Neural Tectonic is a term coined by Prof Immanuel in an attempt to articulate a set of novel conceptual shifts and artefactual observations when sampling architectural forms with today’s AI models, specifically those of 3D generative deep neural networks. Projects conducted within the context of practice, research and teaching will be presented to not only further illustrate such a theoretical proposition, but also to broaden the current discourse of AI x Architecture.
Immanuel Koh is an Assistant Professor in Design & Artificial Intelligence (DAI) and Architecture & Sustainable Design (ASD) at the Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD) where he directs Artificial-Architecture and DesignerlyAI. Trained at the Architectural Association (AA) in London and holds a PhD from the School of Computer Sciences and Institute of Architecture at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), he is a key international pioneering figure in AI x Architecture and operates in an original and trans-disciplinary way. He is the Principal Investigator for several funded AI research projects with support from, among others, the National Research Foundation (NRF), Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), National Arts Council (NAC), AI Singapore (AISG), DesignSingapore Council (DSG), Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), DSO National Laboratories, and National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC). Immanuel currently also conducts research for high-profile architecture practices such as Zaha Hadid Architects (London) and MVRDV (Rotterdam) in developing custom state-of-the-art deep learning models. He has published in AAAI, ICCV, CVPR, NeurIPS, DCC, Architectural Intelligence, Architectural Design (AD), eCAADe, ACADIA and CAAD Futures; exhibited at Singapore’s Arts House, National Design Centre, Venice Architecture Biennale, and V&A Museum; and taught at UCL, RCA, Bauhaus Dessau, Die Angewandte, Tsinghua, Harvard GSD, and Strelka. Immanuel is the chair of CAADRIA 2024, founder of Singapore’s first AI-NITE, author of the book ‘Artificial & Architectural Intelligence in Design’ published in 2020, and more recently, co-curator of the Singapore Pavilion at Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 on the theme of AI.
This lecture was held on April 7, 2025.