On Architecture

Artificial Intelligence Tools in the Visualization and Architectural Reinterpretation

Vesna Stojaković, Isidora Đurić, Marko Jovanović, Igor Kekeljević, Tijana Palkovljević Bugarski, Aleksandra Čelovski

Abstract: The application of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for image generation has become widely popular in recent years. AI-based visualization tools have become increasingly accessible, affordable, and capable, allowing image generation without complex 3D modeling. The rapid development of generative AI enables the production of visual content from simple input data such as text and images, significantly reducing the time and effort required while offering a broad range of interpretive possibilities. Although these tools are useful for artistic and creative explorations, in architectural visualization there is a major challenge of controlling space, shapes, and elements in the resulting image. A series of generated visualizations are tested, illustrating the strengths, limitations, and interpretive flexibility of AI tools in architectural visualization. This paper explores the potential of AI tools for visualization and architectural representation. The aim of this paper is to analyze how to control the process of AI image generation in order to create meaningful results that support architectural visualization and the virtual reconstruction of under-documented or lost heritage spaces. The workflow is tested in the field of cultural heritage by producing historically valid visuals of 18th-century castle interiors in Vojvodina, Serbia. For many of these structures, especially their interiors, very limited documentation exists regarding their original appearance. While some have been completely demolished, others have undergone significant alterations due to functional changes over time. Virtual reconstructions of richly decorated historical interiors, based solely on textual descriptions or scarce photographic records, pose a significant challenge to experts including architects, conservators, and art historians. Traditional 3D modeling for visualizing lost or altered spaces is highly time-consuming and requires advanced technical skills.

Keywords: artificial intelligence (AI), architecture, visualization, cultural heritage

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Stojaković, V., Đurić, I., Jovanović, M., Kekeljević, I., Palkovljević Bugarski, T. and Čelovski, A. (2025) ‘Artificial Intelligence Tools in the Visualization and Architectural Reinterpretation‘, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Crosscutting and Fusion of Disciplines, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp. 148–156.

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Into the Open: Towards an Educational Framework for AI-Assisted Design in Architecture

Timo Carl, Renate Weissenböck, Carsten Rohde

https://doi.org/10.60152/0dojw0e9

Abstract: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping architectural design by opening new avenues for visual ideation while introducing conceptual and technical challenges that surpass traditional computational methods. Tools like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and StyleGAN facilitate rapid image generation, enabling intuitive exploration of form and atmosphere. Yet, scholars highlight that AI-generated imagery often tends toward superficial aesthetics, hyperrealism, and lack of spatial reasoning, raising concerns about its architectural substance. Therefore, it is indicated to employ a hybrid approach that enhances design ideation while maintaining architectural intentionality – offering a model for “architectural intelligence”. Based on these observations, we developed a pedagogical framework that addresses the aforementioned limitations while preserving the open-ended and exploratory nature of design. This was tested in an interdisciplinary design seminar, emphasizing iterative feedback loops and reflection in action, fostering conceptual thinking, critical assessment, and design agency. Aiming to develop a balance between control and creative discovery in the use of generative AI, the seminar brief intentionally omitted a predefined program and site. Instead, students explored human-AI co-design strategies across three architectural interconnected scales: urban (Constellation), building (Body), and material and texture (Surface). AI tools – including text-to-image and fine-tuning techniques – were interlaced with analog and digital media such as sketching, collaging, and 3D modelling.

Keywords: artificial intelligence in architecture; architectural design education; generative design tools; ai assisted ideation; pedagogical frameworks, hybrid design methodologies

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How to cite this Paper (Harvard referencing style):

Carl, T., Weissenböck, R. and Rohde, C. (2025) ‘Into the Open: Towards an Educational Framework for AI-Assisted Design in Architecture‘, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Crosscutting and Fusion of Disciplines, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp. 139–147.

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CODE, DECODE, RECODE. AI-Generated Imagery and Architectural Design Education

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

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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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Generative AI Technologies and Architectural Design Education

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

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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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Unraveling New Spaces: The Exhibition as an Interdisciplinary Project

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

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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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Interstitium In-Between Scales: Translating Microbial Intelligence into Architectural Thinking

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

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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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The Role of AI in Architecture: Fantasies and Reality

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

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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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Algorithmic Architectures: Spatial Politics of Critical Art in the Age of AI

Jelena Guga

https://doi.org/10.60152/3o4uxyvb

Abstract: In contemporary postdigital condition, algorithmic infrastructures increasingly shape the contours of everyday life. From data extraction and classification to predictive modeling and decision-making, artificial intelligence systems function as invisible architectures that structure perception, behavior, and access. This talk explores how critical AI art practices interrogate these algorithmic frameworks, revealing their embedded biases, socio-technical entanglements, and implications for power, agency, and social organization. By exposing and disrupting the logics of automation, surveillance, and optimization, artists reclaim agency within systems that otherwise obscure the conditions of their own operation. The central argument is that algorithmic systems should be understood as a form of spatial and architectural design, not only shaping digital environments but also structuring how we inhabit and navigate physical and social realities. Critical AI artworks function as counter-architectural practices: they map, destabilize, and reimagine the infrastructures that increasingly define identity, labor, and governance. Rather than treating these systems as neutral tools, such works foreground their aesthetic, ethical, and structural dimensions, challenging viewers to engage with the material and societal stakes of datafication. Drawing on postdigital and new media frameworks, the talk considers how algorithmic architectures operate at the intersections of code, culture, and space. It reflects on how these systems produce not only representations but also lived conditions, redefining the boundaries between art, politics, and infrastructure. By tracing how artists conceptualize, expose, and rework the logics of AI, the paper shows how such practices create a critical vocabulary for engaging with contemporary technopolitical environments. They offer speculative imaginaries and situated interventions that help us reimagine how digital systems could be repurposed toward more transparent, equitable, and collectively shaped futures.

Keywords: Critical AI art, Postdigital aesthetics, Datafication, Algorithmic spatialities, Machine vision politics

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How to cite this Paper (Harvard referencing style):

Guga, J. (2025) ‘Algorithmic Architectures: Spatial Politics of Critical Art in the Age of AI‘, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Crosscutting and Fusion of Disciplines, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp. 89–95.

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Holobiontic Architecture: From Monologue to Multispecies Dialogue

Rachel Armstrong

https://doi.org/10.60152/9c5tsmon

Abstract: Holobiontic architecture reimagines buildings as dynamic, multispecies ecosystems—spaces where humans, microbes, and environmental forces interact in continuous exchange. Within this framework, buildings are understood as meta-holobionts: nested assemblages of holobionts that include human occupants, microbial consortia, and environmental agents. This vision centres on the concept of the building-as-reef—an architectural typology that promotes biodiversity, supports regenerative processes, and secures ecological relationships. Like coral reefs, these buildings provide habitat, structure, and metabolic function, transforming the built environment into a scaffold for life. The design strategy that shapes microbial colonization on building surfaces is eco-ornamentation: the intentional crafting of textured, patterned surfaces to support microbial life. These surfaces are not merely decorative; they are biocatalytic, hosting metabolically active organisms that contribute to carbon fixation, pollutant degradation, and redox cycling. In anaerobic zones, advanced bioelectrochemical systems embedded within wastewater infrastructure act as biosensors and metabolic processors, enabling buildings to sense, adapt, and participate in biogeochemical cycles. In contrast to modernist ideals of sterility and minimalism, holobiontic design embraces managed mutualism, where hygiene is reconceived as the cultivation of beneficial microbial communities. Ornamentation becomes a site of ecological function, merging aesthetic expression with biological performance. At the urban scale, individual structures operate as nodes in distributed microbial infrastructures—forming city scale immune systems capable of responding to environmental stressors in real time. This expanded view positions architecture within a broader ecological continuum, where built forms participate in multispecies networks that span scales and domains. Holobiontic architecture thus offers a new protocol for cohabitation: a spatial and biological contract grounded in reciprocity, ecological intelligence, and multispecies collaboration. It provides practical tools for regeneration and a transformative design ethic—one that aligns human habitation with the microbial systems that sustain planetary life.

Keywords: holobiont, eco-ornamentation, microbiome, bioelectrochemical systems, building-as-reef

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How to cite this Paper (Harvard referencing style):

Armstrong, R. (2025) ‘Holobiontic Architecture: From Monologue to Multispecies Dialogue‘, in R. Bogdanović (ed.) On Architecture — Crosscutting and Fusion of Disciplines, Proceedings. Belgrade, Serbia: STRAND, pp. 76–88.

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Towards an informal photography pedagogy on the African continent

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

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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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