AI for the Built Environment Lecture Series – Firas Safieddine

AI for the Built Environment Lecture Series – Firas Safieddine

Location: Online

The lecture is part of the events organized in the framework of the 10th Advanced Architecture Contest that invites architects, designers, and innovators to explore the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the built environment. Discover more.

Firas Safieddine is a leading practitioner whose work spans architecture, urbanism, design, Ecology, and neurotechnology. He coined “Electrical Ecologies”, and aims at designing the first ‘architecture brain implant’. With the mission to redefine the spatial design discourse, Firas is the founder and executive strategist at Spatial Forces, a next-gen spatial design practice operating across scales and media, from the microcontroller to the territory. His professional involvement goes beyond design, to strategy, writing, community building, and academia. He is the Chief Architect at Gamium, Founder and Creative Strategist at Urbanitarian, author at UrbanNext, and Chapter lead at NeurotechBCN, the Barcelona chapter of NeurotechX.

He holds a bachelor’s in Architecture from the University of Balamand through the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts and a post-professional master’s degree from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya through the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, and certifications from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT on Smart Mobility and Emerging Design and Technologies beyond Smart Cities.

The What, Why, and How Behind the Buzzword of the Year – AI

Much like past technological advancements that reshaped architecture, AI stands as a contender to be a vital element in the future of design. AI models are now integral throughout the design process, from data collection and simulation to conceptualization, modeling, and visualization.

Understanding intelligence as an emergent property of material assemblages unlocks new highways of exploration within the context of spatial design and creative production at broad. On the one hand, understanding the fundamentals and defining AI within the design context, and on the other, experimenting with design workflows and AI models to create works relevant within the architecture and spatial design context.

The talk will set the groundwork for a comprehensive understanding of what is AI, examine architectural and design questions that can be the catalysts behind AI experimentation, and finally, run through workflows and projects that adopt AI as as an integral component of the creative process.