Artificial intelligence (AI) is already a part of our daily lives. From site analysis and energy modeling to floor plans and performance simulations, it’s becoming just another tool in our design process. In the Middle East, where projects move fast and expectations are high, AI does not feel revolutionary anymore, it simply feels expected.
However, the fundamental concerns in architecture remain the same, even as the tools change: Who are we building for? What kind of experience are we trying to create? How can we ensure that the structures we design have significance rather than just statistical value?
The challenge now is not whether or not to use AI. It is how to use it effectively without allowing it to flatten what defines architecture.
More options, but less significance?
AI gives us more options than ever. Enter a few parameters, and soon you will have hundreds of variations, daylight studies, and performance recommendations. That is helpful, especially under pressure. You get faster insight and early-stage clarity. According to the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), 41% of UK practices are already using AI tools for concept generation and visualisation. Speed and structure are undeniably valuable, but they are not enough.
More choices do not always lead to better decisions. AI can calculate efficiency but it doesn’t understand emotion. It can simulate light angles but not how sunlight across a floor makes someone feel at peace. It doesn’t worry about a loved one in a hospital corridor. It doesn’t pause to reflect. That’s our job.
Design is more than optimisation. It’s about life, memory, comfort, culture. AI may tell us where to put a window for heat gain but it won’t tell us where to place it so someone wakes up feeling calm.
Allow AI to perform tasks that it is capable of doing
AI has benefits that are well worth pursuing. In terms of performance-based design, it is outstanding. Before a single wall is built, it can simulate daylight, project thermal comfort, test ventilation, and calculate energy loads.
That’s quite significant at our current temperatures. Getting performance right leads to less waste, lower energy consumption, and increased comfort. AI, when combined with accurate data, can help us achieve sustainability goals with greater confidence and speed.
As highlighted in a RIBA article, 57% of architects expect to use AI for environmental analysis within two years, identifying it as one of the most promising areas of application. The UAE’s own national AI Strategy 2031 supports this momentum, targeting high-level integration of AI across sectors- including the built environment.
However, performance alone does not define a successful building. We’ve all seen perfectly designed environments that appear frigid or detached. While atmosphere, context, and emotion are equally important (and cannot be defined by AI), numbers remain fundamental.
Design for people, not just output
We are also becoming more aware of the extent to which the built environment influences our well-being. Light, air, acoustics, orientation, and other factors all influence how people feel. AI is helping us understand these connections by processing massive amounts of data from real-world projects.
That’s handy. We could strategically arrange classrooms in a school, so that daylight is maximised, while glare is reduced. We could also consider redesigning the hospital circulation system to reduce the amount of walking by staff members and provide more relaxing areas for patients to wait.
However, well-being is more than just numbers. It is emotional, it is how a student feels their first day in a new classroom. A patient finds comfort in a setting that lacks a clinical atmosphere. Although AI cannot define those outcomes, it can support them. It still takes people and designers who pay attention and are concerned.
A tool, not a decision-maker
AI, like any other tool, has limitations. The quality of AI depends on the training data, which often originates from diverse regions and societies. What makes sense in the United States or Scandinavia is not always applicable in the Gulf. We cannot accept AI results without question. We need to ask, is this logical here? Does it reflect the way people live, work, and socialise here?
Transparency is also important. AI is beginning to shape decisions that affect people’s lives, including financial, emotional, and social outcomes. If we’re answering those calls with algorithms, we need to understand why and how they work.
RIBA’s research reflects this tension: 34% of architects view AI as threat, voicing concerns about design imitation and loss of creativity. The profession is cautiously optimistic but not uncritical.
In his book ‘Machine Learning: Architecture in the age of AI’, architect and Yale professor Philip G. Bernstein emphasises that AI should be viewed as an augmentation, rather than a substitute for architectural intelligence. He writes, ‘the architect’s role is not only to generate options, but also to apply judgment to those options in ways that are culturally, contextually, and ethically appropriate.’ In other words, AI can provide infinite iterations, but only humans can decide what matters.
Our involvement is changing rather than disappearing
Although it is easy to believe that AI is transforming our field of work, this does not imply that it is replacing us. Our responsibility is, if anything, growing. Architects shape experiences, manage complexity, and interpret needs; they don’t just draw buildings.
The more powerful our tools become, the more important it is that we actively guide them. We are the ones who set the priorities and investigate the appropriate issues to ensure that the outcome benefits actual people, not just performance goals.
We have the opportunity to lead this transformation in the Middle East, where things move quickly and consumers are open to creativity. However, innovation does not imply sprinting to automate. It entails keeping the parts that are most important to people in our hands while utilising AI where it is beneficial.
Where people still come first
AI can help us become smarter, faster, and more precise designers. It still doesn’t know what is best for a specific family, community, or city with a unique history. It has no idea what a place represents, or what it may mean in the future.
And that’s why we came into this field. The best architecture is ultimately human-made. It’s more than just clever or efficient; it’s intuitive, emotional, and deeply connected to the way people live. AI may help us build faster and smarter, but it can’t replace the insight that comes from truly understanding a place, a culture, or a community. At its core, architecture is not just about structure, it’s about belongings. And no algorithm can replace the human instinct to design for life.
Architectural AI: Designing better buildings while maintaining the human touch Middle East Construction News.
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