Digital design and data-driven intelligence: eCAADe special issue plus Sustainable Futures

Abstract

The rapid development of artificial intelligence, machine learning and increasingly accessible generative technologies is continuing to reshape and inform the relationship between computation and architectural design. The first section of this issue of the International Journal of Architectural Computing brings together papers developed within the remit of the eCAADe Special Issue, Digital Design and Data-Driven Intelligence , under the direction of Odysseas Kontovourkis and Urs Hirschberg following from eCAADe Conferences in Graz, Austria and Cyprus. Their call sought contributions exploring the intersection between established computational design practices and emerging data-driven forms of intelligence. The resulting papers demonstrate both the breadth of this transformation and the extent to which artificial intelligence is becoming embedded within a much wider computational design landscape. Several contributions directly investigate the rapidly evolving relationship between artificial intelligence and architectural design processes. Alsan, Arsan, Ozen, Keskin and G ¨ okmen examine the integration of Stable Diffusion through remote server APIs within parametric design workflows, demonstrating how generative AI can become connected to established computational design environments rather than operating as a separate image-generation process. Marsault similarly revisits architectural generation through structural and interpretive image-to-image AI approaches, while Ibrahim considers text-to-image models from the particular perspective of responsive cultural heritage representation in a regional design context. Together, these papers illustrate a significant shift from considering generative AI primarily as a representational technology towards understanding how it might participate more directly in architectural exploration and production. Other papers take a broader and more critical view of this emerging territory. Nashaat and Elzeni review the application of AI within architectural computational design and propose an AI-ACD workflow intended to support more effective integration within design processes. Cheung, Agkathidis, Dall’Asta and Di Marco examine AI-enhanced conversational design through a systematic review, thereby highlighting