Architecture as a tool for education _ AI for Participatory Planning
This year, VI PER Gallery collaborated with several architecture schools in the Czech Republic – two events took place in Brno (Faculty of Architecture, Brno University of Technology), one in Liberec (Faculty of Arts and Architecture, Technical University in Liberec) and one in Prague (Studio Architecture II, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design).
Together with the representatives of the universities or their departments we have selected the following LINA fellows/project: self-office (Barcelona), SO? (Istanbul), Damiano Cerrone/SPIN Unit (Helsinki and Tallinn), Bernadette Kreis and Max Utech (Vienna). Each of the fellows represented a different approach to architecture and topics.
The participants and Fellows in the Architecture as a Tool for Education project came from diverse backgrounds, including students and professionals from various countries and cultural contexts. The LINA Fellows represented different approaches to architecture and topics, and the collaboration with different schools of architecture provided opportunities to work with students from different universities.
The key themes of the project included participatory housing, neglected spaces, generative AI, and the future of architecture. The project aimed to explore how architecture can be used as a tool for education and collaboration, and how it can be used to address current and future challenges in the field. The project also focused on developing the skills of the LINA Fellows in presenting their projects and making them useful for collaboration with architecture students, as well as on guiding and leading workshops and events for students.
Collaboration with LINA Fellows
Damiano Cerrone
Workshop AI for Participatory Planning at the Faculty of Arts and Architecture at the Technical University of Liberec, 25–26 April 2023
Damiano Cerrone is an urbanist, researcher and educator, originally from Rome, now working in Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia. He is a cofounder of SPIN Unit, an urban research and innovation practice; and an interdisciplinary cooperative UrbanistAI, a participatory design platform to reimagine the future of our cities. His practice focuses on urban research and policy design for the public sector. Cerrone is also affiliated with and teaches at several academic institutions in Finland and abroad.
Faculty of Arts and Architecture at the Technical University of Liberec is a dynamic faculty of smaller size that joins forms of technical and experimental education, tutors and professionals from the Faculty of Architecture in Liberec: Helena Hlávková, Zdena Zedníčková, Radek Kolařík.
Damiano Cerrone of SPIN Unit created for our collaboration a workshop on a highly discussed topic. Organized together with the Department of Urban Planning of the Faculty of Arts and Architecture in Liberec, the workshop explored the use of UrbanistAI, a generative AI platform for participatory urban planning, brainstorming, and co-design.
Participants learned about the general notions of generative AI, how to use generative AI models, explored its potential applications in urban planning and design and were introduced to the concept of prompt engineering. The workshop, attended by 14 students, culminated in the selection of an area in the city of Liberec, which was redesigned using UrbanistAI. This case studies and examples of generative AI in action, including how it has been used in architecture and urban planning, resulted in a series of reimagined and redesign public spaces in Liberec. Next to the workshop (26 April 2023), Damiano Cerrone also delivered a lecture about his work (25 April 2023).
