The Architect’s Dream, The Sleep Of Reason

The Architect’s Dream, The Sleep Of Reason looks at the opportunities that AI tools provide to architects and designers imagining and designing worlds through the hallucinogenic lens of generative AI imagery. Questions surrounding the authorship and legitimacy of AI art miss the point that engaging with the ‘picture worlds’ of AI is only the start of the journey. If we reverse engineer our aesthetic encounters with AI, we can find hidden narratives that speak of other ontologies.

The exhibition by students and staff at RMIT and UniSA brings together a collection of artefacts, drawings, AI-generated images, and digital environments, each responding to theoretical prompts drawn from architectural texts. These works explore how AI can mediate between abstract design thinking and concrete architectural expression—revealing unexpected, provocative, and sometimes even ‘buildable’ possibilities. The opening event features a presentation and discussion that reflects on AI as both a tool for pragmatic design solutions and a medium for visionary creativity, and whether AI-generated visions represent a future we want, need, or deserve.

This program is supported by AASA (Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia).