In and Out of the Box
Boston, MA

Us: How do architects break out of the box?

ChatGPT: Playfulness and experimentation: Architects can embrace a playful and experimental mindset by encouraging creativity without fear of failure. Allowing room for exploration, trial and error, and unconventional thinking can lead to breakthrough design solutions. Remember, breaking out of the box is a mindset that requires a willingness to challenge norms, explore new ideas, and embrace creativity. By adopting these strategies, architects can break free from traditional boundaries and create innovative and inspiring designs.

Process

The latest technological advances in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems are increasingly allowing architects to design their boldest ideas in step with builders and fabricators who are realizing them with ever-greater efficiency, speed, and cost savings. This is closing the gap between radical imagination and the reality of what’s practical. While remaining synonymous with being rational and logical, practicality is no longer constrained by being orthogonal, linear, and geometrically simple. Smart technologies are literally and metaphorically enabling the AEC industry to break out of the box.

This 4' W x 4' L x 20'H tower installation is currently being assembled at the Autodesk Technology Center in Boston to be showcased at Howick’s Steel Horizons Conference taking place on June 22, 2023. Designed by the architecture firm The Los Angeles Design Group (LADG) and constructed by Windover Construction using Howick’s steel stud machines and STUD-IO’s proprietary StudFinder™ software, this is a true collaboration of innovators testing the boundaries of generative tools and processes in the design-to-construction continuum.

The design was AI-generated. The LADG input various prompts into ChatGPT to generate a story/narrative, from which they interpreted a design response in Rhino — a series of modules that alternate between normative boxes and unfolded “boxes” each unleashed from their linear, orthogonal constraints in a different way. More about the design process:

Instead of using AI to dream new forms, what if we used it as the world’s biggest audience? As architects and fabricators, we have plenty of ideas for buildings. What’s more mysterious to us is how people react to these, interpret them, and decide whether or not they are suitable to inhabit. If the large language models are compilations of our collective writing, it makes sense to think of them as an aggregate of how people see, interpret, and judge. That’s how we use ChatGPT: as a mass client.

We asked ChatGPT to help us understand what makes a good box. Buildings, after all, are essentially hollow boxes big enough for people to get inside, and this is especially true in common construction techniques that use light framing. The LADG has a long history of designing progressive buildings using this technique, and STUD-IO has developed technology that expands the limits of framing to make almost any form build-able and cost-effective. With all this capacity to invent and build, the real question is, what will clients accept? As something they can live in? Walk into? Not only beautiful, but blank enough to receive their projection of how one lives inside architecture? What are the outer limits of a client’s ability to understand a box?

So we wrote to ChatGPT. The full text is displayed on a screen next to the installation and submitted as one of the images. A sampling of the prompts and responses:

Us: I am building a ten-story tower. The odd numbered stories will be solid volumes, and the even numbered stories will appear to be partially unfolded boxes - as though I have made a shape by manipulating the six sides of a cubic cardboard box. These shapes on the even-numbered stories must meet three criteria: first, they must be recognizable as having been derived from a six-sided cubic volume made of flat planes, like a box; second, the formal manipulations of each box are limited to folding along straight lines and rolling into curves parallel to the sides of each face; and third, the unfolded configuration must transmit load symmetrically between the solid stories above and below. Can you imagine living in this tower?

ChatGPT: Living in a tower with such unique architectural features would certainly be an interesting experience! The combination of solid volumes and partially unfolded boxes on each floor would create a visually striking and dynamic living environment. The interplay between the solid and folded elements would provide a sense of variety and excitement as you move through the different levels of the tower.

Us: If I want to continue meeting the expectations of those seeking a more conventional living environment, what are the outer limits of my ability to manipulate the form of the unfolded boxes? How many folds per face of the box? And how extreme can the folds be? Can they fold inward all the way to the core? Or do they always need to stay near the edge of the tower?

ChatGPT: When considering the outer limits of manipulating the form of the unfolded boxes in order to meet the expectations of those seeking a more conventional living environment, there are a few factors to consider.

1. Number of folds per face: The number of folds per face can vary depending on the desired design and structural integrity. While there isn't a specific limit, it's important to ensure that the folds can be achieved practically and without compromising the stability of the structure. Excessive folding could potentially weaken the overall integrity of the box shape. It's advisable to consult with architects and structural engineers to determine the optimal number of folds per face for your specific design.

2. Extremity of the folds: The extent to which the folds can be made depends on the materials used, the structural considerations, and the desired aesthetics. Folding inward all the way to the core may introduce challenges in terms of load distribution and stability, especially if the core is meant to provide structural support. It's generally more feasible to keep the folds closer to the edges of the tower, as it ensures a more balanced load distribution and maintains a stronger connection to the surrounding structure.

In order to build the generative forms, the contractor used advanced computational construction software StudFinder™ by STUD-IO to quickly develop fabrication-ready framing. Using this automated and parametric software made it easy to automatically produce machine files, parts lists, and assembly drawings for the structure.

Finally, coming full-circle, we believe our mission can best be summed up by this query:

Us: How do architects break out of the box?

ChatGPT: Playfulness and experimentation: Architects can embrace a playful and experimental mindset by encouraging creativity without fear of failure. Allowing room for exploration, trial and error, and unconventional thinking can lead to breakthrough design solutions. Remember, breaking out of the box is a mindset that requires a willingness to challenge norms, explore new ideas, and embrace creativity. By adopting these strategies, architects can break free from traditional boundaries and create innovative and inspiring designs.