The Transformation of Design Knowledge in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Modeling the Creative Thinking Processes of Design Experts and Novices

The rapid advancement of generative AI is transforming design workflows from manual "modeling" into the sophisticated "selection" and "reconstruction" of a multitude of generated options. Within this paradigm shift, it is a pressing issue to clarify the boundary between "implementation capabilities," which AI can rapidly replace, and the essential "curation capabilities" that humans must assume. This research aims to establish a definition of the new creative thinking processes required in the AI era from an ontological perspective by visualizing the unconscious cognitive processes of experienced designers. Previous research on design expertise has faced difficulties in extracting pure cognitive structures because physical factors, such as drawing skills, act as noise. Therefore, this research verified the differences in cognitive strategies between experts and novices using a unique abstract composition task that eliminated physical skills and tool familiarity. Experiments were conducted with 10 experts and 10 novices, and an integrated analysis of operation logs and interviews using the FBS (Function-Behavior-Structure) framework revealed that experts spent approximately twice as much time on "pause" and "evaluation" processes compared to novices. These results demonstrate that while the novice's creative process is a "linear task of filling in blanks," the expert's process is a "recursive exploration" involving repeated critical dialogue with the generated results based on internal criteria. This "intentional pause" constitutes the tacit knowledge unique to humans in the AI era and lies at the core of future design education. Ultimately, this suggests that the role that humans must play is shifting from simple implementation to advanced curation and judgment capabilities.

CRAFTING SUSTAINABLE KNOWLEDGE IN THE GEN-AI AGE: EMERGING EPISTEMOLOGIES FOR THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

The rapid integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen-AI) into the built environment is transforming how knowledge is produced, interpreted, and applied in pursuit of sustainability. This study examines the emerging epistemological shifts associated with AI-mediated design and planning processes, with particular attention to how diverse knowledge systems interact in shaping sustainable built environment outcomes. This study aims to examine how Gen-AI mediates between human expertise, local and indigenous knowledge, and environmental data; identify epistemic opportunities and risks associated with AI-driven knowledge production; and propose a conceptual framework for sustainable knowledge creation in the Gen-AI era. A qualitative conceptual methodology was adopted, and a structured literature synthesis was conducted. The analysis focused on identifying patterns in knowledge inputs, AI mediation processes, and sustainability outcomes. The analysis identifies three key epistemic dynamics: epistemic augmentation, where AI enhances human analytical and design capacity; epistemic displacement, where algorithmic outputs risk overshadowing tacit or contextual knowledge; and epistemic justice, emphasising the need for inclusive integration of local and indigenous knowledge in AI-mediated systems. This study concludes that sustainable built environment practice in the Gen-AI era requires hybrid knowledge systems in which AI complements rather than replaces human and community-based expertise. The proposed conceptual framework highlights the interaction between diverse knowledge inputs, AI-mediated transformation, and sustainability-oriented design outcomes. It is recommended that future AI applications in the built environment prioritise transparent algorithms, participatory knowledge integration, and ethical governance to ensure context-sensitive and socially inclusive sustainability solutions.

IN THE AGE OF GENERATIVE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: PHILOSOPHICAL

Framing human-AI dynamics: An epistemological perspective on generative AI practices

It is argued that this understanding of human-GAI engagement, as explained through epistemological beliefs, lays the foundation for alternative approaches to teaching and assessment, student interactions, professional development, and AI governance and policy, while noting that the framework remains an exploratory heuristic requiring empirical validation.

Beyond Deterministic Design: Engineering Education for AI-Enabled Heterogeneous Systems

This constructive position paper proposes the “vibe-designer”—a new professional paradigm that strategically compresses the traditional middle phase of the engineering curriculum to focus on high-level specification, adversarial evaluation, and systemic contextualization.

Pontic Reasoning and Architectural Parti: A Systemic Reinterpretation of C-K Theory

C-K Theory is currently one of the most sophisticated theoretical frameworks for modelling design processes. Based on the interaction between a space of concepts, C, and a space of knowledge, K, it accurately describes the mechanisms of producing and transforming design objects. However, certain concepts used in architectural practice remain difficult to integrate into this model. This is the case with the architectural concept (architectural parti in French), which is frequently presented as a decisive stage of the project, yet its theoretical status remains unclear. This article aims to shed light on this difficulty based on the hypothesis of a general system in Bertalanffy’s sense. Previous research, which has highlighted an isomorphism between the wuxing of the Chinese tradition and Platonic solids, is employed as a heuristic tool to identify several structuring properties of this system: duality of transformation regimes, dynamic antagonism, the role of the 5th polarity, and the activating centre… Comparing these properties with the CKT leads to the identification of a central mediating mechanism, which is scarcely explained in its classical formulation. We interpret the architectural scheme as this very mechanism, this bridge that ensures the transition between the exploratory regime of space C and the stabilising regime of K. The study of this bridge leads to the formulation of the hypothesis of a third modality of rationality, complementary to the causal and correlative reason described by Vandermeersch. This rationality, referred to here as ‘bridging reason’ in reference to M. Serres, denotes the capacity to establish relationships between heterogeneous domains to enable the emergence of new configurations.