The Plan and the Prompt: How AI Is Rewiring Design and Practice

"Architecture's design process has always been shaped by the tools at hand. We once drew with pen and ink on fragile sheets, copied by blueprint and guarded against smudges and tears; then Mylar arrived, making revisions and preservation easier and nudging drawings toward a leaner, more deliberate economy of lines. Computer-aided drafting followed, speeding coordination and changing how we think about scale and precision."

"Beginning in the post-war era, Mylar (developed in the 1950s) eased drawing reproduction and hastened the shift from blueprint to whiteprint processes. Before Mylar, simply preserving drawings-keeping an idea intact, legible, and undamaged-was a significant task. Post-war design priorities often leaned toward efficiency, simplicity, and an industrial minimalism aligned with reconstruction needs. The tools reinforced this: architectural work remained predominantly hand-drawn, where every line took time to lay down and even more time to erase."

Architectural design methods evolved as available tools changed, shaping how drawings are made and preserved. Early work relied on pen and ink on fragile sheets copied by blueprint, which required care to prevent smudges and tears and rewarded an economy of line. Mylar, developed in the 1950s, simplified reproduction and revisions, encouraged preservation, and nudged drawings toward leaner, more deliberate lines. Computer-aided drafting increased speed and coordination while altering perceptions of scale and precision. Artificial intelligence now aggregates vast information quickly and generates images on command, offering efficiencies while prompting new questions about authorship, craft, and how ideas are formed through method.

Read at ArchDaily