Review: First international symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Architecture Innovation in Vienna

The first international AI Symposium organized jointly by TU Vienna research unit RED – Project development and management, RICS and the  IPRE – Institute for Property Research took place on November 24^th in one of TU Vienna’s lecture halls at Karlsplatz 13. Organizers and participants consider it a unique format and a huge success which is worth regular repetition in the years to come.

The distinguished selection of participating speakers not only enabled a wide range of discussions on various topics and applications of artificial intelligence, but also provided a deep insight behind the scenes of various companies. Worth mentioning is especially the digital keynote of Patrik Schumacher during which the participants were able to experience a deep-dive behind the curtains of Zaha Hadid Architects research and training of AI, including their application and real-life examples, with a library and approach building. Of particular interest was also the franc talk about the limitations they hit and how they are trying to overcome them.

The symposium, was moderated by IPRE researcher and TU assistant M.Arch Mariya Korolova and CEO of Mofidian Attorney, Mag. Manuel Mofidian, excelled with talks on the application and usage of AI in real estate. Especially two presented projects from experts were of utmost interest for the application in the future. The first aims at exposing how decarbonisation calculations, certification, and forecast is done with support from the latest AI technology, the latter has a holistic approach to the processes, needs, and project management concerning factory buildings.

In addition to lectures, discussions, and a live event on AI and ethics, the event offered a review of the past semester at TU Vienna in which students dealt with the topics “ai in structural engineering, architecture concept stage, urban development, floorplan design, post-war and catastrophic Restauration, cooperative human-Designer language, emotions & colour, issues with biases and ethics, and others”.
While all of the students‘ work was well structured and highly detailed, the research results of these three students can be recognised as outstanding:

• Robin Bohdansky – „Stable diffusion at different stages of architecture design and planning“
• Shana Ansari Shahrezaei – „How do the gender biases observed in AI-generated images relate to the perceptions of individuals?“
• Roland Wolf – „Possibilities of AI enhanced floorplan design in residential projects“

We would like to express our sincere and heartfelt appreciation to all speakers and participants for the successful start of a series of symposia on the topic of Artificial Intelligence and Architecture Innovation. Please stay tuned for updates on topics for future AI symposia in 2024.

Lecturers:

• M.Sc. Paul Lensing (RICS) and Univ. Prof. Prof. h.c. Dipl.-Ing. Dietmar Wiegand (TU Vienna Research Unit RED / IPRE): Welcoming words at the event
• M.Arch Mariya Korolova (TU Vienna Research Unit RED / IPRE): Introduction to AI
• Dipl.-Ing.in Maria Antonia Zahlbruckner (TU Vienna /Research Unit Integral Planning): AI-supported Outcome driven industrial Building design
• Patrik Schumacher (Zaha Hadid Architects): Keynote
• Manuel Mofidian (Mofidian Attorney): Law, Ethics and Biases of AI
• Fabian Pitscheider (OPTIMUSE): AI and Real Estate
• Dr. Ayse Glass (online calling from Tokyo): Digital City Science at Hafen City University – AI, Synthetic Data Generation and Application Use Cases for Smart Cities

Text: Pirka Grönwaldt-Martin, M.A. und M.Arch Mariya Korolova
Pictures: Dipl.-Ing. Shanine Alpen, Isabel Huber, B.A. und Christine Schmitz, B.Sc.