Generative Design

AI in the sci-fi world is often depicted as computers taking over the world and being smarter than the people. However, it's far from reality. If we look at the systems, it's all about using computer algorithms to understand complex systems and make predictions about them. AI has brought in a whole different wave to change our design process. Instead of just felicitating with a common task then your algorithm can actually figure out how to solve complex problems on its own.

Today the most developed side of AI is machine learning which uses advanced algorithms like artificial neural networks to understand patterns in large amounts of data and then make predictions based on those patterns. To make machine learning work, you not only need a powerful computer to train neural networks behind them, but also a large amount of well structured data about the process that you are trying to predict.

Now, despite the potential of this kind of automation, design will always be a fundamentally creative process that relies on people's unique intuition and ingenuity. And as design is not a very standardized process. We do not have a large set of well structured data representing the decision that designers make day-to-day. That's right. Where generative design comes in, it uses automation in a way that doesn't rely on existing data sets. Instead, we can create an automation workflow from scratch in a way that's unique to every designer and every design problem. This allows us to leverage the best of AI and human intelligence and gives us a tool we need to solve complex design problems and challenges of the future.

A generated design can be defined by its ability to automate certain parts of the design process by making some of its own decisions, bringing it under the dimensions of AI. Generative art refers to art that in whole or in part has been created with the use of an autonomous system. It can be defined as a new design approach where you can work with a set of tools to describe a design problem to a computer. With this approach, it allows you to think outside the box in a way because it shows you many, many more solutions that you could have come up with using a traditional process in a much shorter amount of time. This also means we can devote more time to the most creative aspect of our work like framing the design problem and developing unique strategies to solve it.

Generative design is a powerful iterative design tool for any design, practises and for building. This workflow requires gaining new skills such as parametric modelling, computer simulation, optimisation algorithms and data visualisation some examples of softwares can be grasshopper and dynamo. Generative design does not mean that computer designs for you, generative design applications are very specific to the designer who builds it and the problem they are trying to solve. With generative design we can leverage the power of automation without giving up control over the design process.