196: Ai Design-Through-Production: Accelerating Industry Participation, Shifting Disciplinary Methodology, and Making A Regional Impact.

The paper examines civic projects deployed using AI as a genesis toward decision making directly fed into a design-through-production pipeline. With these techniques, students (coupled with industry and community partnerships) ramp up production and accelerate a design and decision-making feedback loop, as well as engage the public more frequently in a meaningful and productive way. Further, and importantly, new pedagogical tactics are used to effectively address what it means to educate architects in the shifting landscape of technological influences in society. Neil Leach’s comments in “the Guardian,” are a serious call to action: Architects are like ostriches with their heads in the sand, says Leach. What they need to design right now is not another building – but the future of their profession (Wainwright, 2023). This paper presents a series of recent projects using innovative methodologies while making a critical impact within our local community.