Discussing Design With an Artificial Intelligence Architecture Chatbot

Dr. Arch. Jonathan Dortheimer, Post-Doctoral Fellow

The project aims to develop a participatory urban design method that uses conversational interfaces to automate design discussions. Urban design is an institutional design process that aims to develop cities and improve communities. However, urban design is mainly performed using top-down design processes characterized by a disconnect between architects and end-users in large-scale urban projects, which leads to inferior urban design.

To address this issue, several participatory design methods have been introduced and gained popularity. It has been argued that participatory practices are essential for creating just cities and fostering inclusive communities. However, discussing design with many stakeholders can be challenging since there are significant knowledge gaps, and it requires much time and resources.

This project explores the utility of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools for engaging project stakeholders in the design process. We argue that this new technology can enable stakeholders to influence and intervene in design decisions through conversation. We develop an autonomous design chatbot that converses with humans and produces a collaborative design brief. Our experiment results using the chatbot demonstrate how AI can successfully automate design conversations in large-scale urban design projects and help communities influence their cities’ design.

Credits:
Associate Professor Wendy Ju – Cornell Tech
Associate Professor Aaron Sprecher
Professor Dr.-Ing. Frank Petzold – TU München