AI+A Series, Part 7: From World Models to the Built World

The AIANY Future of Practice Committee’s Artificial Intelligence in Architecture (AI+A) series combines workshops and conversations on the emerging role of AI in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Operations (AECO) industries. What happens when AI moves beyond generating images and information to understanding physical relationships, navigating real-world constraints, and taking action? How might this change the role of architects, designers, and the environments we create?

This seventh installment in the AI+A series brings together researchers, technologists, and designers working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, robotics, and architecture to explore these questions.

Through a series of presentations and a Q&A, the program will examine three interconnected themes:

• Understanding the Physical World: How are world models, spatial intelligence, simulation, and machine perception enabling AI systems to understand and reason about physical environments?
• Designing with World Models & Physical Intelligence: How might AI transform architectural design, computational methods, material systems, and the relationship between design and fabrication?
• Acting in the Built World: How are autonomous robots and embodied AI systems beginning to navigate, interact with, construct, and maintain our physical environments?

Rather than treating these developments as separate technological advances, the discussion will explore their convergence and what it could mean for the future of architectural practice.

Speakers:
Brian Ringley, Principal Product Manager, Boston Dynamics
Alexandros Tsamis, Associate Professor & Director of CASE, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
Julian Ocampo, Senior Director of Building Design, ICON
Ray Wang, Principal Research Scientist, Autodesk Research
Robert Stuart-Smith, Associate Professor of Architecture & Design Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
José Luis García del Castillo y López, Teaching Professor of Computational Design, Northeastern University