Conceptual architectural design is a right old fiddle, blending past know-how with a dash of creativity to whip up fresh ideas. When it comes to slinging artificial intelligence into the mix, it’s not about hunting for a one-size-fits-all answer—after all, the brief’s still a bit woolly at this early stage. Instead, it’s more like a jaunt through the fog, figuring out what’s needed and how to cobble together solutions that hit the mark.

This takes a whistle-stop tour of key research projects where AI’s been chucked at architectural concept work. We’ve had a butcher’s at various methods, but most of the graft centres on evolutionary computing—think cellular automata and such. Blimey, there’s been a sharp uptick in papers since 2015! Early efforts were all about crafting bonkers, inventive shapes, but nowadays it’s gone all practical, with folks tweaking algorithms to optimise form. Bit of a mixed bag, really—some proper clever clogs stuff, but still a way to go before it’s sorted.