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Joint Initiative on AI in Architecture, Urban Planning and Design

The UNESCO Chair in Urban Landscape at the University of Montréal and the Digital Visual Center at the University of Zurich are launching an initiative on artificial intelligence (AI) in architecture, urban planning and design (AUPD). The initiative is headed by Prof. Shin Koseki, Dr Sc. (UNESCO Chair Professor in Urban Landscape) and Dr. Dario Negueruela del Castillo (Scientific coordinator of the Center for Digital Visual Studies).

The integration of AI in AUPD remains limited despite the technology’s increasing presence in many other domains of research and industry. At the level of buildings, AI intervenes mostly in automating the conception of plans layouts and facade design. At the city level, engineers use the technology in managing urban infrastructure, especially for optimizing the distribution of people, goods and energy. It is not yet clear how AI could contribute to improving cities at the level of neighborhoods.

To lever the potential of AI technology at the intermediary scale between building and the city, this initiative develop three action sets. The first set concerns the organization of interdisciplinary research seminars on the potential of AI technology in AUPD and associated disciplines such as art, urban science and geography. The second set concerns the organization of inter- and transdisciplinary workshops on the governance of AI from the perspective of urban communities, spaces and systems. The third set takes the form of an ongoing observatory on the urban and architectural development and implementation of AI.

Interested parties are invited to contact Shin Koseki ([email protected]) for more information about the joint initiative.