When the Seed of Creativity is Ceded to Artificial Intelligence

WILL ARCHITECTS EVOLVE INTO A.I. PROMPT ENGINEERS?

We are at the inception of a world where AI can be put in the hands of rogues (like me). Imagine what another year or two will bring us. 

Every image you will see in this article took less than 30 seconds to create, from conception to rendering. "I" made these using Midjourney AI via Discord. Rather than use any sketching,  I simply provided a brief prompt and let the AI "do its thing"

Here is the prompt: 

Design a 2500 square foot, single-family home that has 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, dining room, and den, modern building with wonderful natural daylight, geometrical, with simple curves, made with concrete, steel, and glass, where all window frames are mahogany, parametric architecture Grasshopper, in the golden hour time--v 5 --ar 5:8

The images you are about to see (including the cover image for this article), were presented to me in less time than it took me to upload them to this blog! Also, while I find some of these images unappealing, it is clear to me that the ground is shifting beneath us, and unless we are prepared to embrace the change or pivot in how we deliver our services, we can easily become irrelevant.

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Some of these images were a bit flamboyant, so I provided a modified prompt and got the following images in less than a minute.

Image #5:

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Next, I asked to see a curvilinear house on the beach and got this, again, in 30 seconds

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While this house looked interesting, I decided to see what I would get if I went a bit traditional

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Next, wanted to see some interior images

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While none of these would win AIA Design awards, they are certainly worrisome. If A.I. can do this today, I see no reason we will start to see some add-on tools that help prompt with more control, tweak areas we are dissatisfied with and eventually convert these into BIM models. 

Just wait. It's coming. Not only will we see this in our lifetime, but we will also see it upend our profession before the end of this decade.

You can bet on that!