Sensory Design through Computer Algorithms

What if a computer algorithm could design architecture that targets sensory design principles? For instance, by basing its design decisions on past architectures throughout history – such an algorithm could create the “best of the best” that pulls from all that works from a sensory design standpoint. Such a tool could prove to be useful to architects, and may very well shed light on new approaches to design. However, at this point, replacing an architect with a computer algorithm may not be the best bet from a sensory design perspective. You see, such algorithms could cap innovation, just as much as they boost innovation.

Instead, computer algorithms can complement the work that architects do, as such algorithms are guided by the designers who create them. A design algorithm working as a tool that an architect uses versus working in a way that replaces the architect is an important distinction to make. After all, when it comes to the creation and design of architectural poetics, one must ask if the computer that works without human guidance, limits architectural innovation and/or expression in some ways. So, how can the architect guide computer algorithms when designing architecture for the senses?

Computer Algorithms Tap into Emotion

According to an article I recently read called, Android Lloyd Webber is Designing a Box Office Hit, computers are currently designing a musical theatrical performance that taps into audience emotion in all the right ways. According to this logic, such algorithms that compose the musical are aiming to design the next blockbuster production. And while the computer algorithms composed the musical, there is still need for human intervention. After all, the play is to be performed by actual human actors. (1) Still, this effort to use computers to create an artistic expression that taps into observers’ emotions at just the right times during their experience, makes one wonder if the same can be done with architectural algorithms used to tap into sensory design for building occupants.

The Role of Emerging Tools for Sensory Design

By feeding information into an algorithm that designs architecture for the senses, one can see how this computer tool may be able to make inferences and connections that human designers may overlook or simply cannot see due to the complexity of the problem. On the other hand, the computer algorithm may miss a poetic experiential opportunity that can be created that only a human architect could artistically compose. Thus, the aim is not to use either the algorithm or the architect, but to instead capitalize on the powers of each. Allow the architect to guide the algorithm in terms of how it is created, how it evolves, and how its resulting output is translated into built form. The computer algorithm is a tool, allowing designers to understand the impact of their design decisions more deeply, to make connections that may have been lost in complexity, and to compose solutions that allow for greater and smarter architectural choice.

While designing architecture for the senses is a poetic endeavor at the nexus of both art and science, it is important to not discount what new emerging tools can bring to the design discipline. The critical path is to understand and guide what role such tools can take-on as environments are more strategically and innovatively designed to uplift quality of life in entirely new ways.

Reference:(1) Griffiths, Sarah. (2016) Android Lloyd Webber Is Designing a Box Office Hit. DailyMail.com [Accessed on February 12, 2016 from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3431929/Android-Lloyd-Webber-Musical-written-COMPUTER-coming-London-based-machine-s-calculations-guaranteed-hit.html]

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