About briefing. Q&A with Silvio Carta, Head of Design, University of Hertfordshire

In the past decade, digital technologies such as CAD and BIM have had a huge impact on the work of architects and engineers. Now, generative design is emerging as the next advance. Computational design applications, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), seem capable of independently producing, optimising and testing architectural designs, based on parameters coming from e.g. regulations, zoning plans and the client's brief. For me, the question is: how will such technologies impact the practice of briefing? Do we need to change the way we write briefs? Will we at all need briefs? To find some answers, I talked to computational design expert Silvio Carta. Silvio is Head of Design at the University of Hertfordshire and he has just published an authoritative book on this topic called 'Machine Learning and the City: Applications in Architecture and Urban Design' (Wiley, 2022).