Course Details

The Master in Advanced Computation for Architecture & Design – MaCAD is a unique online programme training a new generation of architects, engineers and designers with the skills that the industry of Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) demands nowadays.

The programme provides expertise in the application of the latest digital softwares for design simulation, analysis and optimization of digital data in architecture, offering a broad and advanced theoretical and practical knowledge of computational design.

Based on a Data Driven, Learning by doing and Design by Research methodology, the master offers a unique online educational experience.

Prompt: “A building generated by artificial intelligence” – Image generated with Midjourney

Competition Details

The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia announces every year a Scholarship Competition giving our master’s applicants the chance to win partial scholarships covering 50%, 30%, 20% of the tuition fee of each IAAC’s Educational Programme.

Project Brief

“Building Hallucinations” – The current hype of AI-powered tools for synthetic image generation from text prompt powered by research initiatives such as Midjourney, Dall-e, Imagen and others is undoubtedly proposing alluring promises as well as difficult questions and challenges to the architectural trade. 

These tools currently serve as means of inspiration for creators, usually providing unforeseen marvellous hallucinations from textual input, but lack the ability to create models with the complexity of everything that a building currently requires. 

In parallel, the tendency in the architectural trade seems to indicate that the building creation process requires a model of a dimensionality far more complex than the two or three dimensions that were usually required for its representation. This concept is well encapsulated in the so-called Building Information Model. 

Counterposing this trend with the current inability of AI generative models to create entities with the complexity that a building currently requires pose a provocative question: 

– Is AI able to generate complex building models? –

The MaCAD Building Hallucinations competition accepts creative proposals for how the current trend of AI generative models can be converted, interpreted or improved into spatial data that can be used beyond inspiration for design and into the generation of 3D buildings with a higher degree of complexity. The proposal must contain:

1. A conceptual proposal, an idea with a degree of feasibility of how AI can produce buildings in three dimensions with additional properties. Must be submitted as text in .pdf including conceptual diagrams.
2. One or many provocative, speculative images representing how you envision the building has been created by AI. This image(s) must be generated by an AI algorithm and must consider building specific aspects such as three-dimensionality, tectonics, building parts, etc..  
3. Optional: A small proof of concept of how this conceptual proposal could be developed your proposed AI Building generation model. Should be submitted in the form of a link to a github repository with all instructions and files needed to replicate and must include and highlight your personal contribution if forking an existing repo.

Evaluation:

• Detail, creativity, clarity and feasibility of the proposal will be considered. 
• Aesthetic and feasibility of the building in the final images will be considered. 
• Inclusion of a proof of concept will be highly valued.