Category: Proceedings

Spiros I. Papadimitriou, Agapi Proimou, Vasilis Stroumpakos

https://doi.org/10.60152/m14vxiw7

Abstract: Design is fundamentally a process of modification, iteration, and re-articulation. Bruno Latour’s assertion that “to design is always to redesign” gains renewed relevance in the context of contemporary architectural practice shaped by artificial intelligence. Rather than generating wholly novel forms, AI recombines existing architectural data—typologies, spatial patterns, and materials—reinforcing Latour’s view of design as transformation rather than origination. This integration redefines authorship, positioning the architect as a mediator within a network of human and machine collaborators. Through the comparative presentation of student projects that investigate the spatial potential of AI-generated imagery, this research raises critical questions across the following themes: Bias of the Prompt: Image references carry compositional and geometric traits into AI outputs. Complex inputs yield complex results, while minimal, structured prompts offer greater control. Generative AI often produces unexpected and abstract outcomes that bypass conventional references, functioning as intermediaries in the design process. These are not final forms, but catalysts for subjective spatial exploration. Recode the Plethora: AI’s prolific output demands criteria for selection and refinement. The design process is intentionally delayed to reintroduce critique, analysis, and evaluation as core components of architectural reflection. Synergy: Iteration with AI challenges fixed notions of authorship, encouraging adaptive workflows that integrate generative tools with traditional digital and physical modeling techniques. Catalytic Hybridization: AI acts as a catalyst for spatial experimentation, enabling novel spatial blends through visual recombination. This expands the creative toolkit for designers, educators, and students alike. The research contributes to ongoing discourse on AI’s evolving role in architecture, emphasizing its ability to mediate between conceptual speculation and material organization through human-machine synergy.

Keywords: AI, Design, Iteration, Authorship, Architectural Education

How to cite this Paper (Harvard referencing style):

Papadimitriou, S., Proimou, A. and Stroumpakos, V. (2025) ‘CODE, DECODE, RECODE. AI-Generated Imagery and Architectural Design Education‘, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Crosscutting and Fusion of Disciplines, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp. 123–138. 

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Branko Kolarevic

https://doi.org/10.60152/2m4jkgsf

Abstract: The integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies into architectural design education could have significant impact on the way students learn, with a potential to disrupt established pedagogic practices. In design studios, text-to-image GenAI technologies provide powerful tools for design development and visualization. In a radical departure from conventional modes of design conceptualization, students simply write about what is wanted/desired and then evaluate visually the images that are automatically generated by the chosen GenAI platform. This is done in an iterative fashion until a potentially interesting outcome is achieved. GenAI tools are also impacting student learning in other subjects that focus on reading, analysis, synthesis and essay writing, such as history and theory. Students increasingly rely on AI for outlining and writing rough drafts or to improve what they wrote. They can also use AI tools to “listen” to lectures, transcribe and summarize them, or for direct note taking; there are AI tools for source retrieval and synthesis that can be used in research. We need to fully explore the potential of AI tools in the context of architectural design education while addressing ethical and pedagogical considerations to ensure responsible integration. The principal question is how AI technologies can augment and enhance learning from conceptual design explorations to integrated source retrieval and synthesis that are central to many subjects covered in architectural curricula (and research). What are the essential AI competencies that design students should develop at the level of understanding or ability? How should instructors incorporate AI in their teaching? What are the emerging institutional policies that could impact the development of new pedagogical practices?

Keywords: artificial intelligence, generative artificial intelligence, design studio, architectural education

How to cite this Paper (Harvard referencing style):

Kolarevic, B. (2025) ‘Generative AI Technologies and Architectural Design Education‘, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Crosscutting and Fusion of Disciplines, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp. 117–122. 

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Davor Ereš, Jelena Mitrović, Petar Laušević

https://doi.org/10.60152/k3cotgq4

Abstract: This paper analyzes the exhibition project “UNRAVELING: New Spaces” at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia: Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. The exhibition is taken as a case study to explore cross-disciplinary collaboration within architectural practice. The theoretical framework of the exhibition posits that local legacies hold universal relevance. Specifically, the form-making skill of hand-knitting and the technological innovation of the Belgrade Hand, the world’s first robotic bionic hand. These seemingly disparate localities demonstrate – through the exhibition project – how collective, empathic, and idealistic practices are fundamental to disciplinary transformations. The core discourse is framed around the hand as an extension organ of mind and as a metaphor for the visibility of the border between natural and artificial intelligence. This set-up embodies collectiveness as a cross disciplinary approach, claiming that it is a platform of exploration, learning and invention. Within this interpretation project collectiveness is developed as a form of interdisciplinary cooperation. The project is further interpreted as a proposition to rethink architectural production through a process of cross disciplinary learning, which unfolds via experimenting, prototyping, and producing the exhibition form itself. The paper examines the particular international collaboration between architects, designers, programmers, and engineers as a model for inventive architectural practice, and further, it analyzes the design process of kinetic and cyclical architectural form. This form specifically employs materiality and energy to foreground a more comprehensive interpretation of architectural temporality, where cycles of composition and decomposition are projected simultaneously. The analysis offers a critical reflection on collectiveness, adaptability, and experimental learning as crucial drivers for the necessity of the up-coming architectural disciplinary change (Ereš, Mitrović 2025).

Keywords: interdisciplinary practice, exhibition project, architectural temporality, kinetic form

How to cite this Paper (Harvard referencing style):

Ereš, D., Mitrović, J. and Laušević, P. (2025) ‘Unraveling New Spaces: The Exhibition as an Interdisciplinary Project‘, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Crosscutting and Fusion of Disciplines, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp. 111–116. 

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Dejan Todorović, Ivan Šuković, Emir Šehanović, Miljana Zeković, Jasmina Nikodinović-Runić, Mirjana Đurišić

https://doi.org/10.60152/3hpi55yv

Abstract: Terram Intelligere – Interstitium, Montenegro’s contribution to the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia is presented as a case study in exploring cross-scalar, interdisciplinary architectural thinking. Rooted in the culturally and historically charged concept of međa — the dry-stone boundary lines that traverse the Montenegrin landscape — the project is both an artistic and scientific inquiry into how architecture can learn from the intelligence of natural-cultural landscapes and their living systems. Developed in partnership with the University of Belgrade – Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering (UB – IMGGE), through collaboration among architects, microbiologists, visual artists, and designers, the project revolves around cultivating native Montenegrin bacteria that produce bio-pigments, nanocellulose, and bioplastics. These natural production processes, that are ordinarily invisible and often overlooked, come into focus through the modulation of space, light, and sound within the exhibition venue. The result is an installation that does not merely represent a landscape, but performs as one, showcasing ongoing material transformation. Situated between micro (biological) and macro (territorial) scales, Interstitium pursues a methodology of translation across spatial systems (from landscape to gallery space), material processes (from microbial life to architectural gestures), and discursive frameworks (from scientific observation to artistic expression), while asking: Which new forms of disciplinary cooperation could emerge when the boundaries between architecture, biology, and art are deliberately blurred? Could architecture operate across scales, as a medium that not only detects but also interprets, and materially articulates the intelligence of other species? Could architecture also become a platform for dismantling human dominance over the planet while imagining the future as a space of coexistence, attunement and shared agency? By focusing on the interstitial — what exists between scales, species, and disciplines — this project proposes a shift in architectural thinking: from mastering complexity to listening and attuning to it. This shift resonates with current discussions on interdisciplinary cooperation, situated design practices, and architecture’s ever evolving role as a mediator between human and nonhuman worlds.

Keywords: architectural thinking, cross-scalar translation, microbial intelligence, interdisciplinarity, human culture, microbial culture, Terram Intelligere – Interstitium

How to cite this Paper (Harvard referencing style):

Todorović, D., Šuković, I., Šehanović, E., Zeković, M., Nikodinović-Runić, J. and Đurišić, M. (2025) ‘Interstitium In-Between Scales: Translating Microbial Intelligence into Architectural Thinking‘, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Crosscutting and Fusion of Disciplines, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp. 104–110. 

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Igor Svetel, Slađana Marković, Markus Hudert

https://doi.org/10.60152/i80enc6z

Abstract: The field of artificial intelligence (AI) has recently attracted the attention of many disciplines due to the exceptional accomplishments and rapidly emerging possibilities. Architecture, a discipline traditionally skeptical of new technologies, is intrigued by the results achieved with generative neural networks. The emergence of new technologies in the field of generative artificial intelligence has led to numerous scenarios among architects about possible applications of these technologies in their practice. A large number of these scenarios are based on the functionality of commercially available Large Language Models and their application to text to image and image to image transformations. A smaller number of scenarios are based on specific applications of AI technologies through the development of real software solutions. The paper critically analyzes existing scenarios through a review of existing research and a description of software solutions. The focus is on the application of Generative Neural Networks and the paper provides an overview of the functioning of the basic classes of neural networks that make up this technology. An analysis of how artificial neural networks work shows that they all depend on the data set used to train them. Today’s neural networks use an enormous amount of data, but even that is limited to what is available in electronic format. The main source of general knowledge is online encyclopedias, while expert knowledge is provided by published articles that have a certain level of reliability. Architects who are mistrustful of this technology need to understand that better results can only be achieved through higher-quality training data sets and that their protectively guarded knowledge also comes from studying the work of other architects.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; AI; architecture; Generative Neural Networks; training sets

How to cite this Paper (Harvard referencing style):

Svetel, I., Marković, S. and Hudert, M. (2025) ‘The role of AI in architecture: fantasies and reality‘, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Crosscutting and Fusion of Disciplines, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp. 96–103. 

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Davina Jogi

https://doi.org/10.60152/c5cc6ky9

Abstract: As a Zimbabwean documentary photographer trained and working in southern Africa, I have been conscious of the shift from the centre to the margins in photographic discourse that is redefining how photography is perceived, practiced and taught globally. In this paper I intend to outline this move away from eurocentric knowledge structures, methodologies and practices towards what are considered decolonial photographic practices as described by Rolando Vázquez Melken (2024). Exploring the impetus behind this transition, the paper will investigate what role informal, grassroots and community-based African institutions have played as agents of change. Photography’s entanglement with the domination and erasure of colonized people is becoming more thoroughly understood and appreciated through the work of theorists such as Mark Sealy (2018) and Ariella Aïsha Azoulay (2019). This reality compromises the way the medium has long been taught, utilized and interpreted in post colonial cultures. Further complicating the situation across Africa, I suggest that the institutions of photography education and research have limited reach and are often siloed from commercial and media related image making, which serves to perpetuate problematic representations of the continent. Utilizing my experience as a student of the Market Photo Workshop (MPW) in South Africa, a founding director of the Zimbabwe Association of Female Photographers (ZAFP) and more recently, a PhD candidate carrying out practice-based research in photography, the paper will explore what decolonial photography education looks like in an African context. Informal associations and organisations like The Other Vision (Sudan), Unpublished Africa (Zimbabwe-based) and Espace Partage Photo (Mali) are arguably creating a new photography pedagogy which has naturally emerged from this necessity to use the photographic medium against itself. The paper proposes that these local responses may be relevant to other contexts with shared colonial histories.

Keywords: decolonial photography, photography pedagogy, African photography

How to cite this Paper (Harvard referencing style):

Jogi, D. (2025) ‘Towards an informal photography pedagogy on the African continent‘, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Crosscutting and Fusion of Disciplines, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp. 64–73. 

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24/7 Spaces of Collective Practice Team

https://doi.org/10.60152/8z1rcflk

Abstract: 24/7 Spaces of Collective Practice showcases the work of students from the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Architecture, who, through an experimental pedagogical framework, explored the possibilities of everyday, all-day living in public and institutional spaces. By engaging in collaborative work, dialogue, and spatial drawing, students reflected on architecture born from immediate needs, with active involvement from the body, community, and context. 24/7 Spaces of Collective Practice not only showcases results but, more importantly, presents a method – a form of learning that is collective, open, and grounded in exchange. Through collaborative work, drawing in physical space, and articulating space through action, the project emphasizes design as a shared experience. In an era marked by fragmented educational models and growing individualism, this practice highlights the significance of common space—not only as a physical reality but also as a way of thinking. The common table becomes a site for exchanging ideas, while the tape on the floor serves as the first trace of architecture – one that emerges directly from life.

Keywords: architecture, teaching, action drawing, 1:1 scale, public-private 24h space use

How to cite this Paper (Harvard referencing style):

Rašković, I., Bogosavljević, J., Mojsilović, M., Zlatković, S., Jerković Babović, B., Todorović, D., Zorić, A., Filipović, I., Stojanović, D., Kordić, N., Dukanac, D., Spasenović, V., Cigić, P., Ilić, J., Dedić, S., Subotić, A. and Petrović R.(2025) ‘24/7: Spaces of Collective Practice, Learning through collaborative discussions and action drawing‘, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Crosscutting and Fusion of Disciplines, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp. 59–63. 

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Connor Goddard

https://doi.org/10.60152/3utwwwox

Abstract: Throughout the everyday, our perceptions around work ahead of us is routinely negotiated, yet consistently pre-determined. While clear desks and empty calendars may signal certain freedoms through the workday, academic structures, semesters, and deadlines can be viewed a disturbance from delving deeply into tasks often neglected. While often painted into our work as a requirement for certain individuals within the academy, research can be neglected, not through desire, nor purposefully, yet due to the constrained nature of our work. Here, research can be viewed as the newly acquired LEGO set, sitting unopened on a shelf ready to be built, yet requiring time, and space, to do so. Often, our own research can be left unopened, or built slowly, rather than being valued as the passion projects many of us hope such practice to be. While fulfilment can often be achieved through this slower means of production, a deeper investment and dedication to the task is often desired. This is not to say that work otherwise lacks personal value, meaning, or fulfilment – quite the opposite. Instead, we, as academics, find ways of pulling research into other work (i.e. teaching), shaping positive pedagogical outcomes and through knowledge production. In many cases, further opportunities and passions emerge from this deep investment in student success and through the facilitation of learning. This contribution aims to express the fine line between passion-projects and practicalities walked by many throughout the academy. Through personal examples developed through teaching practice and in ongoing work towards the completion of PhD research, this submission touches on both the challenges, and the rewards which can be reaped through involvement and investment in the diverse structures and dynamic day-to-day practices as part of tertiary education. Notably, this submission frames such academic challenges and opportunities through a geographic lens, drawing on case study examples of rural retirement migration, and the complex entanglements of decision-making in later-life currently being explored through PhD research in Western Australia.

How to cite this Paper (Harvard referencing style):

Goddard, C. (2025) ‘Passion and Practicalities: Exploring distraction, routine, and production through geographic teaching and research in Western Australia‘, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Crosscutting and Fusion of Disciplines, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp. 54–58. 

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