A' Design Award in Generative, Algorithmic, Parametric and AI-Assisted Design Goes to AI Sampling Singapore Housing Architecture by Immanuel Koh

The international grand jury of the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Immanuel Koh for generative, algorithmic, parametric and ai-assisted design

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COMO, Italy, April 18, 2025 /DesignNewswire/ AI Sampling Singapore Housing Architecture by Immanuel Koh has been granted the A' Design Award in the Generative, Algorithmic, Parametric and AI-Assisted Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The result belongs to the 2024 - 2025 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.

About the A' Design Award

The Iron A' Design Award is awarded to good designs that meet the rigorous professional and industrial standards set by the A' Design Awards. This recognition is reserved for works that demonstrate a solid understanding of design principles and show creativity within their execution. Recipients of the Iron A' Design Award are acknowledged for their practical innovations and contributions to their respective fields, providing solutions that improve quality of life and foster positive change. These designs are a testament to the skill and dedication of their creators, showcasing their ability to address real-world challenges through thoughtful design.

Regarding AI Sampling Singapore Housing Architecture

Singapore is an artificial city. Trained with a large dataset of 3D digital models of high-rise buildings found in Singapore, the custom designed AI model generates not only formally plausible and semantically coherent configurations, but begins to also imagine novel and uncanny architectural forms, interpolating and extrapolating among standard high-rise housing typologies such as the slab, point, and cluster blocks.

About Immanuel Koh

Immanuel Koh is the director of Artificial-Architecture and an Assistant Professor in Design & Artificial Intelligence (DAI) and Architecture & Sustainable Design (ASD) at the Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD). Graduated from the Architectural Association (AA) in London, he holds a PhD from the School of Computer Sciences and Institute of Architecture at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. Immanuel is a pioneer in AI x Architecture and a Principal Investigator for several funded AI x Architecture research projects ranging from AI Singapore and DesignSingapore to Zaha Hadid Architects and MVRDV.

Award Record

With this recognition, Immanuel Koh is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.

About the A' Generative, Algorithmic, Parametric and AI-Assisted Design Award

The A' Generative Design Award is an international design competition recognizing good generative designs from leading creators and designers worldwide. It is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to generative designers, algorithmic design professionals, ai-assisted design experts and parametric designers from all countries. Typical entries include algorithmic artworks, parametric architectures, generative graphics, ai-assisted illustrations, computational sculptures and procedural patterns. The awarded generative designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/generative

About A' Design Award & Competition

Organized annually since 2008, A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The philanthropic mission of the A' Design Award is to advance society through good design, by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Nominations are peer reviewed and evaluated anonymously by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. Eligible laureates receive the A' Design Prize, which includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, uploading a work and receiving a preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. More information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com

Press Resources

Winner Page: https://designers.org/170593
A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/170593
Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!170593
Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/366573
Further Information from the Laureate: https://www.worldbuildingsdirectory.com/entries/ai-sampling-

Media Contact

Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953

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Fact Sheet

The Work

Project: AI Sampling Singapore Housing Architecture
Function: Housing Architecture
Category: Generative, Algorithmic, Parametric and AI-Assisted Design
Discipline: Design Strategy
Industry: Innovation and Design Industry
Colors: Gray, Dim Gray, Dark Slate Gray, Light Slate Gray and Black
Images: 5

The Recognition

Laureate: Immanuel Koh
Country: Singapore
Recognition: A' Design Award
Edition: 2024 - 2025
Design ID: #170593

Credits

Team: Artificial-Architecture
Image Credits: All credits: Artificial-Architecture

Design Details

Unique Properties: Is it possible to sample at scale and at high-resolution every single building ever built in a country? If so, can such a dataset be used to train an AI model in generating new yet locally compliant buildings without any explicit regulatory control inputs? The project explores the design agency of deep generative neural networks in learning three-dimensional exteriority and interiority with a redesigned 3D generative adversarial network (3D-GAN) AI model. Winner of WAFX2024, IDA2024 and BLT2024.
Inspiration: Singapore is an artificial city! Trained with a large dataset of 3D digital models of high-rise buildings found in Singapore, the custom-designed AI model generates not only formally plausible and semantically coherent configurations, but begins to also imagine novel and uncanny architectural forms, interpolating and extrapolating among standard high-rise housing typologies such as the slab, point, and cluster blocks. Project exhibited at Venice Architecture Biennale and Singapore's Arts House.
Research: A custom generative AI model was trained from scratch using proprietary code base and dataset. Specifically, a 3D generative adversarial network (3D-GAN) AI model was trained to learn semantic and spatial configuration of high-rise high-density residential public housing in Singapore.
Challenge: The non-existence of 3D models and their corresponding floor plans was the first challenge. New workflow and tools had to be developed to not only collect (i.e., digitally and physically), but create (annotate) and curate (i.e., exploratory data analysis) such high quality dataset to train an AI model from scratch. Technically difficult due to the scalability of similar CAD representation which was overcome via a novel AI latent representation of 3D.
Realization and Technology: A custom generative AI model was trained from scratch using proprietary code base and dataset. Specifically, a 3D generative adversarial network (3D-GAN) AI model was trained to learn semantic and spatial configuration of high-rise high-density residential public housing in Singapore.
Operation and Interaction: This is a digital AI x Architecture generative research project, while the dataset was digitally collected from existing physical buildings in Singapore.
Project Duration and Location: This is an on-going and longer-term AI x Architecture research being conducted at the university design lab since 2021. It was however only published much later as an official architectural design award entry from 2024 onwards.
Specifications: This is a digital AI x Architecture project. Each generated output is a new high-rise high-density residential public housing of up to 30 floors.