AI and the Collapse of Architectural Design Paradigms

Architect Davide Vizzini argues that contemporary architectural design, which relies on evoking memories and references, is on the verge of collapse due to AI. He identifies a trend he calls "the project of remembrance," where spaces are composed to trigger recollections of other places and times. Vizzini contrasts this with modernist abstraction and classical transfiguration of nature. He claims that AI tools like Midjourney can now perform this referential design better than humans. As evidence, he describes the new Swarovski store in Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, designed by Villa Eugénie, which he believes could have been generated by Midjourney. He fed photos of the store to the AI, which described them in terms of opulence and wunderkammer. Vizzini concludes that the frontier of contemporary retail design now functions like Midjourney, and vice versa.