Zaha Hadid Architects use AI to generate ideas for their projects

Artificial intelligence or AI seized public attention. The massive increase in the use of AI, which has been accelerated by the introduction of ChatGPT, sparked a new debate around this technology and its impact on society. Artificial intelligence is taking over software engineering, marketing, and architecture, among other professional fields.  

While some industry leaders, such as Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak warn about the risks associated with AI, others, including Patrik Schumacher, the principal architect of Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), embrace such tools in their work. In a recent roundtable discussion, Schumacher revealed that the firm uses AI to come up with early ideas for projects.

"Not every single project is using it but let's say most – I'm encouraging everybody who's working on competitions and early ideation to see what comes up and just to have a larger repertoire," said Patrik Schumacher. "For me, it's always been very similar to verbal-prompting teams, referencing prior projects and ideas and gesticulating with my hands.”

Zaha Hadid Architects use image-generating programs like DALL-E 2, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion to create early drafts of their designs. At the recent panel, Patrik Schumacher showed an extensive catalog of AI-generated imaginary buildings featuring curvy facades and concrete materials popularized by the Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. 

"Nearly all of them have 'Zaha Hadid' in the prompting with various sorts of attributes and programmatic suggestions, etcetera," Schumacher said. "I accept all of that into our oeuvre. Any of what comes out of this, I claim authorship for it in terms of validating, selecting, elaborating. So I feel very kind of empowered by all this possibility."

The world-famous architect, Zaha Hadid, embraced new technology in her designs but often began her projects with a hand drawing. She used calligraphic drawing to visualize her architectural ideas. Zaha Hadid Architects, one of the biggest architecture firms in the UK, set up an internal research group to further investigate the impact of AI.

Resources:

“AI and the Future of Design Roundtable Discussion,” by DigitalFUTURES world (YouTube, 2023)

“ZHA developing "most" projects using AI-generated images says Patrik Schumacher,” by Nat Barker (dezeen, 2023)

“The Zaha Hadid AI Feedback Loop,” by Diana Budds (Curbed, 2023)

“One of the UK’s Biggest Architecture Firms Uses AI in an Unexpected Way,” by Tobias Carroll (InsideHook, 2023)