Neil Leach: Adding AI to Architecture

Leach initially researched the Italian Renaissance before shifting his focus to contemporary architectural theory. He developed a particular interest in Continental Philosophy and its potential impact on architectural thinking.

Leach has published many books, including: “On the Art of Building in Ten Books” with Joseph Rykwert (1988, 1991), “Rethinking Architecture,” (1997), “Millennium Culture” (1999), “The Anaesthetics of Architecture” (1999), “Architecture and Revolution” (1999), “Mars Pants” with Oliver Froome-Lewis (2000), “Designing for a Digital World” (2002), “The Hieroglyphics of Space” (2002), “China” (2004), “Fast Forward>>, Hot Spots, Brain Cells” – co-editor with Xu Weiguo (2004), “Digital Tectonics” – with David Turnbull and Chris Williams (2004), “Emerging Talents, Emerging Technologies: Architects” – co-editor with Xu Weiguo (2006), “Emerging Talents, Emerging Technologies: Students” – co-editor with Xu Weiguo (2006), “Forget Heidegger” (2006), “Camouflage” (2006), “(Im)material Processes: Architects” – co-editor with Xu Weiguo (2008), “(Im)material Processes: Students” – co-editor with Xu Weiguo (2008), “Digital Cities” (2009), “Machinic Processes: Architects” – co-editor with Xu Weiguo (2010), “Machinic Processes: Students” – co-editor with Xu Weiguo (2010), “Swarm Intelligence: Architectures of Multi-Agent Systems” – co-editor with Roland Snooks (2017), “Fabricating the Future” – co-edited with Philip Yuan (2012), “Scripting the Future” – co-edited with Philip Yuan (2012), “Digital Workshop in China” – co-edited with Philip Yuan (2013), “Design Intelligence: New Computational Research” – co-editor with Xu Weiguo (2013), “Space Architecture: The New Frontier for Design Research” – (2014), “Robotic Futures” – co-edited with Philip Yuan and Achim Menges (2015), “Digital Factory: New Computational Research” – co-edited with Xu Weiguo (2015), “Swarm Intelligence: Architectures of Multi-Agent Systems” – co-editor with Roland Snooks (2017), 3D Printed Body Architecture – co-editor with Behnaz Farahi (2017), Computational Design – co-edited with Philip Yuan (2017), “Digital Fabrication” – co-edited with Achim Menges and Philip Yuan (2017), “Architectural Intelligence” – co-edited with Philip Yuan, Mike Xie, Jiawei Yao (2020), “Proceedings of the 2020 DigitalFUTURES” – co-edited with Philip Yuan, Jiawei Yao, Chao Yan, Xiang Wang (2021), “Proceedings of the 2021 DigitalFUTURES” – co-edited with Philip Yuan, Jiawei Yao, Chao Yan, Xiang Wang (2021), ”

Over the last few years, Leach’s fascination with Artificial Intelligence (AI) has flourished. He’s presently employed in the realm of architecture and artificial intelligence, having penned two books: “Architecture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: An Introduction to AI for Architects” and “Machine Hallucinations: Architecture and AI.”  Leach is of the opinion that AI and architecture can be integrated to great effect, with AI serving as a perfection tool that identifies flaws that may elude human minds. He believes that humans are more prone to architectural errors than AI.