Wednesday
14 May 2025| 6.00 – 7.30 PM
Castello del Valentino, Salone d’Onore|Recordings on YouTube
Contacts
A+ Lectures 2025|08 A Primitive Future of Architectural Intelligence|Philip Yuan
Wednesday
The lecture by professor was quite intriguing and eye-opening in terms of the technological development happening today in terms of AI. The most mesmerising part was the narrative behind the development of Venice Biennale Pavilion which touched not just aspects of sustainability, but also displayed an outcome of meticulous intelligence and expert research. Utilising timber of the remains of trees that fell down in tycoon in China or the remains of LA fires is such a meaningful idea. The entire process of collecting these Wood, the documenting in digital twinning and using robotic fabrication for joinery details, convey the excellence in research and learning that has been explored by the professor and his student team. Amongst many others, two of the most interesting concepts were the humanoid, and the quantum habitat theory he explained. It is further interesting to know and being introduced to the platform of Digital Futures, creating these meaningful lessons in Workshop format.
Presentation of “Co-Poesis” by Philip F. Yuan shed light on the digital future of architecture. The widely known topic of artificial intelligence was discussed by the speaker as it was his main tool used to construct the “Primitive cage” pavilion in Venice. Although I am very sceptical towards the use of AI in the design process, in this case, I saw its more beneficial side. The design process behind the construction of the pavilion was inspired by the dialogue between people and nature and its new introduction to the architectural world. Construction features a hut from wooden branches, collected, documented after the 2024’s typhoon in Shanghai, and finally joined with AI’s help. Additionally, in its interior, Philip F. Yuan placed a robot, programmed to participate in a dialogue with the visitors of the pavilion. Overall, the unique joining of the wooden hut with the robot, allowed me to observe two contrasting words interacting with each other in an unusual way.
F. Yuan’s lecture on co-existence, co-agency, and co-poiesis invites us to rethink the relationship between humans, humanoids, and nature. Training humanoids to interact with space opens new possibilities for modeling and inhabiting the world. While I don’t fully agree with the idea that AI and humanoids could replace the human role in design, I do believe that machines can be extremely useful for highly precise tasks – as shown in his project, where pieces of wood of various sizes are reused by cutting them precisely to create the right joints for assembly, a task only a machine can efficiently perform.
Attending the lecture was also valuable for understanding how complex it is to train humanoids to perform gestures and tasks, and for imagining how humanoids might in the future become active participants in human life.
In his lecture A Primitive Future of Architectural Intelligence, Philip Yuan spoke about his Venice Biennale installation Copoiesis, which explores how humans and machines can work together in the design process. I found the idea of “copoiesis”, this shared creation between people and AI/robots, really interesting and forward-thinking. At the same time, I wonder if focusing so much on high-tech tools might make these ideas harder to apply more broadly or overlook important social and cultural aspects of design. Still, the project sounds visually and conceptually exciting, and I’m really looking forward to seeing it in person to understand better how these ideas come together in the space.
The lecture by Philip Yuan taught me a lot about the use of AI in architecture in ways that I was not particularly used to. It showed me how we can use these tools to explore the future, biodiversity and technical aspects, seeking a relation between humans and non-humans and also reflected on the question of the architect job being replaced by machines. One of the main points was about having architects designing tools instead of just spaces, having a process of decision supported by the software and deep integration of large language models. This is something that I’m not familiar with but it is interesting to me because by dominating the softwares we can translate our thinking directly to the models and have tools more suitable for innovative designs.
The examples that he showed were fascinating, especially the humanoid shelter designed for the Venice Biennale. I had no idea of the complexity and difficulty related to training humanoids and it was also impressive to see the use of robots for the assembly and cut of the material. It made me wonder how many different uses that this type of tool can have in the architectural environment.
Philip Yuan’s lecture on “Co-poiesis” reframed AI and robotics not as architectural replacements but as creative partners, showing how designing bespoke tools can extend human agency. His Venice Biennale pavilion—a hut of storm-felled timber precisely scanned, cut, and assembled by robots, then animated by a dialogic humanoid—illustrated a future where machines handle complex fabrication while architects choreograph material reuse, biodiversity, and human–non-human interaction. Yuan’s emphasis on architects “designing the tool” challenged the audience to master software and large-language models so that intuition can flow directly into adaptive, data-rich models, yet he also acknowledged social limits and the irreplaceable role of cultural context. The lecture left many energized: skeptical listeners conceded the value of AI’s precision, others questioned scalability and inclusivity, but all recognized that co-agency between people, robots, and nature opens provocative terrains for sustainable, experimental design.