AI, material agency, and architecture’s crisis

2026-08-12

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Derya Uzal *

DOI：10.1007/s00146-026-03219-y

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Architecture’s relationship with materiality faces an unprecedented crisis as artificial intelligence systems transform how materials are understood, selected, and specified. This paper examines the dissolution of embodied material knowledge through three interconnected developments: the historical abstraction of matter via industrial catalogues, the emergence of circular economy databases as attempted alternatives, and the recent shift toward AI-generated architecture that operates primarily through image synthesis. Drawing on new materialist theory, particularly Jane Bennett’s concept of vibrant matter, this work argues that even progressive circular platforms like Rotor’s Opalis cannot restore the situated, tactile engagement with materials that characterized pre-industrial building practices. The analysis reveals how large language models and neural networks amplify catalogue logic through recursive flattening, reducing materials to computational variables while excluding their capacity for resistance and agency. As architecture enters what Neil Leach terms the “hallucinatory turn”, where buildings exist primarily as circulating images rather than material assemblages, the paper identifies structural conditions that make restoration of material encounter epistemologically impossible within current modes of production. The conclusion proposes critical practices for architects working within these irresolvable contradictions, including intervention in dataset politics, preservation of direct material encounters, and sustained skepticism toward automated design intelligence.

Keywords:

Artificial intelligence

Material agency

Circular economy

New materialism

Architectural ethics

Digital architecture

AI, material agency, and architecture’s crisis

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