magnetzing script, architecture project could begin from a simple shape in the design phase, and within little time, have many iterations of potential projects in almost full detail.

- This AI technology, Architectures, is ideal for swiftly generating floor plans, especially if you already have a detailed program in mind. It’s important to know the desired square footage for each program and the desired adjacencies before utilizing this technology. While it was useful in creating a floor plan, I found myself needing to make numerous manual adjustments to achieve a layout that met my standards. One notable inconvenience was the inability to copy changes from one floor to another, requiring repetitive modifications for each level. Additionally, transitioning from manual to automatic mode resulted in the loss of manual changes, which was frustrating. Despite these drawbacks, I would still consider using this technology for large-scale projects that require rapid space planning, such as our 2nd-year project involving the transformation of two large, multi-story buildings into an aging-in-place community with very specific program requirements. However, for smaller projects, the extensive manual adjustments may render this software less practical. One beneficial feature is the ability to customize room sizes, although the measurement in meters can pose challenges for visualization. An additional positive element of this technology is cost estimation, this could prove to be useful in a professional setting.

- Bad GUI, simple fix. It has the solution right above it… this feels like an Alpha or Beta. Very unpolished. This ‘program’ assumes a lot of things and can’t do more ‘complex’ geometry. It also didn’t understand a courtyard and had a lot of stuff done manually. Not having the cores on the outsides are also kinda annoying as that was the main part of the project I did. I did a ton of editing and to be honest it took such a long time I would rather have redone everything in rhino linework. This took way too long because it didn’t understand simple concepts from the building. This is not going to change the way I do architecture unless I just want to push out basic apartment projects. I feel this ‘program’ is too limited, with not very good speed, versatility, and editability after it generates a building. The extra features like: price, size, estimations, etc. are nice to have but not nice enough giving the ‘softwares’ various other limitations.

- In summary, the synergy between Al technology and the established realm of design opens up new horizons for exploration. It enables designers to break boundaries, envision responsive and sustainable building designs, and develop urban environments that are truly human-centric and adaptable to future needs.

- The website could provide tools for creating visually appealing presentations and proposals to communicate design concepts effectively to clients. Architects and designers could use templates, mockups, and renderings available on the platform to present their ideas in a professional and persuasive manner, helping clients visualize the proposed spaces and make informed decisions. Architechtures. com also could offer a variety of design tools and resources to support the design process. This might include CAD templates, design software plugins, material libraries, and 3D models that architects and designers can use to help alleviate their workflow, experiment with design concepts, and visualize spatial layouts.

- Architectures has been a software that I have used. I don’t want to give it more credit than that. I don’t plan on using this more due to its many many lacking features and proper use of AI generation for the floor plans. Although not the same design

- the one on the left being a one bedroom with a large exterior terrace (my design) and the one on the right being a two bedroom with a small corner terrace - the two images have parallels. I have recently used a number of different AI programs and have been exploring their place in my work and applications into architecture and design. From this general exploration, I could see programs such as Architechtures being used in design as a conceptual and first pass of drawings. With the brief amount of time I have used Architechtures I would see it being implemented into my workflow as a generator of initial floor plans and ideas to consider without having to put much though into. Changing variables is easy and makes changing the design swift while allowing one to keep track of important information such as area and width. After briefly exploring AI powered architecture tools and using the PlanFinder grasshopper script for the second part of assignment 4, I am drawn more to the PlanFinder generative tool than the Architechtures one. Perhaps it is my inexperience with the program but it was not as easy to use and required continuous attention to even attempt to solve one of the many problems with setting up the floor plan. PlanFinder was easy to use and even adds furniture. Nevertheless, AI tools like these are going to become increasingly more powerful, quicker, and easier to use. I hope and doubt that their application will stay in the conceptual areas of architectural design.

- Although not the same design - the one on the left being a one bedroom with a large exterior terrace (my design) and the one on the right being a two bedroom with a small corner terrace - the two images have parallels. I have recently used a number of different AI programs and have been exploring their place in my work and applications into architecture and design. From this general exploration, I could see programs such as Architechtures being used in design as a conceptual and first pass of drawings. With the brief amount of time I have used Architechtures I would see it being implemented into my workflow as a generator of initial floor plans and ideas to consider without having to put much though into. Changing variables is easy and makes changing the design swift while allowing one to keep track of important information such as area and width. After briefly exploring AI powered architecture tools and using the PlanFinder grasshopper script for the second part of assignment 4, I am drawn more to the PlanFinder generative tool than the Architechtures one. Perhaps it is my inexperience with the program but it was not as easy to use and required continuous attention to even attempt to solve one of the many problems with setting up the floor plan. PlanFinder was easy to use and even adds furniture. Nevertheless, AI tools like these are going to become increasingly more powerful, quicker, and easier to use. I hope and doubt that their application will stay in the conceptual areas of architectural design.

- When using Architechtures to generate apartment layouts throughout the complex on the site in Mar Vista, Los Angeles, I decided to experiment with incorporating single-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom units. My initial proposal mainly consisted of one and two-bedroom units, as it seemed, at the time, that I did not have enough space to accommodate for more than two bedrooms, given the designed footprint. Architechtures allowed me to quickly visualize spatial organizations for larger units that I was not able to previously imagine. I do like that Architechtures allows you to adjust the target areas, and provides indication on when spaces are too small. Being able to quickly adjust these dimensions across multiple units was very efficient and I could see this being a very useful workflow when dealing with many units within one building. One drawback I noticed in the program was that many of the unit generations would create awkward spatial configurations, with unnecessary walls and doors. Many of the spaces seemed very closed off and oddly shaped. Furthermore, even when working with the sliders on the side panel, I would have to use the manual mode to adjust spaces to reach the desired target areas, as well as adjust for many of the oddly proportioned spaces. Overall I believe this is a good tool for developing buildings with many repeated units or spaces and can help the designer visualize how programmatic spaces can be aggregated throughout the project, however when it comes to developing smaller spaces I find that it is not necessarily any more efficient than using Revit or any other modeling software, and the program very rarely produces an efficient plan on a smaller scale. I could see myself implementing this workflow into my design process when exploring a large-scale project that requires repeated spaces. I think it is a useful tool for program aggregation and is efficient in adjusting programmatic areas across many repeated spaces.

- In the fast-changing world of architecture, AI tools like Architechtures are becoming game-changers for architects and designers. Using Architechtures in my future work will help me to evolve my iterative designs faster. Architechtures allows designers to brainstorm new ideas and layouts at a quicker pace than ever before. The software also incorporates helpful data like the estimated cost of the building, diagrams showing the floor plan breakdowns from studios-4 bedroom apartments, and a comprehensive list of spaces and their square footage throughout the building. It analyzes energy efficiency, daylighting, and structural stability, giving me the necessary information on which design features are winners and which ones need tweaking. With its help, I can create buildings that not only have an aesthetic appeal but also work smarter, saving energy and keeping people comfortable. In the future, I think that it would be great if the software could begin to incorporate different types of buildings like office spaces, schools, and healthcare.

- However, when exampling the details the 3d models have structure elements sticking outside of the roof and over appearance of the design seems bland. Due to this problem circulation is within the rooms are hard to use especially the kitchen most of the design that were offer were either bar or small box which both hard to use. Despite the limiting resource the tool is able to changing some of the flaws but the kitchen being one that seems to be the limiting factor.

I felt that the program was successful in generating options, but not every layout made the best use of the space as compared to the original layout. I think this program is helpful for the initial design process, but was very slow to use and sometimes difficult to adjust the settings for a unit so I do not feel I would use it very often.

- Architechtures could be useful for very large projects of repeating units, such as apartments or hotels. I would use it early in the design process to quickly see how the space could be roughly divided, and then work on the individual unit layouts by hand. It is faster than traditional diagramming which is why I think it would be useful for larger spaces. I’m not sure if it would be as helpful for smaller buildings because the traditional process for them is much faster- there are less variables to consider. This generative design tool can be an extremely useful tool in terms of innovative design solutions, efficiency and speed, opti-

mization and performance, customization and adaptability, or collaboration and communication. Nevertheless, even though it can be useful in these ways, some of the cons may be; Learning curve, dependency on data and algorithms, ethical considerations, technical challenges, and an overall limitation on creativity and what designers themselves can bring to a plan.

- While Architectures proves invaluable for generating layouts efficiently without the need for expensive software, it’s important to recognize its limitations. As a designer, I believe it serves as a useful tool for estimating total building costs. However, it should not replace the expertise of architects who are well-versed in navigating constraints and building codes. Particularly for larger projects, where adherence to regulations is crucial, the program’s inability to recognize such limitations poses a challenge. In essence, Architectures emerges as a valuable asset for developers seeking quick and cost-effective solutions in the initial phases of project conceptualization. Nevertheless, it should complement rather than substitute the involvement of architectural professionals who possess the requisite knowledge and expertise to ensure compliance and design integrity.

- In the realm of architecture, interior design, and urban planning, the integration of AI technology has become increasingly prevalent, revolutionizing traditional design processes and offering architects powerful tools for optimizing space and enhancing efficiency. One such application lies in the utilization of AI-driven programs capable of analyzing 3D files to maximize space utilization and generate insightful graphs, such as “Architechtures”. In this exploration, we delve into how architects can utilize the capabilities of AI technology via a program designed to streamline space optimization, drawing from the instance of the South Yard Lofts apartment complex. The South Yard Lofts project serves as an illustrative case study demonstrating the efficacy of AI technology in architectural design. Upon receiving the 3D files of the apartment complex from CadFinder, architects can input them into the AI-powered program, “Architechtures”, specifically designed for space optimization. The program employs sophisticated algorithms to analyze the spatial layout of each apartment unit, considering factors such as traffic flow, functional requirements, and ergonomic considerations. Subsequently, the program generates visual representations, such as graphs or diagrams, highlighting areas where space is not being efficiently utilized. Additionally, visual representations are often accompanied by color-coded indicators, such as red and orange circles, signifying inefficiencies and areas where space optimization is required. For instance, a red circle may denote a cramped living area, while an orange circle may indicate a suboptimal arrangement of furniture or fixtures. By providing clear, actionable feedback, the AI program empowers architects to identify specific areas for improvement and make informed design decisions. In conclusion, the integration of AI technology into architectural design processes represents a paradigm shift in the way architects approach space optimization. By leveraging AI- driven programs capable of analyzing 3D files and generating insightful graphs, architects can enhance efficiency and comfort in apartment complex design. Through the example of the South Yard Lofts project, we have demonstrated how AI technology can empower architects to optimize space utilization, ultimately creating more comfortable and efficient living environments. As AI continues to evolve, its potential to revolutionize architectural design remains limitless, promising a future where creativity and innovation thrive in harmony with technological advancement

- Using AI for this assignment was very straightforward and easy to understand. Besides choosing location and drawing linework, Architectures generated every part of the necessary floor plan and provided easy to change it automatically and manually. This software provided a quick illustration of a floor plan which would allow multiple floor plans to be produced with ease. This type of fast paced work can be useful in schematic stages of design while still adhering to codes and spacial requirements for each program.

- Using AI in generative design isn’t just about making things easier for designers—it’s also about discovering new and creative design ideas that might not have been possible otherwise. By using AI algorithms and data, architects can find unique and innovative design solutions that make residential spaces comfortable, sustainable, and functional for the people who live in them. In short, exploring AI in Architechtures is an exciting way for architects to create better, more personalized residential spaces. Tools such as unit areas, dimensions, parameters of enclosure and details are useful where it helps in figures out costs and targets. It’s like having a smart assistant that helps architects come up with lots of ideas and find the best ones for their clients.

1. Experience:

- Using my third year project, the apartment complex located in the Mar Vista neighborhood in Los Angeles California, I was able to rigorously develop detailed apartment units. Initially, each unit was hand curated to follow the guidelines of the project. I redesigned a two bedroom, one bathroom unit that was originally underdeveloped. The scope of the project was very large, so designing in detail all the bedrooms, kitchens, and living rooms was a difficult task. Using Plan Finder I was able to take the outline of that unit, while also setting parameters for the spaces that I wanted to add. This would instantly present me with ten iterations of different layouts that I could then further iterate. Using this I was able to create many improved layouts to my original. The Plan Finder program develops plan drawings as well as 3D models of the spaces organized on layers. The program creates detailed layouts using generic shapes for furniture, doorways, and windows. While working on my project in third year, this would have been a tremendous help, from using the iterations for design development, and even the 3D objects for the early stages of development, or even a fast rendering.

- The original plan was a studio, but I found the settings on PlanFinder for studio layouts to be unappealing. So, I decided to explore the one-bedroom option instead. I disabled the settings for storage, separate kitchen, water closet, and meter box, while enabling the walk-in closet option. This new plan retains the living room on the facade like the original but places the kitchen in a corner rather than down a hall. It also includes a small dining space, which the original plan lacked. However, one drawback is that you must go through the bedroom to access the bathroom in both plans.

- The main issue with the one-bedroom layout generated by the AI is that it doesn’t include windows in the bedroom, which would not meet building code requirements. I believe this is why the original layout was a studio, as the partial walls in the bedroom could be open to the facade windows. Both the original and the AI-generated plans feature the walk-in closet in the same location. However, the AI technology does not offer an option for a laundry room, which the original plan included. One positive aspect of the AI-generated plan is that it leaves room on the wall across from the bed for a TV, a feature that many apartment complexes overlook. I also appreciate that the kitchen is close to the door, making it easier to store groceries. Additionally, having the kitchen next to the bathroom creates a practical water core for easier construction. Overall, I still prefer the original studio layout because it allows natural light to reach the bedroom and includes a laundry room. However, the AI-generated version is appealing in that it provides a larger living room.

- Planfinder is a lot more limited than Architectures however I think it is vastly more useful in most scenarios. Being able to change plans much more quickly, although only just 1 story ‘house’/apartment plans, is a huge upgrade from Architectures. How I intend and use AI in my work does give me an inherent bias about what projects I am working with. I want to/use AI in early stages of development to quickly get ideas out of the way and get a new perspective on my design. Because of this I think I lean more towards AI with sloppier quicker generation as this works better in the early stages and gives me more room to fill in the gaps and continue designing. Architectures gives a final plan with a bunch of details of a finished project. If the free trial version of Architectures had download ability I think I would like it a lot more than I did because I could easier merge designs together and edit them than in the online ‘model viewer.’ Neither software does simple geometry however the plan finder I felt was a lot more snappier and quicker to edit and work with. Plan Finder has created a far more closed plan because of how it connects rooms and how the AI is layed out. I think Architectures did a better job with more open spaces for variability, however I still would take Planfinders and delete walls as I see fit than Architectures. It didn’t adhere too strongly to the floor plan, but it did for windows, sometimes to a fault. But again it was quick and easy to mess with so it wasn’t a big deal, something to work around. I feel like this program proves that Architectures would have been better if made into a plugin for a software rather than a browser ‘software.’

- After reviewing the original loft floor plans, I opted for the Tanya rd plan. I chose this layout over the others because I wanted to experiment with modifying the living and kitchen arrangement. I wasn’t particularly fond of the kitchen extending along the entire western wall. By using Rhino, PlanFinder and Grasshopper, I managed to adjust some of the parameters and explore several iterations of the layout. This process helped me determine which version I preferred. Additionally, I explored how Al-generated layouts can be customized using theses softwares. Unlike the Architechture Al software, Grasshopper also integrates furniture placement, providing a comprehensive view of the space.

- While using the plug-in PlanFinder, it was easy to iterate numerous different plans to catalog through. An alteration was created to amount of bedrooms were in the space, orignally there was just one and now with PlanFinder it was changed to three. This moment was created due to misused space as in the living/dining room is massive so with iterative approaches that was minimized and altered to fit more spaces. The closet was relocated towards to entrance acting is immediate storage. Using PlanFinder, it iterated allowance for half a bath to be created and so it replaced the existing closet to give guests the usage of a restroom if need be.

- PlanFinder is a Rhino/Grasshopper/Revit plugin that seems to work with a good amount of success. I have not tested the Revit plugin and I imagine that would have a great success rate given the base program it would be installed to, but I had only used the Rhino and Grasshopper ones. Grasshopper was a great use, being able to do mass generation with multiple boundaries and entrance points. For more complicated projects that have multiple building access points for a level, Grasshopper works best using the graft functionality rather than Rhino’s use for one boundary at a time. The generation was decently quick, although it ultimately depends on how many iterations you set the model to. Models are surprisingly different from one another, however it might be a flaw from the software sometimes not reading/respecting an entrance point being supplied for the generation for a specific boundary set. There sadly doesn’t seem to be as many options and variables to be able to be changed as much as Architechtures, but the generation is much better.

- This project uses the “Woods” floor plan for a two bedroom apartment from Southyard Lofts and recreates a two bedroom using the same boundary of the floor plan. The Plan Finder plan differs from the Woods plan in its placement of the woods and orientation of the kitchen and living room as well as the bedrooms and entry sequence. The kitchen and living room are placed on the back wall in a linear open layout where one passes the bedrooms and bathrooms before getting to the living room. The PlanFinder plan features a half bath that is not present in the Woods. The placement of the windows and faces of the facade could be controlled and the outcome could be more similiar to that of the Woods but I chose to not have a preference of facade to see what the PlanFinder would show me.

- Using PlanFinder I explored iterations on a one bedroom and two bedroom unit located within the Organic Community apartment complex in Mar Vista, Los Angeles. The original design focuses on entry through the kitchen and living room space, and resolves the need for a two bedroom unit type through mirroring the plan, with the living/kitchen space acting as a mediating space between the two sides. The one and two bedroom unit iterations produced by PlanFinder, suggested the inclusion of a designated entry hall/corridor which would then lead into the living space. While some iterations suggested an open connection between these spaces, many designed for an entryway which was closed off from the rest of the program. I particularly favor the interactions in which the entry hall was connected to the living room without a door barrier. I chose to input several different apartment configurations using PlanFinder rather than just one because I wanted to see how many options the program would be able to give me depending on the area given. One thing that PlanFinder did that was similar to Architechtures, was create more traditional apartment unit layouts. Most of the units were closed off or had entryways and corridors become a bigger design aspect than the original South Yard Lofts that are entirely open-concept. I found that the tool was great for getting a spatial understanding of the square footage provided.

- This study explores the layout of the room/typical of apartment complex near Fayetteville, Arkansas, when exampling the result, it appears to be fruitful due to the multiple qualities the ai offers to the simple layout of the rooms. When changing the it from 2 bed rooms or simply changing the sizes.

- The previous apartment unit from South Yard Lofts is the Richland Unit which has a studio layout. The Richland Unit has a skinny kitchen on the left side of the unit, a small living room at the front, and a bedroom space on the left side. These three areas are divided by a wall through the center of the unit. The bathroom and walk-in closet are in the back of the unit and separated by a wall and doors. The new unit design created by Plan Finder made a unit with a shared kitchen, living, and dining area at the front of the unit. The bed, bathroom, and closet are at the back of the unit and are separated by a shared wall. This new layout can still be used as a studio layout by not placing a door on the bedroom division wall. With the bedroom toward the back and a large shared front space, it can help the space feel larger and allow greater privacy for the bedroom space. The PlanFinder extension generated a very different layout from the original plan. It created a long and wide corridor for the entrance (which seems to be a waste of square-footage), when the original had the door open directly into the Living/Dining room. The original plan feels more open and larger, whereas the PlanFinder is extremely grid-like and closed. It did not do as good of a job of utilizing the square footage in my opinion.

- In using plan finder, with the exact same area as the existing South Yard Loft floor plan, the generative tool was able to design a two bedroom apartment with a living room/kitchen, bathroom, and storage. This shows space optimization in a different way. Yes we do not have a rooftop deck anymore but the apartment can now have two bedrooms and an open living room/ kitchen, all with a curtain wall or “open facade”. Planfinder was also extremely in Rhino software as a 2D and 3D plan was generated within seconds. Even before choosing the plan shown above, the generator offered me eight different plans to scroll through and compare; as I could simultaneously change plan settings. All in all I think Planfinder was a very useful design tool. The PlanFinder generates layouts and floor plans based on user inputs, offering multiple options tailored primarily for residential use. In this exercise, I’ve chosen a 1-bedroom apartment from the South Yard Loft as a reference point. From the array of layouts provided by PlanFinder, I’ve selected two options for comparison. The first option closely mirrors the original design, aiming to assess the efficiency of replicating the architect’s approach. The second layout reflects my personal preferences and choices if I were to design the one-bedroom apartment myself. Option 1 closely resembles the floor plan of the South Yard Loft, even though without the capability for users to include walking closets, built-in furniture, or laundry space the layout serves as a starting point to get to the final product. Option 2 provides enhanced privacy in certain areas, even though with the bathroom located outside the bedroom. This layout is generally efficient and can be manually adjusted to optimize the use of the space.

- The comparison between the original 462 square foot studio apartment layout and the Plan Finder Generated layout is quite significant. The original layout, with its open-room concept, offers a larger kitchen and living area, but lacks a designated space for a bed without disrupting the overall flow of the room. On the other hand, the Plan Finder Generated layout focuses on maximizing space efficiency by sacrificing some square footage from the kitchen, living room, and balcony areas. However, in doing so, it creates a distinct bedroom space that provides privacy and separation from the living area. This reconfiguration allows for a more functional and organized living space, addressing one of the primary shortcomings of the original design. Ultimately, the AI-generated layout presents a compelling solution for optimizing the limited space available in a studio apartment while still prioritizing essential aspects like privacy and comfort.

- Using floor plan dimensions from an existing apartment in South Yard Lofts to draw exterior walls creating a new layout with AI integrated software PlanFinder was really interesting. This is still a 2 Bedroom 2 Bathroom with a combined kitchen and living room. Moving the entry door allows for a more centralized circulation path and for the bedrooms to be split up on either side of the living room. In this model there is only one facade allowing for windows, versus the actual South Yard Loft having 2 facades for bedroom windows. Instead of 2 full bathrooms, there is a full and half in the AI generated model. The South Yard Loft has very similar bedroom sizes while the AI generated floor plan changed one to be much smaller than the master bed-

room. I think this has to do with the changing of the country in which you would find this floor plan, as I changed it to different areas and it generated a variety of layouts per country.

- Exploring AI in generative design for a typical unit opens up exciting possibilities for designers. PlanFinder uses AI to quickly come up with many different unit plan options based on specific requirements like square feet and style preferences. In exploring generative design in PlanFinder, the plans generate requirements that include bed and bath counts, where you are able to modify storage, kitchen, walk-in closets and meter box. Other tools that are useful in the Rhino plug-in is quick editing the thickness of interior and exterior walls, and defining door openings. Not only does the plug-in furnish the plan; you are able to bake any rooms and furniture that is generated from the plans. Some of the first comparisons that you can identify is how the entry is more private and closed off before you walk into the living area. In the original floor plan the balcony is placed on the top side of the plan, where on the generative design, the placement of the balcony was placed later after defining just the interior walls. Some of the troubleshooting in the generative design was being able to edit where the doors open in the plan and applying a bathroom door opening to the master bedroom.

2. Essays:

- Artificial intelligence technologies enhance productivity by generating multiple design ideas and iterations, facilitating rapid project development and idea inception in architectural design. As AI evolves and becomes more sophisticated, projects can be completed with greater optimization across various fields. Tools like this will continue to grow and assist in the process designers use in their design.

- This AI technology, PlanFinder, was intriguing to explore due to its ability to generate various layouts based on different adjacencies. However, it lacked significant control over the placement of elements, room types, and room sizes. While it provides a basic diagram with some typical proportions, I found it challenging to trust the accuracy of the proportions provided. For instance, I encountered instances where the bathroom was the size of a bedroom, or the room was the size of a closet, or there was insufficient circulation space around the bed. I would consider using this software when I need ideas for adjacencies, iterations, and quick visualization, but I wouldn’t rely on it extensively due to its limitations in control and detail.

- I liked using plan finders and will continue to get quick ideas of how spaces should be laid out in homes and apartments. Although it can’t be multi-story, I think it’s easy enough to merge 2 existing floor plans with some modification. With doing smaller portions of a project I can keep what I like from each part it generates and make the parts a program like this wouldn’t understand like how each unit stacks together like a tetris piece, how the cores are at the ends of the apartments, how there is a courtyard in the middle that is only accessible by the second floor, or how there is an outdoor walkway for the rest of the higher up apartment floors. I would like to use this in the future though i’m not sure how much of a benefit this would be in my own projects as it is limited by only doing rectangles and such.

- There area few ways in which I can see this software being beneficial in the world of design, some being efficiency, innovation, customization, and the fact that the software pulls from a deep data base of sustainable and providing the best solutions for the space. When talking about efficiency of the practice of design one of the most time consuming parts is coming up with all of the different layouts and design choices for the space. By taking advantage of the Al generated software they are able to stream line that process and view multiple different functional layouts. Plan Finder also allows for a certain level of Al generated customization, allowing you to alter anything from windows to walls to how the space feels. Including what type of furniture to where the furniture goes allowing the designer to make the space their own, and meet the needs of their clients again in a more speedy manner. Using Plan Finder also allows for a greater version of collaboration, allowing teams and designers to share their work and work together to create the best possible outcome for their clients. Especially how the software is all data- driven meaning that if done correctly the software only pulls and creates layouts and designs that are known to work and work in the best sustainable way. Ultimately, this software creates a new path for designers to accentuate their work and provide the best outcomes for their practice and their clients.

- PlanFinder provides access to a vast database of architectural plans, including floor plans, elevations, sections, and details. This extensive library serves as a valuable resource for designers seeking inspiration, reference, or ready-made solutions for their projects. Designing architectural plans from scratch can be time-consuming, requiring meticulous attention to detail and extensive drafting work. This plug-in allows for you to expedite the design process by offering pre-made plans that designers can customize to fit their specific needs when designing spaces. This time-saving solution allows architects and designers to focus their time on refining and adapting existing plans rather than starting from scratch, speeding up the design process and improving efficiency. Using PlanFinder, can also help with studies as it helps act as a visualization point and could help ultimately cut your efforts down in half, and allow you to focus more on an artistical element of your project. If PlanFinder had been updated to include more features and customization options to its generation, I would enjoy using this plugin more often, and would genuinely use it after this. However with the current features and implementation to it, I might not come back to this plugin.

- After using the Architechtures program and many other AI tools, I think this is one of the better ones for architectural generation. It seems more applicable, practical, and easy to use. I could see it being used in apartment unit generation and the creation of typical unit plans. I like that it adds furniture to the floor plans. After using it for a little bit, I wonder if there is a way to create and implement your own furniture to the floor plans. My third year first semester project was an apartment complex in Los Angeles in the Mar Vista tract and I wonder if it can be used in the generation of large scale developments having more than one unit.

- I was very impressed with how easy it was to produce generative plans with PlanFinder. While some of the problems I noticed with Architechtures were still prevalent, such as providing an abundance of interior walls and corridors, I found

PlanFinder to be much more efficient when producing smaller-scale plans. When going through the generative plans, almost all of the iterations were viable, well-designed layouts and I liked how I was able to view various furniture iterations within the plan. Furthermore, any of the plans I didn’t particularly favor, could have easily been adjusted to be more open and connected by simply removing a wall or changing a door style. I could see myself implementing PlanFinder into my workflow as a way to produce spatial iterations quickly and get inspiration for programmatic and furniture layouts. Since the boundary for PlanFinder is only 250 square meters, this program would work best for residential projects and seems to be most useful for developing apartment units, which can then be repeated and aggregated across a building.

- As an architecture student navigating the dynamic landscape of spatial design, the integration of AI software like PlanFinder changes how I will approach projects in the future. Utilizing PlanFinder in my work will shift the way I conceptualize, visualize, and execute interior spaces, enhancing both efficiency and creativity. One of the primary applications of PlanFinder in my practice would be in the conceptualization phase of projects. By simulating different layout configurations and furniture arrangements, I can optimize spatial flow, maximize natural light exposure, and enhance visual interest, creating harmonious and functional spaces that promote well-being and productivity. However, despite its numerous benefits, there are some limitations to consider. One potential drawback is the reliance on data inputs, which may not always capture the nuances of human behavior and aesthetic preferences. While AI can provide valuable insights, it’s essential to balance data-driven decision-making with intuition and empathy, ensuring that designs resonate emotionally with users. Overall, PlanFinder holds immense promise for designers in the future. By leveraging AI technology responsibly and creatively, designers can elevate the quality of their work and create spaces that inspire and enrich the lives of their occupants.

- However, when exampling the actually plan of the layout it appears limited regarding the arrangement focusing putting the living into the facade/ window area and pushing the bedrooms directly in front whiling it might not be problem with people who enjoy sunshine whiling eating. It does impact people who prefer privacy when guest is visiting. Overall, the study shows that it does produce good qualities design and new output.

- I think that this software can be useful to quickly look through potential floorplan layouts at the beginning of the design process. However, I do think the designs from this software need editing so it should not be used as the final layouts for a project.

- PlanFinder could be useful for iterating several possible layouts for small units. I consider it to be a starting point, much like the other AI software, because the plans it generates seem to be rougher than those that are traditionally made. I think it could make the initial diagramming process more efficient- specifically in regards to zoning and blocking diagrams.

- This generative design tool can be an extremely useful tool in terms of innovative design solutions, efficiency and speed, optimization and performance, customization and adaptability, or collaboration and communication. Nevertheless, even though it can be useful in these ways, some of the cons may be; Learning curve, dependency on data and algorithms, ethical considerations, technical challenges, and an overall limitation on creativity and what designers themselves can bring to a plan. In summary, PlanFinder is a remarkable tool that offers various layouts and allows users to specify parameters such as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Additionally, it provides furniture suggestions and a 3D model. While the tool is undoubtedly valuable, it could benefit from integrating features such as walking closets, built-in furniture, or laundry space. Nonetheless, it serves as an excellent starting point for design projects.

- I envision integrating Plan Finder, an advanced AI technology, into my future career to revolutionize the design process and enhance the quality of architectural solutions. Plan Finder holds immense potential in transforming the way architects conceptualize, develop, and execute building plans by leveraging its capabilities in optimizing spatial layouts, streamlining design iterations, and enhancing overall efficiency. Plan Finder offers a novel approach to space utilization through its ability to generate optimized layouts tailored to specific requirements and constraints. I can input various parameters such as square footage, room functions, and aesthetic preferences, and let the AI algorithm generate multiple layout options. This not only accelerates the design exploration phase but also ensures that every square foot is utilized effectively, maximizing functionality without compromising design integrity. It can significantly expedite the design iteration process by automating repetitive tasks and optimizing design parameters based on user input and predefined objectives. Through machine learning algorithms, the AI technology continuously learns from user interactions and refines its recommendations over time, leading to increasingly accurate and tailored design solutions. This not only saves valuable time for users but also allows for more thorough exploration of design possibilities, resulting in more innovative and refined architectural designs. Additionally, Plan Finder facilitates seamless collaboration and communication within architectural teams and with clients. By generating visual representations of design alternatives, complete with 3D renderings and virtual walkthroughs, the technology enables stakeholders to visualize concepts more comprehensively and provide valuable feedback. This iterative design process fosters greater transparency, enhances client satisfaction, and ultimately leads to more successful project outcomes. In addition to its efficiency and productivity benefits, Plan Finder also holds the potential to democratize architecture by making design expertise more accessible to a wider audience. By providing intuitive tools and user-friendly interfaces, the technology empowers individuals with limited architectural knowledge to participate in the design process and create customized floor plans for their homes or spaces. This democratization of design fosters creativity, encourages experimentation, and promotes greater inclusivity within the architectural community. Overall, the future integration of Plan Finder into my architecture career will represent a transformative step towards leveraging cutting-edge technology to enhance design processes, optimize spatial layouts, and deliver innovative architectural solutions. By harnessing the power of AI, I aim to redefine the boundaries of architectural creativity, efficiency, and accessibility, ultimately contributing to the advancement of the built environment and shaping a more sustainable and equitable future for all.

- PlanFinder seems to be a very useful tool within Revit assisting with the entire design process from an initial concept

to the final execution. Generating a variety of floor plans in minutes with the options to change program size and amounts can improve productivity and efficiency within a project and workplace. I think this program is interesting as it can also cater toward the country you are building in. In the UK it is common to have separate kitchens, when I generated floor plans for that country, it automatically checked to have a separate kitchen integrated. It can also furnish and produce almost final drawings for any project you might have.

- One of the important decisions to the generative design was making the living space more narrow and inviting people into the space. In the generated plan there is more private spaces where users are not always exposed to the communal space. One thing that remained the same was keeping the communal spaces large.

1. Comparisons:

- For This Project I used the IIDA team’s project as a base for my design of the program. Beginning with studying their layout and the relation between spaces. This allowed me to lay out a chart connecting all the parts that I saw necessary. How I thought the program layout should be is the following: The entry should open up to the waiting area and reception. This would be adjacent to the supporting medical rooms. Separating that from the Exam rooms would be the staff areas. This will connect the two spaces with areas for staff to circulate efficiently while also separating the spaces. Using the Magnetzing grasshopper script I was able to input the names and areas of each space. Studying the drawings from the IIDA group I determined the appropriate areas for each area and begin generating designs.

- I aimed to maintain proximity between the patient education room, nurses’ station, waiting area, and public bathrooms, keeping them close to the reception. The AI’s placement of outdoor space in the middle was intriguing and reminded me of a terrarium. Exam rooms were strategically positioned back-to-back with circulation around the perimeter. I appreciated that two exam rooms were floating, not sharing walls, to ensure privacy and reduce noise transfer. However, due to readability issues, I had to make some educated guesses. Each patient room was designed to fit best in a 5-square-meter area. I slightly increased the size of the waiting room to 10 square meters but kept everything else the same as the original program to ensure it fit and allowed for proper circulation.

- This program takes a little while to learn, but I like this far more than Architectures. I actually spent more time messing around with the script, creating my own, tinkering with it than I did Architectures and enjoyed it a lot more. This program is basic, however I think that benefits it a ton. It is just space making, and does not need any of the metrics, walls, or furniture that the others provide, However this is to its benefit because it gives us the user freedom to design within the space ideas the program gives us. It also uses the space diagram and can adhere to more complex shapes than the other two programs. Once I got to know this software I could go to problem spots and try to troubleshoot. Once baked it’s in the modeling software and is easy to outfit with furniture and other stuff. One benefit of this beyond the other 2 softwares is that it’s just floorplan and space planning so it doesnt need to be a house, or apartment complex. I think this is a really interesting tool to assist designers and is a step in the right direction. This program is a little slower than Plan Finder, and surprisingly faster than Architectures. Probably because of the small size compared to the Architectures project, but I think the online browser nature brings it back a lot more than the size of the project.

- When I brought in the original file and was asked to create a new adjacency diagram and matrix I was Interested in all that Grasshopper could change and the way that it produced the Information for you. I was able to tell the square meters of each program such as the entrance was 1 sq m while the reception was 7 and the entrance was 5 sq m. I was able to read that the nurses Station, managers office, staff bathroom, outdoor area, as well as all but one exam room has a Measurement of 5 sq m. While using the plug-in Magnetizing Plan, it was easy to iterate numerous different plans to catalog through for the IIDA Design Competition. Some of the shared workspaces were enlarged or given more space to help with heavier circulation coming from workers or employees. The waiting area was also made bigger to help accomodate for the opportunity in case there were a lot of patients. Vitals and the manager’s office were made smaller as they do not need to be as big as neighboring space as they don’t utilize as much space.

- This Grasshopper plugin has been one that causes many issues. I am someone who uses Grasshopper regularly, and I have many plugins of greatly ranging uses and usefulness. This would be on the higher end of usefulness, if it worked more reliably. However the output given from this plugin is nowhere near stable or reliable, even less so accurate. Very often does this plugin generate a layout where the bounds of the rooms generated exceed that of the boundary given. Also, the entrance point required to make this plug in work is anything but used in generations as I have even received outcomes from this plugin where the entrance is in the very middle of the bounding area, essentially landlocked between other rooms generated. The adjancency functionality is a neat touch, but all it does is give the user a false sense of the control. The rooms that get connected usually have little to nothing to do with the ones they are connected to and what actually comes out of it. The difference is striking, and I have even completely disconnected one room from others and the end result had little change in it. There’s another big issue with the plug in and that’s the name. Oftentimes Grasshopper plugin names have little to do with what they actually do (Human, Elk, Karamba, Kangaroo) but this is a flat out lie. There is no Floor Plan generated. All this plugin does is use generative learning to produce difference layouts and bubble/block diagrams. These are blank boxes that get their proportions tweaked and moved around. No wall thickness, door/swing, furniture, space separation. This would be good only in the very beginning of a project to decide what programs could go where and a visualization of an adjancency matrix (if it were good at that). Oftentimes this plugin will just straight up not work, with the error balloons Grasshopper provides giving no context or support for the answer.

- This project uses the Magnetizing Floor Plans plugin to layout the adjacencies of rooms and their respective square footages in this case square meters. The bubbles are what makes the adjacencies and are used to create the room layouts. Much of the rooms are 5 m^2 with the entrance being 1 m^2. The entrance is located at the botto left of the oor plan where the lighter yellow-green box is. The sequence of the space is entrance, reception, waiting room, nurse station and vitals station, exam rooms, and sta service areas. It is interesting how quickly it creates the oor plans and how easy it is to chage the inputs for a dierent outcome.

- Using the Magnetizing Floor Plan Generator I explored program adjacencies for the IIDA pediatric clinic. The program consists of: Reception (10 m2), Outdoor Waiting (20 m2), Waiting Room (90 m2), Exam Rooms (200 m2), Mothers Room (20 m2), Public Bathroom (15 m2), Education (40 m2), Medical Room (30 m2), Soil Room (20 m2), Nurses Station (30 m2), Staff Lounge

(40 m2), Admin Office (30 m2), Managers Office (10 m2), Private Bathroom (5 m2), and Staff Workroom (40 m2). The area calculations were initially based off of the IIDA Team 2’s plan, and were then adjusted after visualizing the programmatic masses using Magnetizing. I wanted to ensure programmatic adjacencies between the reception, waiting rooms, public restrooms, and exam rooms, as these are the most circulated and occupied spaces within a clinic for both the public and staff. The nurses station, staff lounge, admin office, managers office, and other staff spaces share adjacency toward the back of the building, as to separate them from the public. These spaces were also made smaller as they are intended for just staff use.

The IIDA design plan that was created using the Grasshopper plugin employed similar design strategies used in the original clinic design. The program design was broken down into three categories between public spaces, private spaces, and support spaces. The front entry, reception, waiting, and outdoor spaces were adjacent to one another in order to keep public access within the same area. Private spaces consisted of exam rooms and vitals. Any support spaces consisted of medical/soil rooms, staff lounges, nurse’s stations, etc. The design of the program aimed to create a separation between necessary spaces without impeding on the overall flow of the building.

- This study explores the optimization of healthcare facility design through strategic modifications to key areas such as the manager room, lobby, vitals, clinic room, and exam room from administrate from 5 to 3 also exam room 2 from 5 to 7 while having lobby area being extend from 5 to 7 from reducing the vitals from 5 to 3.

Each program was set to 5 square meters, except for the waiting room at 10 square meters. I based the adjacency reasons on the layout we used for the IIDA submission. I felt this layout was successful with having private staff areas grouped together, and the exam rooms grouped with the nurse’s station between the two.

I maintained the original square meters per program because they seemed to be appropriate. The main thing I focused on in the adjacency was reorganizing the exams rooms so they did not overlap and “tangle-up” as they seemed to in the original grasshopper file. The original adjacency in general was well thought out, so I did not make major changes, rather I made small adjustments to the layout.

- Chesapeake Pediatrics, located at 1149 E Lombard St, Baltimore, MD, offers comprehensive pediatric primary care services from birth to age eighteen, including accommodations for treating behavioral health issues. The Magnetizing Floor Plan Generator is a versatile tool crafted develope floor plans. It captivates users by presenting visually appealing layouts, making it an asset for designers seeking innovative floor plan solutions. In this exercise the Chesapeake Pediatrics, was used to test its effects when using Magnetizing Floor Plan Generator. The program is divided into three areas, shared, private employee, and private patient space. These areas were assigned as a result of analysis and based on the concepts of accommodation, the sequence derives from the patient and employee needs by accommodating the people and the things that go into the space. Using the Magnetizing Test with Grasshopper was fairly easy with the help of some other students. Changing the square meters of certain programs didn’t seem as necessary as strategizing the adjacency as it. Rearranging the programs based on what I thought needed to be close together was my main goal for this project. IT made sense for the waiting area to be next to reception, as well as public restrooms. The nurses station is typically the hub around any exam rooms with necessary vital and testing rooms restricted from direct public access. The staff lounge and managers office could be close in adjacency so everyone has access to it. These two programs needed to be a bit more private from the reception or exams rooms so they are more separated from other main areas of this doctoral office.

- Utilizing the Grasshopper plugin implemented similar design strategies as those of the original clinic design. The program was organized into sections: public spaces, private spaces, and support spaces. Public areas, including the front entry, reception, waiting, and exterior spaces, were grouped together to ensure convenient user access. Private spaces encompassed exam rooms and vital areas, while support spaces included medical/soil rooms, staff lounges, and nurse’s stations. The program design aimed to strike a balance between essential spaces while maintaining the overall flow of the building. One of Grasshopper’s key advantages is its capability to create parametric models. Parametric design entails defining a set of parameters and rules governing the behavior and appearance of a design. With Grasshopper, architects can easily manipulate these parameters to explore various design options and iterate through different iterations swiftly. This iterative approach allows designers to refine their designs and adapt dynamically to changing project requirements or client feedback.

2. Essays:

- Generation using this script was not as smooth as the other programs. After organizing the rooms with labels, areas, and adjacency parameters, the script would randomly generate a layout. This was not simple to manipulate in order to get precisely what I imagined. There was a problem with the “adjacency distance” when generating ideas. The space generates sporadically with no order if too much space is allowed in this parameter. When doing the opposite and not allowing enough distance, the rooms would not generate at all. This brought up problems and forced me to have to iterate many times before being somewhat satisfied with the final generation. With further understanding, exploration, and time I believe that this can be something beneficial for early stages of design. Knowing the required rooms and areas for a project would allow you to utilize this tool and generate layouts that would aid in the design process. Artificial intelligence can both help and hurt a project. The learning curve at the beginning of using it, as well as any errors in the software can slow down production. I have talked about how Ai can significantly improve and optimize project development; however, it can also do the opposite. If too much time is spent wrestling with software, the work could have been done more efficiently another way. This would overall setback the progression of the project and can be a negative that comes with these new and still developing technologies.

- I was not a fan of the AI technology Magnetizing. The adjacencies it generated were inaccurate, placing public bathrooms on the opposite side of the building from the waiting room despite my specific request for them to be adjacent. Additionally, the use of overly complex words made the diagram illegible, with only a few elements being recognizable. The lack of a color

key made it difficult to interpret the plan, leading to a lot of guesswork on my part. While I appreciated the idea of having multiple iterations available, each one took a long time to load and none of them were satisfactory. Overall, I would not use this software again as it failed to cooperate with my requests and did not provide a helpful diagram.

- I will most likely utilize this program the most as it is easy to configure once the script is written and I think it’s less detail works better in this case. As it gives room for the designer to put in their own walls, furniture, etc. and to bring the human aspect into the space rather than just the adjacency metric diagram we make. I think it can work for almost any project although on larger ones it probably gets bogged down, however I think there are workarounds. I wish I used this program earlier in the semester.

- After gaining experience with this software, I came to appreciate its numerous advantages for designers. Utilizing the Magnetizing FloorPlan software not only streamlines the drawing and diagram creation process but also enhances the overall design quality. By tapping into its extensive database, designers can access a wealth of knowledge about what works best in specific contexts, leading to more detailed and thoughtful design layouts. This software empowers designers to expand their horizons and explore new possibilities, ultimately delivering optimal outcomes for clients. With customizable measurements and programming options, designers can tailor the software to fit seamlessly into allocated spaces, thus maximizing efficiency and effectiveness in meeting client needs.

- The grasshopper plug-in, Magnetizing Plan, facilitates the visualization and communication of design concepts through immersive 3D modeling, rendering, and animation capabilities. Designers can create interesting visualizations that effectively communicate design intent, spatial qualities, and experiential aspects of the architecture. This enhances engagement, facilitates design feedback, and creates a shared understanding of the project vision. The Magnetizing Plan Grasshopper plugin provides architects and designers with a very deep toolkit. This toolkit enables them to explore generative design strategies, optimize spatial layouts, and develop adaptive design solutions. Additionally, it facilitates parametric modeling workflows, integrates with BIM platforms, and enhances visualization and communication. By maximizing the capabilities of this plugin, designers can unlock new possibilities, expedite the design process, and create innovative, responsive, and user-centric architectural solutions.

- Plans to use in the future? If it became more reliable in just being able to operate, I could use it in the very beginning to see what adjacency works best, but if given the option between this plugin and asking for human feedback on what works best, I will always use the latter, whether it’s in-person or a comment from something online. In its current state, I do not plan to pick this plugin back up. This is only slightly more functional or worthwhile than Architechtures. Keyword is slightly. I nd it not as interesting, easy to use, or easy to troubleshoot as the PlanFinder grasshopper plugin. After using both of these grasshopper plugins and my experiience with grasshopper scripts and creating my own for my past projects - Oce, Library, and Housing complex I could see a use for the Magnetizing Floor Plan script in generating iterative layouts. I wonder if one could combine the two scripts for the creation of an apartment complex. Using the Magnetizing Floor Plans to generate a layout, could they be integrated to pull the rooms into PlanFinder and ll it out with furniture? I wonder if this could be done.

- I think the Magnetizing Floor Plan Generator is an efficient tool for early conceptual design phases. I could see it being a useful way to experiment with programmatic sizes and adjacencies and allow for quick iterations of programmatic divisions. A drawback I noticed in the Magnetizing Floor Generator is that some of the linked adjacencies don’t always correlate with the bubble diagram produced in Grasshopper. I found that bubbles separated by multiple other programmatic spaces in Grasshopper would then be arranged directly next to each other in the plan, or bubbles directly linked in Grasshopper would be on opposite sides of the building in Rhino. Another issue I discovered is that the programmatic blocks don’t necessarily organize within the set boundary. Many of the plan generations extended past the boundary line and created layouts that would create very oddly shaped floor plans. As a consequence, after completing this process, you would still have to go and rearrange the spaces to make the plan more regular and logical, almost defeating the purpose of using the floor plan generator to begin with. One of the most obvious drawbacks to this program is that it calculates area in meters rather than square feet. While it is not a major issue, it does make the process longer when having to convert the spatial dimension from feet to meters and makes it a little harder to accurately understand the scale of the space when adjusting the sizes. Overall I think the Magnetizing Floor Plan Generator is a useful tool with more advantages than drawbacks and could envision myself implementing this process into my workflow when beginning a project, as a device to aid in developing programmatic layouts and to help visualize necessary adjacencies.

- The Grasshopper plugin is a very useful tool during the beginning design phases. Rather than simply using a traditional bubble diagram in order to conceptualize a program layout, you can use this tool to make quick changes in terms of room size and adjacency. Out of the three tools used during the Generative Design exploration, I feel that this tool is the most helpful at the very early stages of design and gives architects/interior designers the ability to move quickly through spatial understanding within a project. Another aspect of this tool that is advantageous over the other softwares is that it isn’t limited to one building typology. This tool can be used not only for residential projects, but any necessary project in need of a comprehensive floor plan layout.

- Many aspects of the AI are revealing the limited regarding circulation and light qualities. Rather than thinking about the rooms as individual thresh holds it became Ven diagram that tries to connect all of them based on the connection map. Of course changing the connection map would help the over ai ideas regarding the overlaps the ai still does not understand the movement of the space.

- This program felt like it was overcomplicating the process of making a bubble diagram. While using the program I connected all the programs that should be adjacent to others, but no matter how much I adjusted the adjacency and other settings, I felt like it did not translate into rhino the way I wanted or in a way that would make sense.

- The Magnetizing Floor Plan Generator extension seems like a useful tool which bridges the gap between adjacency diagrams and zoning diagrams. It allows designers to see real-time changes in a zoning diagram by making changes to the adjacency using Grasshopper. This could be quite useful as it reduces the cognitive load on the designer by eliminating the necessity of imagining how their adjacency diagram would work within the actual boundaries of the building. I think it has considerable potential at early stages of the design process for that reason.

- To evaluate the Magnetizing Floor Plan Generator’s efficacy, project dimensions and specifications were input into Grasshopper. The outcomes proved accuracy and variety of layouts generated. This tool allows users to define parameters such as room names, connections, and entrances, the tool streamlines the design process. Its algorithm integrates rooms and connects them to form logical sequences. Architects and designers can make use of this tool to quickly produce prototypes and gather inspiration for project integration. However, while the Magnetizing Floor Plan Generator expedites decision-making in the early design stages, thorough analysis and research remain essential. By supplementing the tool with broader insights and precedents, architects enhance its efficiency and effectiveness.

- In the realm of design and architecture, the integration of digital tools has revolutionized the creative process, offering designers a myriad of software options to enhance their craft. Among these, the Grasshopper plugin for Rhino has garnered significant attention for its promise of streamlining complex design tasks. However, amidst the praise, questions arise about its efficacy and usability. Undoubtedly, the Grasshopper plugin introduces a novel approach to parametric design within the Rhino environment. Its ability to create intricate geometries through visual programming is laudable. By providing a graphical interface for algorithmic design, Grasshopper empowers designers to explore unconventional forms and spatial configurations with relative ease. Furthermore, its integration with Rhino facilitates seamless interoperability, allowing for a smooth transition between parametric modeling and traditional CAD workflows. This flexibility opens new avenues for design exploration and iteration, enhancing the overall efficiency of the design process. However, despite its touted benefits, my personal experience with the Grasshopper plugin reveals significant deficits that impede its usability and effectiveness. One of the most glaring issues is its steep learning curve. Unlike other programs utilized during the exercise, Grasshopper’s interface and workflow proved to be convoluted and non-intuitive, requiring extensive time and effort to grasp its fundamentals. This complexity not only hinders productivity but also discourages users from fully harnessing the plugin’s capabilities. Additionally, the lack of comprehensive documentation exacerbates the learning process, leaving users to navigate through a maze of tutorials and forums in search of solutions to their queries. Moreover, while Grasshopper offers unparalleled flexibility in design exploration, this freedom comes at the cost of precision and control. The inherent unpredictability of parametric design often leads to unintended consequences, requiring constant adjustment and refinement to achieve desired outcomes. This iterative nature of the process can be frustrating, especially when working on tight deadlines or projects with strict requirements. Furthermore, the reliance on computational algorithms introduces a layer of abstraction that disconnects designers from the tactile experience of crafting physical models, potentially stifling creativity and innovation. In conclusion, while the Grasshopper plugin for Rhino undoubtedly presents a compelling proposition for parametric design, its benefits must be weighed against its deficits. While its visual programming interface and interoperability with Rhino offer unparalleled design flexibility, the steep learning curve and lack of precision pose significant challenges for users. As digital tools continue to evolve, it is imperative for designers to critically evaluate their suitability within their respective workflows, ensuring a balance between innovation and practicality. Ultimately, the effectiveness of the Grasshopper plugin hinges on its ability to address these deficits and empower designers to realize their creative visions efficiently and effectively.

- Grasshopper made this adjacency project easy in terms of generating multiple adjacency diagrams within a short period of time. It promotes a more creative and efficient way of conceptualizing a space in the first stages of design. Moving areas around is a start, but then changing the distance between each with different number sliders allows for a more advanced adjacency diagram that focuses on circulation as well. When in the first stages of design it is important to conceptualize how programs will interact with each other and this AI integrated software can produce such a wide variety of options based on changing one thing. Changing multiple parts of the programs like footage could result in an even larger number of conceptual ideas, which is how I would use it.

- The Magnetizing tool offers a valuable design tool for determining spatial arrangements. Similar to a bubble diagram, this tool allows for on-the-fly adjustments based on room size and adjacency. Among these tools, Grasshopper stands out as an excellent option, offering the flexibility to make changes through a slider or numerical input. In conclusion, Grasshopper has emerged as a potent tool for architectural design, empowering architects to delve into complex geometries, parametric designs, and algorithmic solutions with remarkable efficiency, creativity, and collaboration. Its user-friendly interface, adaptability, and integration capabilities have revolutionized the architectural design process, enabling architects to push the boundaries of innovation and expression.

EEG (electroencephalogram) Review

An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a test that measures electrical activity in the brain using small, metal discs (electrodes) attached to the scalp. Brain cells communicate via electrical impulses and are active all the time, even during asleep. This activity shows up as wavy lines on an EEG recording.

The fifth phase consisted of each student presenting his or her contribution regarding the previous phases: integrating 3D printing, Generative Design, AI technology, and Design Research into their design process while wearing an electroencephalogram (EEG) device. EEG devices are used to collect individual neurofeedback in order to evaluate each individual’s contributions to the previous 3 team projects as well as the 2 individual projects. As they present and take questions and answers, the collected neurofeedback displays the analyzed neurofeedback ratios as well as the levels of relaxation, attention, and stress. The studio treats attention as a reflection of each individual’s willingness and enthusiasm. 20% of their grade is based on their attention level. Students will be informed of the entire estimation process through an online publication.

Students’ Work Exhibition at Midwest Design and Furniture Fair 2024, Kansas City, KS, USA

Students in IARD 4845 Interior Design VII, ARCH 5016 Option Studio I, and ARCH 5026 Option Studio II explored advanced technologies, such as AI Technology, Generative Design, 3D Printing, Neurofeedback, in their design project. At the beginning of the Spring 2024 semester, there was a workshop on the use of AI in interior architecture and design. It was originally designed to allow students to explore how AI technology can be applied to the traditional design process they have been learning during the seven or nine semesters of the program. This workshop lasted one hour and was designed to provide participants with a hands-on experience with AI tools, including demonstrations and templates for their participation in the workshop. Bachelor of