Artificial Intelligence is profoundly changing the landscape of architecture. No specialty is exempt, whether design, construction, structural and materials engineering, or the business models in use. We must also point out that this is only the beginning. If, almost by definition of what artificial intelligence is, it resolves a certain number of problems, numerous epistemological - or let's say philosophical - questions nevertheless emerge, questions which must be addressed to truly understand the extent of the ongoing transformations but also to be able to envisage the future of architecture from solid foundations. Our presentation will attempt to address some of these questions.
Philippe Morel is an architect, theorist and entrepreneur, co-founder of EZCT Architecture & Design Research (2000) and initiator and founding CEO of the large-scale 3D-printing corporation XtreeE (2015). He currently teaches as an Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture – University College London, where he is the director of the Architectural Computation MSc/MRes program, and at the École nationale supérieure d'architecture Paris-Malaquais, where he headed the Digital Knowledge department (co-founded with Pr. Girard). Before teaching at the Bartlett and ENSA Paris-Malaquais, he was a seminar and studio Professor at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, and a history and theory seminar and AADRL tutor at the Architectural Association in London. In 2017, he co-edited the book Computational politics and architecture: From Digital Philosophy to the End of Work (Editions ENSA Paris-Malaquais) and recently, with Pr Henriette Bier, Disruptive Technologies: The Convergence of New Paradigms in Architecture (Springer Series in Adaptive Environments, 2023).
In February 2007, he curated the exhibition Architecture Beyond Forms: The Computational Turn at the Maison de l’architecture et de la ville PACA in Marseille. Explicitly departing from Eisenman PhD’s dissertation from 1963 – The Formal Basis of Modern Architecture –, the exhibition addressed both historically and theoretically the current linguistic and computational turns in architectural design. Philippe Morel has published more than 30 essays, lectured in many universities around the world (Harvard GSD, ETH Zurich, Columbia GSAPP, Princeton, Pratt Institute, MIT, TU Delft, EHESS, ENS Lyon, TU Wien, IaaC, Centre Pompidou, etc.) and presented his work in numerous exhibitions (MNAM – Centre Pompidou; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Museum of Art & Design, New York). His work and the one of his office are part of private and public collections, including FRAC Centre and Centre Pompidou permanent collections.