I asked AI to Design a New Urbanist Seaside Town

Summary

The video script discusses the use of mid-journey AI in designing a new urbanist town akin to Seaside Florida from the 1980s. The AI's results are described as both impressive and questionable, with the design featuring a mix of uses, detailed public spaces, and varied parking situations. The process involves multiple iterations, refining the AI's output by providing more specific parameters. The AI's potential is highlighted for generating ideas and concepts early in the design phase, but its readiness for final product creation is questioned. The video concludes with the intention to further explore the AI's capabilities in understanding and applying new urbanist principles, including generating street sections and land use maps.

Takeaways

• 🏙️ The AI was used to design a new urbanist town similar to Seaside Florida from the 1980s.
• 🤖 Mid-journey AI's initial results were interesting, great, and questionable, showing a mix of uses and wonky street connections.
• 🚗 A prominent feature in the AI's designs was a massive stadium-sized parking situation.
• 🌳 The AI detailed public spaces and buildings well, showing a reference to real-life scenarios.
• 🔄 After unsatisfactory results, the model was run multiple times with more specific parameters.
• 🏢 The AI struggled with separating residential and commercial areas and incorporating water elements directly into the design.
• 🎨 The AI's iterations showed variations in roof colors and building configurations but lacked a clear town center.
• 🚶‍♂️ The AI eventually produced a more organized plan with a central square and walkable central district.
• 🏖️ The final AI-generated plan closely resembled the real-life Seaside, with a rectilinear pattern and well-organized buildings.
• 💡 AI's potential lies in generating numerous ideas at the initial phase of a project, serving as inspiration for further development.
• 🔍 The user's ongoing exploration aims to test if AI can understand and apply new urbanism principles and potentially write code in the future.

Q & A

What is the main objective of using mid-journey AI in the context of the transcript?

The main objective is to utilize mid-journey AI to help design a new urbanist town similar to Seaside Florida from the 1980s, using it as a tool for generating ideas and concepts in the early phases of a project.

Where is the original Seaside located as mentioned in the transcript?

Seaside is located in the panhandle of Florida and is recognized as the original new urbanist town.

What were the initial impressions of the AI-generated results for the new urbanist town design?

The initial results were interesting, great, and questionable at the same time, with a mix of uses and wonky connections between streets, but they referenced real-life scenarios and had an impressive level of detail.

How did the AI's design for public spaces and parking situations compare to the real-life Seaside?

The AI's design included a massive stadium-sized parking situation and detailed public spaces, but it lacked direct addressing of water until later iterations and the coastline disappeared in one model.

What adjustments were made when running the AI model again?

The adjustments included being more specific about the desired configuration of buildings and spaces, which resulted in a more organized town plan with a centered square and walkable central district.

What was the outcome of providing the AI with the actual plan of Seaside?

The AI produced a more rectilinear pattern with an organized structure, better pedestrian access, and a more realistic layout resembling the original Seaside plan.

What are the potential uses of the AI-generated designs in the early stages of a project?

The AI-generated designs can be used to generate numerous ideas, provide inspiration for further developments, and create a variety of concepts quickly to present to clients.

What limitations did the speaker notice about the AI's understanding of urban design?

The speaker noticed that it was unclear whether the AI could distinguish between different building uses, understand public space versus streets, or recognize ground versus ocean.

What future possibilities does the speaker envision for the AI in terms of new urbanism?

The speaker is hopeful that in the future, the AI can be fed parameters and code to generate more accurate and realistic designs that align with new urbanist principles, and potentially write code for such projects.

What are the next steps in the Seaside AI design experiment?

The next steps include generating street sections, aerial renderings, and various types of drawings needed to build a new town using the principles of new urbanism, to further test the AI's understanding and capabilities.

How does the speaker describe the role of past work in inspiring the AI?

The speaker suggests using past work as a basis to inspire the machine to create more reasonable and realistic designs that are true to the intentions of the project, rather than generating nonsensical outputs.

Outlines

00:00

🏙️ Exploring AI in Urban Design: Seaside Florida

The speaker discusses their experiment with mid-journey AI to design a new urbanist town similar to Seaside Florida from the 1980s. They describe the AI's results as interesting, great, and questionable, noting the AI's ability to reference real-life scenarios with a high level of detail. The speaker is not fully satisfied with the initial results, particularly the massive parking situation and the unclear use of buildings. They iterate the process, refining the AI's parameters to achieve a more realistic and coherent urban design, eventually getting closer to the desired new urbanist vibe with elements like a central park and a pedestrian walk. The speaker concludes that while the AI is not ready for final product design, it is useful for generating ideas and concepts at the beginning phase of a project.

05:02

📄 AI's Evolution in Understanding Urbanism: The Seaside Test

The speaker continues their exploration of AI's capabilities in urban design by feeding the AI the actual plan of Seaside Florida before construction. The AI's output shows a more rectilinear pattern with organized buildings and clear pedestrian access to the beach. The speaker is amazed by the AI's ability to replicate a real-life urban plan, noting the potential for creating variations and concepts for client presentations. They express interest in whether the AI can distinguish between different building uses and understand public space versus streets. The speaker concludes that while the AI shows promise, it is still in the experimental phase and requires further refinement to fully grasp and apply new urbanist principles.

Keywords

💡New Urbanism

New Urbanism is a design movement that promotes walkable neighborhoods with a wide range of housing and job types. It emphasizes community spaces, sustainable development, and the creation of a diverse and vibrant street life. In the video, the concept is central as the speaker attempts to use AI to design a town based on these principles, referencing Seaside, Florida as an example of an early New Urbanist town.

💡Seaside Florida

Seaside Florida is a town located in the panhandle of Florida, known for being one of the first examples of New Urbanism. It was designed in the 1980s and features a pedestrian-friendly layout with a mix of residential, commercial, and public spaces. In the video, Seaside serves as a case study for the AI's design capabilities, with the speaker evaluating how well the AI can replicate and understand the town's New Urbanist characteristics.

💡Mid-Journey AI

Mid-Journey AI refers to an artificial intelligence tool or platform that is used in the video to generate urban design concepts. The AI is fed parameters and data about urban planning and architecture, and it produces various设计方案 based on that input. The speaker uses this AI to experiment with different town layouts and designs, assessing its ability to understand and apply New Urbanist principles.

💡Urban Design

Urban Design is the process of designing and shaping the physical layout of cities, towns, and other urban areas. It involves the arrangement of buildings, streets, public spaces, and other elements to create functional, attractive, and sustainable environments. In the video, urban design is the focus as the AI is used to generate plans for a new town, with the speaker critiquing the AI's understanding of urban design principles such as walkability and mixed-use development.

💡Mixed-Use Development

Mixed-use development refers to urban, suburban, or rural land use in which residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or recreational uses are combined within a single development or neighborhood. It aims to create more walkable, vibrant, and self-sufficient communities. In the video, the speaker discusses the AI's ability to mix different types of buildings and uses, such as residential and commercial spaces, and how well it integrates them into the town design.

💡Public Spaces

Public spaces are areas that are open and accessible to the general public. They include parks, squares, streets, and other communal areas that serve as venues for social interaction, recreation, and relaxation. In the context of the video, public spaces are a critical element of the New Urbanist design the AI is trying to emulate, with the speaker evaluating the AI's success in creating inviting and functional public areas within the town plans.

💡Parking Situation

The term 'parking situation' refers to the arrangement and provision of parking spaces in relation to buildings and public areas. It is an important aspect of urban planning, affecting traffic flow, accessibility, and the overall design of a community. In the video, the speaker comments on the AI's design of parking areas, noting both the massive parking lots and the more cleverly hidden parking solutions that the AI proposes.

💡Town Center

A town center is the central area of a town, typically featuring a concentration of commercial activities, public facilities, and social spaces. It is often the heart of the community where people gather for events, shopping, and entertainment. In the video, the speaker is interested in how the AI designs the town center, noting whether it creates a clear focal point or a vibrant hub that is characteristic of New Urbanist towns.

💡Coastline

The coastline refers to the area where land meets the sea or ocean, and it can significantly influence the design and layout of a town, especially in terms of aesthetics, recreational opportunities, and environmental considerations. In the video, the speaker notes how the AI's designs interact with the coastline, commenting on how well the AI integrates beachfront properties and public access to the water.

💡Pedestrian Axes

Pedestrian axes refer to the primary routes or paths designed for walking within a town or city layout. These axes are crucial for creating walkable communities and encouraging pedestrian activity. In the video, the speaker evaluates the AI's ability to create clear pedestrian axes, which are essential for New Urbanist designs that prioritize walking over driving.

💡Aerial Renderings

Aerial renderings are visual representations of a location or design from a bird's-eye view. They provide an overview of the layout, organization, and relationship between different elements of a plan or project. In the video, the speaker expresses interest in generating aerial renderings to better understand and visualize the AI's设计方案 for the new town.

Highlights

The experiment involved using mid-journey AI to design a new urbanist town similar to Seaside Florida from the 1980s.

Seaside Florida is located in the panhandle of Florida and is considered the original new urbanist town.

The AI's initial results were interesting, great, and questionable at the same time, showing a mix of uses and wonky street connections.

The AI generated a massive stadium-sized parking situation, which was a notable detail in the design.

The AI's design included a public space in the center with buildings that enveloped it, reflecting suburban contemporary modernism and garden city elements.

The AI's subsequent designs showed improvements, with clearer separation of residential and commercial areas and better handling of parking lots.

Some AI-generated designs lacked direct addressing of water and had massive parking situations, which was a point of critique.

The AI was not entirely successful in replicating the real-life Seaside look, but it came closer with specific configurations and details.

The AI's designs were comparable to preliminary sketches done during a charette, showing potential for early phase idea generation.

The AI was given the actual plan of Seaside to see if it could improve its design, resulting in a more rectilinear patternation.

The AI's final designs showed a better understanding of new urbanism principles, with organized buildings and a recognizable town center.

The AI generated innovative ideas such as a central water park and buildings following the coastline pattern.

The AI's capabilities were seen as a tool for generating a variety of concepts and inspiration for further development, rather than a final product.

The experiment raised questions about the AI's ability to recognize different building uses and understand public space versus streets.

The potential of AI to write code based on parameters and past work was discussed as an exciting future development.

The experiment was part of a series aiming to explore AI's understanding of new urbanism and its applicability in town planning.

Transcripts

I wanted to know if mid-journey AI could

help me design a new urbanist town like

Seaside Florida from the 1980s and the

results from this experiment were

mind-blowing so here's where Seaside is

located it's in the panhandle of Florida

this is the original new urbanist town

and we're going to jump into mid-journey

AI to see what it does

now these results are interesting but

quite great and also questionable at the

same time and we take a look at these

buildings the mix of uses it's kind of

wonky the way that it connects the

streets but it's certainly referencing

real life scenarios particularly this

massive stadium-sized parking situation

over here looking over at this plan the

amount of detail that it puts into these

things is incredible the public space in

the center the buildings that envelop it

this one I found to be really amazing

this is like the epitome of

suburban contemporary modernism Garden

city-esque sort of things but the

delineation the buildings is really nice

but I wasn't entirely happy with the

results so we ran the model again to see

what happened and this is what it gave

us this time look at the separation of

uses the residential is clearly separate

from the commercial there's sort of a

mall little parking lot situation going

on over here but there's this weird

interesting kind of fun Pool Central

Town thing this one has a similar pool

pond Center thing going on but what I'm

not seeing is anything addressing the

water directly until we get to this

model but this parking situation up here

in the north is massive look at the

teeth on this one it's really exciting

the possibilities of what this

technology can generate but we have to

be more specific so we ran the model

again this time being really particular

about what we want and how we want the

configuration of buildings and spaces to

be and this is what it gave us this time

we have a centered square with sort of a

walkable Central District but much

larger buildings it's not really clear

what these are used for and also the

coastline went away

this situation is a little bit closer to

the real life Seaside look at the the

difference in the roof colors might

dictate what the use of the building is

but it doesn't have a clear Town Center

sort of thing but there is this maybe

interesting Boardwalk sort of area

looking at this version we're getting a

little bit closer there's definitely a

central area there's sort of a

pedestrian walk in the Middle look how

it hides the parking right so there's

you come you can park in the town center

and then there's parking in this

interior block of the Promenade and then

this one is totally interesting you

drive through the place and there's the

Central Parking along the boulevard I

don't know what the purple ring is but

there is some sort of pedestrian walk

over on the east side and then on the

West Side there's this Gathering area

but it's not clear exactly what it is

but I have to say that these are not too

far off from some of the preliminary

sketches we might do during a charette

so we ran the model again

this time asking for variations of

number three just to see what it would

give us so this is based on one of the

previous outputs and it starts to

rearrange the elements you'll notice

different colors or roofs different

configurations of buildings but sort of

in the same scheme this one has sort of

a central water park-esque kind of

swimming pool area with maybe little

Lounge buildings or Clubhouse buildings

for gathering this is quite interesting

this one has a very odd parking

situation and I'm not really sure what

to make of the public spaces everything

seems kind of separated it doesn't have

a new urbanist vibe that I will be

looking at except for this one little

area here

moving along to this one this is quite

cool the way that it has these sort of

white teeth along the beach and then

this little square Bandshell Gathering

area is really interesting and this one

has this really neat little Pond that

pulls you up through the beach

and it seems like the buildings are

following the the pattern of Coastline

and I can imagine the little spaces in

between them so this is starting to get

a little bit better in some ways but

it's not quite there yet I think the

machine needs a little push so we're

going to give it the actual plan of

Seaside this was the plan that was drawn

before the actual construction I believe

I may be wrong but this is this is one

of the original drawings so we're going

to give it to Mid journey and see what

it does

this is exciting oh my goodness

oh wow okay so now the town plan has a

more rectilinear patternation I just

made up that word look at this look at

the way that you can walk through to the

beach look at the organization of these

buildings most of these it seems are

these sort of residential lock sorts of

things there's a repetitive squares

there's a little tennis court thing in

the corner this is almost like the real

thing this is amazing this one this is

more like the Suburban Country Golf Club

thing that my family grew up in so we're

not going to address that this one this

is cool this has sort of a double access

or double yeah double access pedestrian

sort of thing one going north south from

the water and then another one going

east west through the center of the plan

and wow and look at the the Promenade

has this sort of it could be like little

commercial stalls and up here look at

these Texas donuts

oh wow so it's got these little teeth in

the South it's got these little Texas

Donuts up on the North side so this is

really Fantastical let's create a

version based on version four and see

what it does this is getting really good

and let's pop this open so version one

look at this park situation that points

out to the Waterfront and the entire

center of town is this park it might be

too much public space for the amount of

residential here but it's uh it's

interesting interesting idea I love the

the tightness that the urban feeling of

the way that it could figure the

buildings on this one this seems like a

Corporate Park uh with not really a much

not really much habitable space and this

seems to be a balance of everything look

at that this kept both of The Pedestrian

axes it has the residential in the South

this is this is amazing so do I think

this technology is ready to unleash for

a final product not yet but what it can

be really good for is to generate lots

and lots of ideas at the beginning phase

of a project and then to be using those

as inspiration for further developments

or to create a variety of Concepts

overnight to show a client to say hey

this is kind of what it could look like

and the amazing thing is we can use work

that we've all done in the past to

inspire the machine to create things

that are more reasonable more realistic

that are more true to our intentions

versus generating something that doesn't

make sense but they might actually take

us backwards what's not clear to me yet

is whether the AI can recognize the

difference between different uses and

buildings between for example

residential and commercial or if it can

understand public Space versus streets

or if it can understand

ground versus ocean so I'm interested to

see if I can take this and generate

things like figure grounds or land use

maps and things like that to see if it

really understands these Concepts and

then to feed it that information and see

how it applies it to site plans in the

future

this is the first of many episodes of

the seaside AI design and we're going to

generate things like Street sections and

aerial renderings and all of the

different kinds of drawings that would

essentially be needed to build a new

town using the principles of new

urbanism and we'll find out eventually

whether AI or at least mid-journey AI

understands new urbanism and I'm hopeful

that in the future we can actually feed

it parameters and feed it code and have

it write code for us that would be

really exciting so stay tuned for the

next iteration

[Music]

thank you

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