AI BIM. Can ArchiCAD be ready for that?

[Podolsky]

Hi there!

I have decided to start a separate thread about Artificial Intelligence in AEC. I hope here we will able to collect as much information as what happens today in the AI world, show examples of using AI in BIM programs and programs driven by AI, and discuss what architects and other AEC professionals would like to expect from it.

I have a very strong opinion, that these technologies will come to us very, very soon (because AI already exists in many things we are using every day - like search engines or digital photo applications) and this might be a very interesting subject to review.

Please find below a scheme I have prepared, showing how AI for BIM might look like.

Building elements (as we know tools in ArchiCAD) are controlled by placement algorithms, that coming from building classification databases). For example - placing partition walls in the office with the right chosen sound insulation, fire ratings, correct corridors lengths, fire escapes, etc.

I/O engine responsible for Input / Output - but in architectural terms - automatic drawings generation and publishing, remote communication, including communication via e-mails, teamwork, IFC exchange. It is something like a secretary-robot, that supervising the BIM project.

Language analyzer transforming languages into commands, understandable by the system (software). It can understand human language and communicate with him as a chatbot, it’s also can understand different languages - like Python, JavaScript, AutoLisp, etc. Even read IFC (because IFC is a script).

Physical simulations help to improve correct element placement. Simulations shall be 100% on physics (more like physical engines in 3D animation software). Includes loads, earthquakes, heat distribution and loss, fire spread, wind load, radiosity, and photon tracing, similar to Monte Carlo.

Additional block called construction simulations helps to represent the construction process, including delivery, animation of cranes and installation process, construction timeline, and similar.

Each building element has two additional layers - assembly (if it’s a wall, then it might be studs, cover, insulation, and brackets) and behavior. Behaviour is connected to both physical and construction simulations.

[DGSketcher]

I think the term AI is being over played here and the vote options miss the point. Creating mass human redundancy with AI isn't going to happen unless Lazy & Stupid Architects Inc. try to run for world domination.
Much as CAD has made the 2D process smarter it only ever a tool. Whether you think it is AI or an advanced algorithm, what will happen is evolving TOOLS for human use. When it comes to repetitive or complex tasks the tools will evolve e.g. matching a 3D model to a photograph or determining the most efficient use of timber, what it won't do is replace human creativity and empathy with a project. So, will AI ever be the driver in Architecture? No. Will increasingly smarter tools assist in the design process? Yes.

[Podolsky]

I think if AEC industry will adopt smart changes of technology, it can change the surrounding where we all live.
Russian architect Ivan Leonidov first proposed to collect all small houses with gardens into tower - and free space for gardens. That was revolutionary - to propose vertical layout for accommodation.
Bauhaus architects offered to remove decor from the buildings and make it simple and functional.
Le Corbusier proposed to have horizontal concrete slabs on columns with any sort of facade.
Oscar Niemayer proposed completely different look to urbanism - city of the future in Brasilia.
These pioneers of modern architecture changed and shaped architecture and today we all build following this revolution of beginning of 20 century.
Appearing of computer technology gave a chance to human beings to rethink and revolutionise the way how architects developing the projects and what happens on construction site. Financial collapse in 2008 forced several countries to start adopting BIM technology on government level.
But revolution somehow is not happening. Adaptation of BIM happening very slow, AEC industry turns BIM into new bureaucracy. We are using technologies more in computer games, film productions and social medias.
This is not good at all.
I've been modelling buildings in ArchiCAD for years. But one day I asked myself - why actually I have to draw walls and place windows there? Why computer cannot do all that for me? In theory it actually can - just nobody cares about it yet.

[DGSketcher]

Podolsky wrote:
I've been modelling buildings in ArchiCAD for years. But one day I asked myself - why actually I have to draw walls and place windows there? Why computer cannot do all that for me? In theory it actually can - just nobody cares about it yet.

You have to draw the wall & put the window there because AI will never know how to frame a view of the landscape that your client will appreciate - part of the quality of life. AI will say the optimum position is here to catch maximum sunlight to heat the building and the view will be lost. Smart tools will develop to meet need based on Return on Investment. Some joiners are just happy with a cutlist, others use CNC machines for repetitive or advanced cutting and then you have factories basically feeding in trees and shipping building panels out for erection. Individuals, all 7 Billion & counting, have always made their own choices on the tools they need to make life bearable from sticks & stones to advanced factories. Mythological sweeping statements that we ALL need AI to exist are unfounded. Go tell the indigenous people of the Amazon Rain Forest that they really should be using AI for their buildings and see what reaction you get.

[Podolsky]

"Text removed by moderator"
Please keep the conversation civil and on topic.

ejrolon

[DGSketcher]

"Text removed by moderator"
Please keep the conversation civil and on topic.

ejrolon

[Podolsky]

"Text removed by moderator"
Please keep the conversation civil and on topic.

ejrolon

[Eduardo Rolon]

I just removed the text from the 3 previous posts but left them as a warning.

[Podolsky]

Sorry, there were some silly conversations. Seems …. In any case there is a lot to think about.

There are more articles about AI in ArchiDaly:

https://www.archdaily.com/tag/artificial-intelligence

[Eduardo Rolon]

P,

Please stop insulting other users, this is your last warning.

[Bricklyne Clarence]

Podolsky wrote:
Disagree. To design a building - not necessary to open ArchiCAD (AutoCAD, Revit, Vectorworks) and start to draw. You can take a paper and start draw with a pen. And many architects still do that.
After you open web-site - some sort of chat interface with a bot and typing:
I need a building, located there and there, this amount of floors, that kind of structure, modern (or traditional). This way - communicating with robot and answering to its questions - you designing a building. Results are showing on the screen as previews.
Absolutely the same way, how some architects designing without touching computers - just instead of robot they have drafters.
So, robot is creating BIM file and at any moment person can connect to the file using BIM program and continue (if he wants) to work in BIM environment.

So, why not? Today the similar way we are using a lot of things. For example - when we take a photo with iPhone. We actually instead could say: "No, no! We don't need AI in photo processing! We need RAW file and will process everything manually in PhotoShop."

So why it's bad to have automatic function, that can convert PointCloud scan into BIM model completely automatically? Or help to make proposals for planning application and build later complete model with all necessary construction documentation?.....

So you're not replacing the designer but rather the drafter.

And you're replacing them with a "bot" or rather simple (read: "dumb") algorithm that intakes input and data performs some preconfigured calculations and then spits out imagery (or sets of imagery) that the actual designer then uses to decide how to proceed.

First of all, that's not AI in any real sense of the word.
That's more akin to an advanced of glorifed calculator combined with a spreadsheet/diagram generator that's replicating or replacing the functions that a drafter would have done.
It's not actually "designing" or making any actual decisions with regards to solving design issues and problems. And it's certainly not proposing any design solutions, concepts or ideas.
All that is coming from your end.

Secondly, we hardly use "drafters" in the traditional sense anymore.
Most people who work in the role that used to be considered "drafters" are now expected to do more than just "draft" or translate sketches into linework drawings and such.
You normally want someone who can quickly and accurately read design situations, solve a lot of the minor issues themselves using their own knowledge and experience and in general contribute more than just being an outlet through which images are spat out.
That part of the process is also not being replaces by AI or "bots" anytime soon.
Most of the people on these roles go on to be architects and designers or building technologists themselves and it is this part of the process that is a part in their preparation and training to end up being so - ideally under the supervision and tutelage of more experienced hands.

Put another way, the role of the designer and drafter are more often one in the same in a lot of offices.
So who's being replaced by the "bot", really?
Even if we're to assume that you're going to replace the architectural interns, and junior level designers with AI and bot functions and only have senior experienced architects and designers playing the role of supervising these bots and algorithms and making those "high level" design decisions, how do they get to be "senior" designers" or even architects, when the route we have as a profession to gain a large degree of that knowledge and experience has been eliminated?

Thirdly, your grossly over-simplifying everything, particularly in your examples and comparisons.
As an case in point, your example regarding Pointcloud scans.
There's no pointcloud scanning technology that I know of that has the level of resolution that gives you a scan of such great granular detail and precision on one end, and then (through some magic of algorithmic technology, I guess) you have spat out at the other end, a highly detailed and mostly accurate CAD drawing or 3D digital model of the same. A table-top and an slab are the same digital information to a pointcloud scanner, as are a wall and the side of a cabinet. So which gets drawn/modeled into a wall in the drawing?
Especially if this whole part is happening, as you seem to envision, without human input or intervention.

At some point you'd still have to have an actual human go and painstakingly clean up whatever information is produced like that for it to make sense from a building and construction perspective.

Yes, certain aspects of the design process such as space planning can greatly benefit from some kinds of algorithmic intervention and technology (like evolutionary or genetic algorithms) - particularly when they involve huge datasets, the possibility of an incredibly high number of options and more calculations than we normally care to deal with. Nobody is denying that in these situations the profession would benefit in advancements that take advantage of things like AI-assisted algorithms, iterative algorithms, or the other kinds of algorithmic computational methods I pointed out above.
But to imagine that at any point they're going to replace the human element wholesale in our field in particular and as has happened to some extent in some other (non-creative, more mass-production based) fields, is just closer to delusion and fantasy (rooted in a paucity of comprehension of the field of architecture) than any practical reality that any of us will ever see in our lifetimes.

In my opinion.