Building Technology Group Lecture Series
 

November 4, 2019
12:30 PM, Long Lounge/Room 7-429

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Collaboration with Computers
The work of Meta Design Lab in Singapore

There has been much talk recently about the ‘take over’ of white collar jobs by AI. However at the same time studies have shown that Architecture and design are some of the least likely to be automated jobs (2% likely or 338th of 366 most likely to be automated*).  This talk discusses why this is, what is special about creative activities that resists automation, but also debates if this resistance is a good thing. If we as an industry can’t automate will we fall behind other industries, if we haven’t already? It then considers a third way, what would it mean for a collaborative creative co-design; for designers to work with computers effectively and presents the labs work investigating ways humans and machines can design together including generative meta-parametric design, mixed-initiative methods and option exploration.

*['The Future of Employment: How susceptible are jobs to automation'. Michael Osborne and Carl Frey, Oxford University's Martin School]

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Sam Conrad Joyce is assistant professor and director of the Masters of Architecture course at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, in the Architecture and Sustainable Design pillar.

He explores the intersection of technology driven research and design practice, having prior worked at Foster + Partners Architects and Buro Happold Building Engineers working on  projects such as the 2021 and 2014 Olympic Stadium, Louvé Abu Dhabi, Apple Campus, Bloomberg London HQ, and Mexico City Airport. 

Sam heads The Meta Design Lab, an interdisciplinary research group comprising of architects, structural engineers, cognitive-scientists, UX experts, and programmers. It seeks out conceiving, developing, and testing new interfaces to design processes; specifically how A.I. and Big Data can help find novel design solutions, with that goal that humans and computers should be collaborative co-creators.