Artificial Intelligence in Architecture (AI+A) Salon 1: Value/Values

By bringing people together within the architecture, engineering, construction, and operations (AECO) industry alongside experts from AI-related fields, the Artificial Intelligence in Architecture (AI+A) Salon series hopes to foster productive discussion and explore solutions for leveraging AI technology in AECO by bridging the gap between practice and academic research. This four-part series aims to create archives and, ultimately, publications and whitepapers from these salon sessions to share with the broader public and help push the industry into wider technology adoption.

The first session will be focused on what "value" AI can offer the AECO sector. These overlapping but distinct sectors are all beholden to systemic issues where data transfer is not consistent and requires each profession to determine how best to structure their practice and how that data can be valuable to them self. Through creating a dialogue between the sectors, the first session aims to understand how each industry takes advantage of AI and what specific overlap opportunities exist for more effective "data highways" to connect the disciplines, leading to greater opportunities for everyone.

Speakers:
Elizabeth Bowie Christoforetti, Assistant Professor, Harvard GSD
Dan Reynolds, Senior Associate | AI Product Lead, Walter P Moore
Murat Melek, PhD SE, Director of Artificial Intelligence, Suffolk Construction
Charlie Portelli, AIA, RIBA, CDT, Associate and Digital Innovation Strategist, Perkins&Will

About the Speakers:
Elizabeth Bowie Christoforetti's research and teaching focus on emerging modes of design practice in the built environment. Her work at Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) explores design methods, theories, and the technological building blocks that enable design practice to better confront the imperatives of our time, namely the intersection of artificial intelligence, environmental change, and market-driven urbanism. In her role as Principal Investigator within the Laboratory for Values in the Built Environment (ViBE Lab), her research aims to uncover the potentials and challenges surrounding scalable systems of design by daylighting, operating upon, and designing new socio-technical systems—design that is dependent upon a combination of social and technological processes, and collaboration between them. In practice, Christoforetti directs Supernormal, a design studio based in Cambridge, MA. She founded Supernormal to create meaningful and practical change through the intersection of architecture, urbanism, technology, and contemporary culture. Christoforetti directs Supernormal as an engaged design practice that meets the world exactly as it is, and with a glass that is half full. Her design practice, research, and teaching explore the cultural implications of large data sets, human-machine collaboration, and scalable systems of design. Christoforetti’s work joins a perspective of radical pragmatism with a deep value for the potential of design imagination. 
 
Dan Reynolds is the AI Leader at Walter P Moore and a structural engineer with expertise in specialty structures. After delivering complex and high-profile projects, Reynolds now leads a team of structural engineers and AI developers who are reinventing the project delivery process from the ground up. Committed to a better-built world, their mission is to support project teams with innovative solutions, real-time optioneering, and data-driven insights at scale through custom software applications and APIs. 

Murat Melek is the Director of Design AI at Suffolk Construction, bringing over 20 years of experience in the AEC industry. He holds a Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from UCLA and a Master’s in Data Science from UC Berkeley. Melek specializes in applying AI and data-driven solutions to transform construction, bridging the gap between engineering, design, and technology. 

Charlie Portelli is a licensed architect based in New York City, Charles has strong interests in exploring new methodologies that link computation, design, and fabrication. Currently, he is an Associate and Digital Innovation Strategist for Perkins&Will’s I/O group, where he focuses on envisioning 3D models and data as a focal point for project design and delivery strategies. Portelli also teaches Environmental Parametrics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Center for Architecture and Sustainable Ecologies (CASE) program, where he focuses on combining parametric modeling, optimization, and daylighting as a strategy to inform design. Previously, he has taught and guest lectured at multiple institutions, including Pratt, CUNY College of Technology, and MIT. Prior to his current role, Portelli was a Vice President at Thornton Tomasetti’s CORE studio where he headed up operations for a TTWiin startup called Konstru, focusing on BIM interoperability for structural engineers. Portelli was also Senior Product Manager at Flux.io where he developed the product roadmap and oversaw multiple teams for the development of streamlined AEC integrations for a common data environment.