Artisanal Intelligence as an Architectural Project Methodology: From line to pixel.

Abstract

In contemporary architecture, design methodology is in tension between the rise of new digital tools and the persistence of the artisanal creative process. While computational resources offer immediacy, precision and unlimited formal exploration, the artisanal process, ensures cultural roots, conceptual depth, creative intuition and critical thinking.

A reflection on how to integrate both approaches without renouncing a committed and identitarian architecture is essential. The adoption of tools such as artificial intelligence or parametric design has led to a digital immediacy that threatens the intellectual rigor of the architect.

This contribution offers a critical analysis of these dilemmas, which challenge the foundations of the discipline, opening a dialogue between the design tradition and contemporary digital culture. What does it mean to design in an environment intervened by algorithms? The key lies in enabling the project to emerge from a coherent negotiation between memory and present, local and the global, artisanal and computational. In The Craftsman, Richard Sennett defends the value of the artisanal process, developed through meticulous, patient and iterative practice. The craftsman – and the true architect is one – is guided not only by efficiency, but by an ethical commitment to excellence in making. Creativity arises from the constant dialogue between hand, eye and mind, especially through trial and error.

This intellectual reflection finds concrete application in the framework of the European project The Use of AI Tools in Interior Design to Create Aesthetic, Inclusive, and Sustainable Built Environment, involving Krakow University of Technology, Politecnico di Milano, RISEBA University of Applied Sciences, AGH University of Krakow, and CEU Cardenal Herrera University. This European project works as an active pedagogical laboratory, exploring the integration of architectural knowledge and emerging technologies. Thus, artificial intelligence has been incorporated into project-based subjects, prioritising the creation of models or sketches and encouraging thinking. These are subsequently digitised, processed by AI, and post-edited using other tools. Results from student work suggest a hybrid strategy, combining traditional sketching with AI tools throughout the design process, preserving artisanal dimension in the act
of designing.