On the Impact of Machine Learning: Architecture without Architects?
Catarina Belém, Luís Santos, António Leitão · 2019
Architecture has always followed and adopted technological breakthroughs of other areas. As a case in point, in the last decades, the field of computation changed the face of architectural practice. Considering the recent breakthroughs of Machine Learning (ML), it is expectable to see architecture adopting ML-based approaches. However, it is not yet clear how much this adoption will change the architectural practice and in order to forecast this change it is necessary to understand the foundations of ML and its impact in other fields of human activity. This paper discusses important ML techniques and areas where they were successfully applied. Based on those examples, this paper forecast hypothetical uses of ML in the realm of building design. In particular, we examine ML approaches in conceptualization, algorithmization, modeling, and optimization tasks. In the end, we conjecture potential applications of such approaches, suggest future lines of research, and speculate on the future face of the architectural profession.