This most recent term (Winter '23), our PLAN211 - Design Studio Foundations course partnered with the Sustainability Office to produce urban design visualizations that explore the possibilities of what the future of the University of Waterloo campus could look like when meeting the University’s sustainability goals. Students’ first project was to create a general idea of a sustainable campus by submitting prompts into the new cutting-edge technology: DALL-E 2.
In this project, students were asked to start with an initial command for DALL-E 2 that captured components of a sustainable campus, which they continued to add commands and edits to until the displayed image aligned with their vision. Students created posters with their images and a brief discussion about the strengths and limitations of the platform. The students took a stance on the question: “Is AI the future of Urban Design?”; identifying the limits of an algorithm for replicating the contextual knowledge, critical perspective, attention to diversity, and nuanced iteration of a human designer; but recognizing the power of AI to quickly turn ideas into images. These technologies are becoming increasingly powerful and accessible and as one student, Myah Sachedina, concluded: it’s not a question of if AI will be the future of urban design, but rather: “What will the future of urban design look like with AI?” These works can also be viewed as PDFs at the following link.
Barone, Michael - See You at School Tomorrow - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Casas, Valentina - DALL-Eance in AI - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Chau, Cherilynne - Urban Futures - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Chung, Anna - Human Utopian or AI Utopian? - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Costa, Xavier - Corridors of Trees & Gardens - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Evans, Linda - Outside of Eden - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Fong, Ealy - Karesansui - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Gianniotis, George - A Vision of Innovation - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Glazyrin, Michael - Unintelligent Intelligence - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Gomes, Kavishka - U of Topia - 2050 - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Hamdan, Maryam - A Green Oasis - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Hearder, Jamie - A Sustainable Future Campus - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Heron, Khalil - The Future of our Urban Streetscapes - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Khan, Urooj - Man or Machine? Which is seated at the designers table? - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Leccese, Mariella - Tomorrow's Terra Firma - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab".
Li, Adrian - Sustainable Campus Futurama - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
Liu, Anna - Future Energy-Efficient Campus, With Geese! - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
McGowan, Jade - Artificial Utopia - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
Melo, Sofia - A Bookworm's Paradise - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
Patel, Nish - Sustainable Approach to Futuristic Urban Evolution - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
Patel, Ananya - Inside Out, Outside In" - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
Poon, Alley - Beyond Tomorrow - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
Popp, Andra - The Green Pathway to the Future - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
Robb, Sydney - Hidden Treehouse - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
Ross, Tim - Study in Shangri-La - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
Sachedina, Myah - Skywalker Bridge - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
Schnurr, Dylan - The Future of University Campuses: Is It Green? - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
Thompson, Paige - Floating Utopia - For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
Traynor, Katie - Techno Utopia -For the full-size image, please right click the image and select "open link in new tab"
