Books by Asterios Agkathidis
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are currently making a dynamic appearance in the architectural... more Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are currently making a dynamic appearance in the architectural realm. Social media are being bombarded by word-to-image/image-to-image generated illustrations of fictive buildings generated by tools such as “Midjourney”, “DALL-E”, “Stable Diffusion” and others. Architects appear to be fascinated by the rapidly generated and inspiring ‘designs’ while others criticise them as superficial and formalistic. In continuation to previous research on Generative Design, this book aims to investigate whether there is a suitable way to integrate these new technologies as a generative tool in the pedagogical architectural design process. To answer this question we develop a design workflow and test it for two semesters in an architectural design studio in parallel to other studio units using conventional design methods but working on the same site. The studio outputs were evaluated by guest critics, moderators and external examiners. Furthermore, the design framework was evaluated by the students through an anonymous survey. Our findings highlight the advantages and challenges of the utilisation of AI image synthesis tools in the pedagogical design process of an architectural design approach.
Presenting the state-of-the-art in
sustainable retrofits in post war
residential towers, this boo... more Presenting the state-of-the-art in
sustainable retrofits in post war
residential towers, this book captures and
re-informs the current intense refurbishing
process that is taking place in Britain,
which is part of a global phenomenon
happening all over the world, as cities
upgrade their building stock in an attempt
to comply with governmental emission
reduction targets. The authors present
inspections of 20 sustainably retrofitted
social housing towers, analysing their
aesthetic and technical modifications,
as well as the shifts occurring in their
social structure. The authors use over 200
full colour plans, elevations, photographs,
maps and illustrations to beautifully
support the statistical and analytical
information collected. Finally they include
interviews with some of the architects who
designed the retrofits, residents and key
stakeholders to inform the conclusions.
Biomorphic Structures: Architecture Inspired by Nature (Form + Technique), Jan 1, 2017
From leaves to liquids, caves to crystal formations, nature has always been a major source of ins... more From leaves to liquids, caves to crystal formations, nature has always been a major source of inspiration for architects. This book examines how nature can act as a precedent for design solutions through twelve case studies. Packed with computer drawings, sketches, models and photographs, this will be an ideal resource of ideas for students in their studio work, as well as for practising architects.
This book is a collection of architectural projects designed by students in their third and fourt... more This book is a collection of architectural projects designed by students in their third and fourth educational year, in design studios taught by the writer as visiting professor at the Lebanese American University. During the studios, students had adopted a particular design approach: digital tools and techniques (such as twisting, lofting, triangulating, drilling, knotting and framing) were used systematically to explore spatial, structural and geometrical conditions, leading to the emergence of abstract prototypes. As a second step, each prototype was perceived as an apparatus, which was used to generate architectural solutions, enriched with data deriving from the site analysis and the building program.
Research by Design Projects by Asterios Agkathidis
Papers by Asterios Agkathidis
Architectural science review, Apr 12, 2024
Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)
With the advancement of augmented and virtual reality technologies both in scale as well as acces... more With the advancement of augmented and virtual reality technologies both in scale as well as accessibility, the Metaverse (Stephenson, 1992 has emerged as a new digital space with potential for the application of architectural creativity and design.With blockchain integration, the concept of the Metaverse shows promise in creating a "decentralised" space for design and creativity with rewards for its participants. As a platform that incorporates these technological components, does the Metaverse have utility for architectural design? Is there something truly novel in what the Metaverse brings to architectural computing, and architectural design? The paper constructs a qualitative knowledge graph that can be used for the evaluation of various kinds of Metaverses in and for architectural design. We use Design Science Research methods to develop the knowledge graph and its evaluative capacity, stemming from our experience with two Metaverses, Decentraland and Cryptovoxels. The paper concludes with a discussion of knowledge and practice gaps that are evident, framing the opportunities that architects might have in the future in terms of developing Metaverse(s).
Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)
This paper reviews existing research on the use of immersive technologies, Virtual Reality in par... more This paper reviews existing research on the use of immersive technologies, Virtual Reality in particular, in various stages of the architectural design process. Nine research papers were systematically reviewed and analyzed. They were filtered down by using the keywords: 'Virtual/Augmented Reality, Architectural Education, Gravity Sketch, Unity and Virtual Environments' from two main databases that focus on digital and computer-aided design research: Cumulative Index about publications in Computer Aided Architectural Design (CuminCAD) and Elsevier's abstract and citation database (Scopus). The selection of papers was filtered down based on relevant approaches which investigate architectural design, creative thinking and teaching methodology using immersive technologies. Another criterion applied to the filtering process of the research papers is the exploration and integration process of new tools and overlapping external software to aid the existing workflow of the user. Our findings explore the evolution of immersive tools to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of virtual reality-based software and hardware, as a creative development tool in the field of education and practice. This paper also proposes a novel teaching methodology that incorporates immersive technologies in the early design phase of architectural education.
Architecture and Planning Journal (APJ)
This paper explores the suitability of mass customisation (MC) technologies and techniques in ord... more This paper explores the suitability of mass customisation (MC) technologies and techniques in order to provide affordable housing solutions for Saudi Arabia. In particular, the paper analyses ten articles filtered through 1.165 publications searched by using the keywords 'mass customisation housing or offsite construction' in the databases Scopus, CumlnCAD, ScienceDirect, and Engineer village and categorised them based on their suitability for the Saudi Arabian context. Our findings include a comparative analysis chart evaluating workflows, tools and technologies on their suitability for the MC design and an MC workflow proposal for including parametric design and digital fabrication tools and techniques.
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Books by Asterios Agkathidis
sustainable retrofits in post war
residential towers, this book captures and
re-informs the current intense refurbishing
process that is taking place in Britain,
which is part of a global phenomenon
happening all over the world, as cities
upgrade their building stock in an attempt
to comply with governmental emission
reduction targets. The authors present
inspections of 20 sustainably retrofitted
social housing towers, analysing their
aesthetic and technical modifications,
as well as the shifts occurring in their
social structure. The authors use over 200
full colour plans, elevations, photographs,
maps and illustrations to beautifully
support the statistical and analytical
information collected. Finally they include
interviews with some of the architects who
designed the retrofits, residents and key
stakeholders to inform the conclusions.
Research by Design Projects by Asterios Agkathidis
Papers by Asterios Agkathidis
sustainable retrofits in post war
residential towers, this book captures and
re-informs the current intense refurbishing
process that is taking place in Britain,
which is part of a global phenomenon
happening all over the world, as cities
upgrade their building stock in an attempt
to comply with governmental emission
reduction targets. The authors present
inspections of 20 sustainably retrofitted
social housing towers, analysing their
aesthetic and technical modifications,
as well as the shifts occurring in their
social structure. The authors use over 200
full colour plans, elevations, photographs,
maps and illustrations to beautifully
support the statistical and analytical
information collected. Finally they include
interviews with some of the architects who
designed the retrofits, residents and key
stakeholders to inform the conclusions.