How AI Is Rewriting Architecture — Antoine Picon Explains the Future of Cities скачать в хорошем качестве

How AI Is Rewriting Architecture — Antoine Picon Explains the Future of Cities

Antoine Picon is Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology at Harvard Graduate School of Design and one of the field's most rigorous thinkers on the relationship between technology, urbanism, and human experience. In this conversation, he reframes the questions everyone asks about AI and architecture. Rather than debating whether machines will replace designers, Picon asks what AI reveals about what it means to be human. What separates embodied intelligence from computational thinking? Is creativity actually the defining human quality, or is it something else entirely? He discusses architectural intention, the difference between buildings and buildings marked by human purpose, and why the real challenge of smart cities isn't technical capability but clarity about what we actually want. This conversation examines whether machines can understand what makes a place livable, and why answering that question requires understanding ourselves first. Top Insights AI will shift architecture from creating forms to curating options. Smart cities introduce both efficiency and new urban fragilities. Digital perception reshapes how we experience materiality and scale. Ornament remains essential: it connects sensory experience with meaning. The biggest challenge ahead is reconciling digital innovation with planetary limits. Education is entering a 'cyborg phase' where human-machine authorship merges. Cities must redefine their relationship between the artificial and the natural. Timestamp: 00:00 Introduction 00:58 How AI is changing architecture 03:00 AI-assisted design and machine suggestions 05:12 Intelligence vs intention 07:30 Human judgment in an AI-driven workflow 09:40 Smart cities and digital infrastructure 11:20 Urban fragility and system risks 14:40 The morality of data-driven cities 18:20 Education in the cyborg era 18:55 The return of ornament 20:15 From symbolism to texture 22:40 Digital materiality and perception 24:10 Technology, nature, and the Anthropocene 27:25 Lessons from the Enlightenment 30:05 Digital architecture and disrupted traditions 33:20 Why Florence cannot be replicated 35:10 Architecture, memory, and meaning 39:20 Intellectual influences on Picon 40:47 Book recommendations 43:00 Future guest recommendation 44:20 Closing reflections