Eleven architect-client pairs worked together to design a house by generating renderings in real time: this led to a better mutual understanding and more active clients, but also resulted in stylistic bias and unexpected twists.
Chengzhi Zhang, Weijie Wang and their colleagues observed eleven pairs of an architect and a client, gathered by videoconference to produce together, using an image generator from text, the first renderings of the client's "dream house". The objective: to understand how the speed of these tools transforms a stage that is known to be delicate, the one where the architect and the project owner must forge a common vision.
The images generated in near real time served as a concrete support for the discussion and helped the pairs to converge. They also rebalanced the exchange: the clients took a more active part in the direction of the project, instead of reacting only to the architect's proposals.
However, the study points to two pitfalls: a stylistic bias of the generator towards certain types of images, and unpredictable changes in direction from one generation to the next, which can cause the design to drift. The authors draw from this ideas for future tools dedicated to communication between architects and clients.
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