A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Expanded Design: Creativity, Machine Learning and Urban Design
The introduction of automated algorithmic processes (e.g. machine learning) in creative disciplines such as architecture and urban design has expanded the design space available for creativity and speculation. Contrary to previous algorithmic processes, machine learning models must be trained before they are deployed. The two processes (training and deployment) are separate and, crucially for this paper, the outcome of the training process is not a spatial object directly implementable but rather code. This marks a novelty in the history of the spatial design techniques which has been characterised by design instruments with stable properties determining the bounds of their implementation. Machine Learning models, on the other hand, are design instruments resulting from the training they undertake. In short, training a machine learning model has become an act of design. Beside spatial representation traditionally comprising of drawings, physical or CAD models, Machine Learning introduces an additional representational space: the vast, abstract, stochastic, multi-dimensional space of data, and their statistical correlations. This latter domain – broadly referred to as latent space – has received little attention by architects both in terms of conceptualising its technical organisation and speculating on its impact on design. However, the statistical operations structuring data in latent space offer glimpses of new types of spatial representations that challenge the existing creative processes in architectural and urban design. Such spatial representation can include non-human actors, give agency to a range of concerns that are normally excluded from urban design, expand the scales and temporalities amenable to design manipulation, and offer an abstract representation of spatial features based on statistical correlations rather than spatial proximity. The combined effect of these novelties that can elicit new types of organisation, both formally and programmatically. In order to foreground their potential, the ...
Expanded Design: Creativity, Machine Learning and Urban Design
The introduction of automated algorithmic processes (e.g. machine learning) in creative disciplines such as architecture and urban design has expanded the design space available for creativity and speculation. Contrary to previous algorithmic processes, machine learning models must be trained before they are deployed. The two processes (training and deployment) are separate and, crucially for this paper, the outcome of the training process is not a spatial object directly implementable but rather code. This marks a novelty in the history of the spatial design techniques which has been characterised by design instruments with stable properties determining the bounds of their implementation. Machine Learning models, on the other hand, are design instruments resulting from the training they undertake. In short, training a machine learning model has become an act of design. Beside spatial representation traditionally comprising of drawings, physical or CAD models, Machine Learning introduces an additional representational space: the vast, abstract, stochastic, multi-dimensional space of data, and their statistical correlations. This latter domain – broadly referred to as latent space – has received little attention by architects both in terms of conceptualising its technical organisation and speculating on its impact on design. However, the statistical operations structuring data in latent space offer glimpses of new types of spatial representations that challenge the existing creative processes in architectural and urban design. Such spatial representation can include non-human actors, give agency to a range of concerns that are normally excluded from urban design, expand the scales and temporalities amenable to design manipulation, and offer an abstract representation of spatial features based on statistical correlations rather than spatial proximity. The combined effect of these novelties that can elicit new types of organisation, both formally and programmatically. In order to foreground their potential, the ...
Expanded Design: Creativity, Machine Learning and Urban Design
Bottazzi, Roberto (author)
2024-12-01
doi:10.54195/technophany.18043
Technophany, A Journal for Philosophy and Technology; 2025: Online First; 1-19 ; 2773-0875 ; 10.54195/technophany.v2i1
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
DDC:
720
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