Nuno Fontarra is Partner at Mecanoo, where he has worked as an architect since 2002. Highly creative, innovative and flexible, Nuno has propelled the conceptualization and design development of many of Mecanoo’s most innovative and sculptural projects.
"Sketching by hand has always been the most powerful tool for architects. Our hands are still the best way to connect with our brains. We use sketches not only as a fast way to communicate ideas with others but also as a dialogue with ourselves.
Lately, I’ve been using AI as a sketchbook and library of ideas. I used to keep my sketchbook close so I could quickly jot down ideas and concepts for later use. Now that process is also done with AI by simply typing ideas and concepts into my phone via Midjourney. Just like hand sketching, it’s become a dialogue. As your idea starts to take form, you begin to see it more clearly with each drawing. Sometimes the final project is exactly what you had in mind when you started, but more often it is transformed through feedback.
Siza Vieira, a renowned architect, once said that architects copy from their memories. If you don’t fill your head with experiences and memories of past architecture, you are limiting your capacity for finding new solutions. It’s no surprise that artificial intelligence is starting to play a role in design projects. Even in its infancy, AI is able to produce a dialogue with architects, exchanging ideas and memories from a universal database. The process of creating with AI is so fast that it allows for infinite interactions. Accidents happen and the number of ideas keeps multiplying, the creation path keeps bifurcating and is a nonstop world of possibilities."
Read the full article at Architizer.