Scaling Intelligence

Abstract

T A D 5 : 2 Intelligence without action is inert. As the solicited contributions to this volume demonstrate, actionable intelligence relies on a common ground from which architecture and allied disciplines can leverage depths and breadths of knowledge to mobilize new technologies. The Op/Positions essays examine preexisting local knowledge in historical places, enhance discovery through systems-based workflows, and foster the transformational shift from invisible smartness to holistic, design trade-offs that produce more humane and cooperative cities. As Jyoti Hosagrahar notes, place-intelligence provides current generations with a scalable and reflective framework that values the past, promotes deeper foundations, and connects resilient community design and well-being to informed decision-making. Similarly, Azam Khan posits a systems-based approach for leveraging existing knowledge to solve increasingly complex problems holistically. The emergent metaheuristic tools expand architectural design ability, enhance discovery, and yield more energy-efficient and less wasteful buildings. Norbert Streitz advocates for resetting priorities at an urban scale and generating principles that simultaneously privilege the individual and the collective. The resulting types of affordances and ethical alignments could balance data harvesting with people’s need for interactive, communicative, and cooperative spaces and places. The Research Methodology contributions critically examine a site’s latent potential and propose challenging new ways for testing and improving the lived condition at all scales. Whether at the intimate scale of one human-robot interaction or applied to industry-level protocols or full-scale testing scenarios, real-world applied research design necessitates collecting and analyzing large data sets. Jim Tørresen examines predictive intelligent system design, comprising ethical sensor data collection, robot interaction, and human-centric artificial intelligence to anticipate and respond to elderly care needs. Integrating artificial intelligence and problem-solving best practices can interactively adapt to a user’s needs and draw upon years of industry-based construction knowledge. Lukas Kirner, Elisa Lublasser, and Sigrid Brell-Cokcan developed enhanced methods for elevating existing construction industry processes through interdisciplinary collaboration, robot-assisted interaction, laboratory experimentation, factoryto-field investigation, and full-scale testing. The jump from laboratory experiments to full-scale prototyping requires the refinement of previous data exchanges and information flows to produce generalizable results. Maintaining quantitative and qualitative data research design, controlled trials, and procedural rigor requires close monitoring and comparison of real-time data collections and digital simulations. In their Details+ contribution, Jonathan Heppner and Thomas Robinson deployed intelligent testing on an innovative post-tensioned, gravity-resistant, and lateral force-resistant rocking wall system at full scale and detail level. The lab-tested results generated valuable insights into damage-resistant construction methods, informed broader building practices, and demonstrated that their previously unproven assembly could prevent massive failure and save lives. Increasing the use of enhanced digital/computational methods brings renewed attention to gaining greater control over the software and tools used to generate and validate design decisions at all scales. Re/Views addresses these issues, examines interoperable software platforms, compares gaming engines, integrates sensors, and surveys current, emerging, and projected use of autonomous robots across the AEC industry. Karen Kensek presents strategies for improving workflows and overcoming software limitations through customizable add-in solutions for existing Building Information Modeling processes. Enhanced parametric interoperability and data functionality, streamlined procedures, and verified code-compliance bolster deliberative intelligence. Christopher Morse compares game engines that combine visualization, communication, and design in robust, adaptable, flexible, real-time, and interactive environments. Immersive, customizable, connective, and cloud-based integration inform architectural research and professional practice. Peter Kerr investigates scalable interactions with technology, examining affordances and benefits of sensor nodes connected via intelligent Building Management Systems (iBMS). Alvise Simondetti, Nicholas Bachand, Aifric Delahunty, James Griffith, and Julius Sustarevas examine the unfolding paradigm shift toward autonomous robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning as architecture moves beyond task-specific operations to inform scalable and sustainable design that augment and complement human capabilities. As shown by these authors, in its performative function, and when viewed through the prismatic lenses of technology, architecture, and design, scaling intelligence successfully narrows the gap between empirical observation, applied research, and professional practice. Scaling Intelligence