I DREAM, THEREFORE I AM AN ARCHITECT

In this review of the exhibition of the student’s research projects in the master’s class Digital Design Studio of Architectural Program within the International University of Sarajevo, mentor and curators Lamila Simisic Pasic and Meliha Teparic are giving an analysis of the settings, aims, and purpose of the show. Th e exhibition is about an attempt to follow the novelties that the 21st century is bringing into the creation process, such as the involvement of artifi cial intelligence (AI) within creative fi elds. Students started with discovering, analyzing, and classifying the results of visual impacts from their travel from home to school. Th e synthesis came out from a mixture of artifi cial and real. Th en, they merged their physical experiences transformed into visual imagery and digital outputs discovered through the lens of AI into one coherent and intuitive experience. Finally, students used machine learning as a direct collaborator for expanding their imaginations, particularly the diff usion model, which visualizes images out of the text, better known as text-to-image or, its extension, text-to-animation! Using these techniques, students reconstructed their voyages into more visionary landscapes, trying to emphasize, bold, and enlarge dilemmas and concerns of nowadays and refract a multisensory experience to tell the story. Th e exhibition was held in the Art Gallery of the International University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the end of 2022.

In contemporary art, the artist refers to the theme of place from di erent perspectives, such as a place having a meaning for someone or something, a place having some value or signi cance, private and public places; the artist looking at/out of the places; and ctional places (Robertson & McDaniel, 2013, pp. 193-235). In this regard, "a place is a site of possibility, hypothesis, and fantasy-a somewhere where something might occur" (Robertson & McDaniel, 2010, p. 227). From the artistic point of view, the notion of a place is very broad and does not recognize speci c physical boundaries. Not only does a place have an abstract meaning metaphorically or guratively in the postmodern world, but it also goes beyond mere horizontal and vertical dimensions and 'unfolds' itself into a new dimension of the digital virtual world. For instance, in the past, an imagined place existed in the form of a physical representation, such as a picture as the two-dimensional at plan that we were looking at it, now the virtual place is becoming a 'place' for physical presence (e.g., video games, internet, etc.) (Robertson & McDaniel, 2010, p. 227). Furthermore, interactivity is one of the essential features of digital media, and it has participatory nature in contemporary art (Lughi, 2012). Now, we are not only able to participate and interact with virtual places, but we are also able to be present in the virtual place and the physical world at the same time. We are in "a phase of transition to a hybrid culture, where digital space is increasingly just another space we live in" (Robertson & McDaniel, 2010, p. 259), an extended zone of our physical space. us, Ferrando (2013) argued that today we live in a 'transhuman' world, a world where our technological inventions blend with our bodies and lives, and that very soon we'll be post-humans, or new species that will be no anymore human, once when we move out to another planet (pp. 26-32). In the exhibition "I Dream, erefore I am Architect" young creative architects are 'looking out for place' , in the "new realms of virtual reality" that "have spawned new conceptions of structure, such as liquid architecture, a term that refers to structures that mutate or expand into multiple, seemingly non-Euclidean dimensions" (Robertson & McDaniel, 2013, p. 220). If the physical architectural places are "cultural construct" (Robertson & McDaniel, 2013, p. 220) then we can consider virtual architectural places as "a profound cultural shi " (Robertson & McDaniel, 2013, p. 221).

Architecture and Artifi cial Intelligence
Architects nowadays are facing many challenges. e architecture profession, like everything else, is moving more from an expert system towards a learning system, becoming more transparent towards the other disciplines. One novelty, particularly novel for the 21st century, is the involvement of arti cial intelligence (AI) not only in production processes but also in creative ones. Like it was at the beginning of the usage of computers, AI is becoming an inevitable collaborator in creative processes; it is becoming more a ordable with interfaces that the architects visually better appreciate. Lamila Simisic Pasic, an Assistant Professor at the Architecture Program of the International University of Sarajevo (IUS), led the class Digital Design Studio where students worked on grasping the bene ts of AI in their creative processes. Here she tells their story through the exhibition "I Dream, erefore I am Architect" with Professor Meliha Teparic, curator of IUS Art Gallery.

To Be Curious Towards Something Different
In the study process named "I Dream, erefore I am Architect" students shared their enthusiasm towards novelties that might help to re-engage in live shared experiences. As young architects, this group of students might impact what the 21st century will bring to architecture practice.
New tools that are based on machine learning, like text-to-image or text-toanimations, are making suitable ttings for the young generations and what they consider as their culture of living. eir communications are based on texting and sharing information via text prompts. e short and sharp text translations into visual representations that are used in the novel tools such as Midjourney, StableDi usion, DreamStudio, and similar are following popular cultures nowadays. ese tools give visual results on the text prompt of users' thoughts. e journeys of students' visual thoughts shown in this exhibition present students' intentions towards creating architectural forms and their authentic experience of the novelty in our practice, which is beginning to inform the practice of design itself. Regarding methods used in the creation, students discovered, analyzed, and classi ed the results of visual impacts from their travel from home to school. ey produced short video documents of travels and synthesized creations from a mixture of arti cial and real. e merged physical and virtual experiences were transformed into visual imagery and digital outputs, discovered through the lens of AI into one coherent and intuitive experience. Students used machine learning as a direct collaborator for expanding their imaginations, particularly the di usion models that visualized images from the text! Using these techniques, students reconstructed their voyages into more visionary landscapes, trying to emphasize, bold, and enlarge dilemmas and concerns of nowadays and refract a multisensory experience to tell the story. e results are an amazingly evocative eruption of di erent views of their intentions to search for the correct answer to nowadays questions.
The Purpose of the Show e purpose of displaying architectural objects in drawings, models, pavilions, or digital and virtual presentations is vital for communicating architecture to the public. Architecture design is a lengthy process; it takes a long time to make and even longer to build. Displaying architectural projects might supply a view behind the scenes of creating our built environment. e connection between architecture and the public can broaden the public' s understanding of its culture, enable a better understanding of how architecture is created, and become an agency for possible discussion and debate toward wellbeing. Architectural exhibitions that display not just the nal project' s drawings but also thoughts, senses, cognitions, and memories of the creative process, might become a mechanism for the audience to understand their built environment better. e setting of the exhibition "I Dream, erefore I am Architect" is that the exhibition itself becomes architecture. is exhibition functioned as a hybrid performance of architectural thoughts displayed non-traditionally to provoke the audience to think not just about the concerns and topics of projects but about architecture as playfully, creative, and witty. e traditional way of presenting was rearranged into the embodiment of a parallel world displaying multiple ideas, juxtapositions, sounds, and visuals of students' ideas through the lenses of a cooking book, restaurant's menu, futuristic voyages via google maps, videos, or postcards, or children' video book (image 1). All projects in the show envision a world where citizens will live in an integrated, imaginative, and even immersive environment.
Image 1. e image shows the interior of the exhibition "I Dream, erefore I am Architect. Photo courtesy of Haris Heljo.
Students' Testimonies on "I Dream, Therefore I am Architect" 6 e project aim of "Picturesque Collage" (image 2) by Bakir Tanovic was to show through graphic illustration and morphosis the way from his home to the university. rough this picturesque collage, he expressed his feelings and odd things occurring on the road and environment, which for him are everyday occurrences. e work is shown as video art.
e image shows the envisioned world named "Picturesque Collage" by Bakir Tanovic. Photo courtesy of Haris Heljo. e concept of Erna Preljevic's " e Path of Changes" (image 3) was based on the road from the core of Sarajevo's industrial zone through industrial, residential, and commercial areas, mixed in the whole region until the area of educational institutions and hotels, which is still an area in development.
e representations of future development follow the style of Tadao Ando's architecture. e concept of Tadao Ando is mixed with glances of brutalism, but both concepts still keep glimpses of existing greenery.
is transformation represents the slow development of this region into an industrial zone. e student detects an area that needs to be in balance regarding the construction and the way of future development. However, going further in the direction of the city, student experiences excellent potential for a serious industrial zone but keep the sense of a mixture of Further on the road, as we enter the area of the roman bridge, the only thing she thinks of is the Roman bridge which is imagined as being made of silk and stone. Later as we enter the residential zone of Ilidza, we can sense the area of high socialization as if the whole environment is dedicated to people. e nal is the path near the river Zeljeznica which is open and with a couple of buildings, but it gives a sense of living with nature integrated with the constructions. e nal purpose of the whole path is an imagination of the future Zen living, integrated living with nature.
Image 3. e image shows the postcards designed for the project named " e Path of Changes' by Erna Preljevic. Photo courtesy of Haris Heljo.
Zeynep Nihan Yılmaz in her children's audiobook named "Futuristic Mushroom Houses" (image 4) reimagined the part of Sarajevo Canton, Sokolovic Kolonija, a neighborhood characterized by dull and uniform houses, using pneumatic architecture to in ate the façades and give them a convex, mushroom-like appearance, drawing inspiration from the styles of omas Heatherwick and Iris Van Herpen. Her project explores arti cial intelligence's potential and sparks ideas for future works through the forms and compositions it generates. As a child, she was fascinated by unusual shapes and forms in architecture and the fantastic, utopian worlds depicted in animated lms and cartoons. e concept of futuristic mushroom houses reminded her of the mushroom houses in Smurf Village. It motivated her to create an audiobook for children, which will educate them about architecture and appeal to the inner child in older audiences. that produces resources, digests its waste, and self-decomposes. e edible architecture was made to honor the creation and unveiling of an entirely new type of design-arti cial intelligence. e concept is based on interpretations of edible architecture, taking buildings on the way from home to school as a reference example for meal transformation. Inspired by the Disney movie from her childhood, Cloudy with Meatballs, this book's oeuvre includes edible buildings made of pasta, stretchy dough, and gluten mycelia, through egg-shaped objects in the Gaudí style, all the way to a Guggenheim pavlova cake and chocolate brutalist cake made of zicht concrete. ere is no doubt that this book, which has over 100 AI illustrations generated using Midjourney, will nd something suitable for the palate of any reader, taster, architect, or foodie. ese captivating parametric meals celebrate the discovery of AI creation -a celebration of architecture, technology, and geometry worthy of our admiration and appetite.
Image 5. "Edible Architecture" is a recipe book by Amina Likic. Photo courtesy of Haris Heljo. e healing restaurant menu by Selinay Erdeniz (image 6) also nds its inspiration in the unique style of Antonio Gaudi, which is characterized by natural, organic design and a mixture of materials. e main element of the concept is the Romanesco Broccoli, which contains fractals as patterns. Since the appearance of this fractal vegetable, it is mainly presented as "small Christmas trees", especially to the kids. e color of this vegetable can be green, orange, or violet, which is used in the design to create the pattern and emphasize elements within the theme. rough the concept and design, it aims to emphasize the importance of the healing environment and healing design, which is one of the critical and active topics. Healing building design and landscape are the major positive impact on society's psychological and physical health. Selinay has used previously mentioned natural elements to achieve a green healing environment and sustainable design to gain this.
Image 6. Setting for displaying the healing restaurant menu by Selinay Erdeniz. Photo courtesy of Haris Heljo. Student Amina Habul in her project for the future city, used AI to show a new, better, and futuristic city (image 7), which will serve nature and citizens at the same time. Her main idea was to design a new smart and sustainable city in an inclusive, collaborative, and equitable way. Amina wanted to create a city that would be bene cial rstly for the citizens of Sarajevo and, of course, to the world's well-being, regarding the constant climate change. While promoting sustainability across their environmental, economic, social, and cultural dimensions, she provides the necessary conditions and infrastructure to enhance the capabilities of the citizens to contribute to and enjoy the bene ts of a more liveable, resilient, and sustainable urban development. e city enables the meaningful participation of citizens in ful lling their right to the city; Amina focuses on making the city more prosperous, equitable, comfortable, and innovative; addressing social needs and making sure housing and urban services are high-quality; ful lling the needs of the vulnerable and those with disabilities. is proposal is also gender-sensitive and responsive, acknowledging the di erent and changing e overall goal of the project "Real Estate EH" by Ermin Halicevic was to demonstrate how AI can be used to create and generate ideas for a wide range of projects. In Ermin's case, it inspires him to develop futuristic Sarajevo designs and 3D models. e project's premise is the real estate agency EH (Ermin Halilcevic) (image 8), which sells apartments in Sarajevo.
Image 8. e display of the real estate agency "EH" promotion by Ermin Halicevic. Photo courtesy of Haris Heljo.
is study aims for the project "People, Nature, Future" (image 9) by Esra Nur Erdogmus to prevent the possible disaster that may occur in the future by showing it. In a world where green spaces are destroyed, and buildings are built in their place, people are preparing for their own demise. is work aims to show people the way by telling the truth and raising awareness as a result. Many disasters occur because of the occupation of green spaces. Increasing precipitation cannot be absorbed by the soil and oods occur. Many people die in these oods. Also, although trees prevent landslides, thousands of trees are cut down, and, in the end, hundreds of people lose their lives in these natural events. One of the reasons for the increasingly polluted air is the destruction of green areas and the factories built in their place. e damage done to nature and trees is done by people themselves. Image 9. e view on the results of the study "People, Nature, Future" by Esra Nur Erdogmus. Photo courtesy of Haris Heljo. e focus of the concept for the project of Anela Sudzuka named "A Balloon Land" (image 10) was the city of Sarajevo and its image. Since it is known as a foggy place which o en is presented as colorless, we clearly see that it a ects the population, psychologically and physically. Depression and anxiety are common psychological issues seen in the population nowadays. is is a good example showing that the environment a ects our mental health. It is in our power to turn these negativized elements into positive and bene cial ones by making some speci c changes and reorganizing the surrounding. erefore, the concept is made to give the whole city a bit of happiness and positive textures. e main elements used in the design are colorful balloons, which are used as decorative elements. By this approach, we can cure ourselves when we cure and change our environment. e design approach of the concept promotes mental well-being, as well as high-quality living.
Image 10. e view on "Balloon Land" by Anela Sudzuka. Photo courtesy of Haris Heljo.