The DRP aims to pose questions concerning the role of digital mediums, starting from the Paperless studio and its consequences in academia as well as practice. Using the advent of new digital modes of engagement as a starting point, students will dwelve into the relationship of architects and designers with machine learning and AI.
AI is a rapidly evolving medium which has still not been integrated into traditional softwares. This makes it a potent ground to evaluate our defaults of working with software and how designers integrate AI in their existing workflows. In the current milieu, it is possible that architectural projects are influenced by vasts amounts of datasets and constantly evolving deep learning algorithms. The DRP aims to question the need for designers in the 21st century to develop their own personalized tools rather than relying on pre-packaged standardized software. The research will pose questions about how digital tools subverts authorship, creativity, nature of collaboration, labour and fabrication.
-Students are trained to close read projects produced through advanced digital workflows, to arrive at novel anecdotes and compare them with traditional modes of architectural making. Students will also study novel ways in which architecture studios integrate the digital with traditional means of making.
-Studio briefs from architecture universities and architectural designers who use machine learning and AI methodologies will be studied to arrive at conclusions on autonomy, curation, creativity and representation. Students will question how these new tools challenge traditional modes of communication and learning.
-Students will compare and evaluate digital tools made by designers, to make a case for the need for designers of the 21st century to develop personalized integrated design tools rather than rely on standardized software packages.
