NEWS
SEMINAR 2024-25
The new seminar starts in February. If you are interested, please, apply using the below ‘Enrollment’ section of this page.
Info about the kick-off, students selected, and detailed Class Schedule will be communicated the last week of January.
– 3d Module INSTALLATION 2CFU
ATTENTION the installation is postponed at 16:00 due to inagibility of the room
03. October 15:00 -18:00 Installation at the Murate Art District, Piazza delle Murate, Firenze.
02. October 15:30 First Meeting at the Murate Art District, Piazza delle Murate, Firenze.
– LAST REVIEW BEFORE EXAMINATION
Next Wednesday, September 25, the last review will be conducted to access the end-of-seminar exam.
This review will discuss how to register your credits (identification of exam codes and coincidence with your Piano di Studi) and check the completeness of the material and its correspondence to the required specifications (see Assignment Guide in this portal).
This review is therefore MANDATORY unless otherwise agreed with the instructor for credit registration.
Subsequent deadlines, once approved, for the material will be:
-September 27 for files upload. (room 16 s. Verdiana)
-September 30 for printing posters. (room 16 s. Verdiana)
-October 2 Installation (Murate Art District)
-October 4 Opening Exhibition (Murate Art District)
-October 5 exhibition disassembly
– AI VIDEO POST PRODUCTION TUTORIAL
Now availabe in the Videos, Tutorials and Books section of this page
– STUDENTS’ WORK STATUS CHECK <LINK>
Check it out to evaluate your possible CFU
– Aug 2024 New release of the Class Manual DEEP FRAMES is out! <LINK>
Read it to improve your video generation process
– LINKS TO WORK ONLINE WITH STABLE DIFFUSION.
Automatic 1111 with Deforum <LINK>
Deforum extension only <LINK>
– ASSIGNMENT STORY BOARD. Get the guide, procedures, and date to discuss it at this LINK
29 May. Storyboard discussion
27 May. Storyboard file upload at this LINK
13 May In the section VIdeos, Tutorials and Books new files are available
THE SECOND MODULE OF THE SEMINAR STARTS: 2024 | April | 24th Wednesday @ 9.00 am. S. Verdiana , room 15 (see the Class Schedule section below)
To register for the seminar it is not necessary to have attended the first module
– 11 April FINAL EVALUATION (see assignments section)
– 14 March CREDITs 01 & 02 Discussion & Evaluation
– CLASS IS EVERY THURSDAY @ 9.00 am. S. Teresa, room 205
SEMINAR KICKOFF: 2024 | February | 29th Thursday @ 9.00 am. S. Teresa, room 205
INFO & RESOURCES
ENROLLMENT
In order to enter the seminar students are required submit a short CV mainly related to the topic of the seminar.
The CV, in .pdf web format, must be sent before February 2025 to this LINK
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ds_7tOd9bTpz6D9kBc_KVN4_bLOQE7kg?usp=sharing
For iCAD students the first module of the seminar represents a compulsory assignment of the Environmental Class 2023-24 and, as a matter of fact, no application is required.
All other students are required to
CLASS SYLLABUS
Exploring AI Environmental Design
An architectural investigation upon eco-disaster & digital dreams
Language
English
Teachers
Proff. Giuseppe Ridolfi, Laura Andreini, Giulio Giovanoni.
Assistants and Adjunct Lecturers: arch PhD Arman Saberi, dott. Arber Marra
Contents
The thematic seminar investigates the relationship between environmental conditions and design perspectives opened by the advent of artificial intelligence through radical research methodologies based on speculative fabulation applied to architectural figurations capable of acting as experiential objects for a critical reflection beyond the dualism man/environment and techne /nature .
Articulation and Credits The seminar takes place in two teaching modules with the assignment of corresponding training credits as listed below:
First Module: Critical Research, Story Telling & Design Visioning (4 CFU)
Second Module: Design Development, Project Communication & Exhibition (6 CFU)
The contents of each module is specified in the CLASS CALENDAR.
Admission
This seminar is open to students regularly enrolled in the third year of the degree courses of the University of Florence. The enrollment is based on a preliminary students’ curriculum evaluation. The activation requires a minimum of 8 students.
Enrollment is also allowed for single modules in order to get the relative credits.
Results
The seminar includes general training aimed at:
-learning the main themes of the environmental debate
-knowledge of the theoretical foundations of visual generation technologies based on artificial intelligence with particular reference to architectural and visual design
and in relation to the two teaching modules the following skills:
first module:
-narrative writing and use of text generation tools based on artificial intelligence algorithms
-generation of images and architectural concepts based on artificial intelligence algorithms
-editorial graphics
-development of theoretical essays
second module
-video generation and architectural animations based on artificial intelligence algorithms
-three-dimensional modeling and rendering
-computer graphics animation
-non-linear video editing
-editorial graphics
-installation setup
Methods of verification and expected
The verification takes place through intermediate evaluations aimed at evaluating the following results achieved in the different teaching modules:
-individual skills in research, critical analysis, and theoretical elaboration
-collaborative attitudes and public presentation
-skills in data and concepts graphical presentation
-originality and effectiveness of narrative communication
-skills in artificial generation of textual and visual contents
-ability in architectural sites and artifacts 3D digital modeling
-mastery of video animation and non-linear editing technologies
-mastery of image post-production technologies
-advanced digital manufacturing capabilities
-curatorial skills and aesthetic maturity
-collaborative attitudes
The evaluation of the final profit takes place in a synthetic way through a grade expressed out of thirty for each single teaching module.
Theme
The design theme of the seminar is The Great Vortex Exodus for the colonization of the largest oceanic island produced by the mass of plastic waste called The Great Pacific Garbage Patch or otherwise known as The Pacific Trash Vortex located between California and the Hawaiian archipelago.
Activities
The seminar includes the following activities:
– critical-theoretical readings
– qualitative-quantitative analyzes with info-graphic and ideogrammatic representations
– collective workshops and thematic discussion tables
– narrative writing
– artificial intelligence generation of architectural images
– three-dimensional modeling and rendering
– computer graphic animations and/or digital fabrication
– non-linear video editing
– elaboration of theoretical essays
– editorial graphics
-exhibition installation
Collaborations
The seminar is held in collaboration with the exhibition space Rifugio Digitale which will host the final installation and communications from experts. The computational activities will be carried out with the support of the resources of the University Laboratory MAILAB | Multimedia Architecture Interaction.
CLASS SCHEDULE
LECTURES
CLASS LECTURES
Lecture #00 – OVERVIEW | Settlement Dreams on the Great Pacific Garbage. Video | LINK
Lecture #01 – BRIEF | Post Environmental Age & Agent based Computational Design | LINK
Lecture #02 – BRIEF | The Fictional Approach in Architectural Design
Lecture #03 – CONCEPT | Imagine emergent Creode
Lecture #04 – INCEPTION | Creating a Critical Fabulation. Scripts and storyboard
Lecture #05 – VISIONING | From stories to images using Artificial Intelligence
Lecture #06 – DEVELOPMENT | Deep frames. Video & AI Preliminary Definition
Lecture #07 – DEVELOPMENT | AI video generation
MANDATORY READINGS
> Ridolfi G. 2022, ‘Landscape and ecological practice when the flood has drowned everything’, in: Gensini V.. Progetto RIVA. Suoni, immagini Racconti sul fiume, pp. 44-51, Cinesello Balsamo: Silvana Editoriale. LINK
> Ridolfi G. 2023, ‘The impact of Artificial Intelligence on Architectural Design and Human Condition’ a lecture from the Inarch Toscana Conference, Architettura verso nuovi orizzonti. La progettazione generativa, February the 7th 2023. LINK
> Ridolfi G. 2019 , ‘The Contemporary Condition of Design . A Report on Digital Mathema ’, in Mussinelli E., Lauria M., Tucci F.(editors) , La PROduzione del PROgetto, Maggioli Editore, Santarcangelo di Romagna LINK
> Ridolfi G., Traumnovelle 2019, Isolation and Reconnection. Ten Bridges at La Maddalena, Didapress, Firenze. LINK
> Koolhaas R. G. 2001, ‘How to build a City. Roman Operating System’, in AA.VV. Mutations, Actar, Barcelona. LINK
> Ridolfi G., Lecture How to build a City on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. LINK
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bibliografia
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ASSIGNMENTS
VIDEOS, TUTORIALS & BOOKS
AI IN ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN OVERVIEW
STUDENTS’ WORKS | EXAMPLES
TUTORIALS
A tutorial for beginner guiding installation and use of Midjourney
Stable Diffusion Automatic 1111 Webui Installation. Full guide
Install & Run Deforum Stable Diffusion to use ONLINE in the Google Colab Server
How to create Text-to-Videos using the Stable Diffusion’s Deforum extension on the ONLINE platform Replicate.com
How to use Stable Diffusion & its extensions including Deforum in the cloud service of RunDiffusion
How to work with Stable Diffusion and its extensions like Deforum in a professional pod server such as RunPod. The platform offers the opportunity to work with many other models of Stable Diffusion customized by the community like the famous visual script interface ComfyUI
A tutorial explaining how to create in Stable Diffusion’s Deforum extension a video animation from a still image using 3D camera motion and how to finalized it on a non linear video editor
An example of Video Generation Using ControlNet & Init Image In Stable Diffusion
A tutorial explaining how to generate video soundtrack and voice-over using AI software and how to add automatic subtitling.
BOOKS
CREODE ISLAND on THE GREAT PACIFIC PATCH
A Research about the colonization of the The Pacific Trash Vortex
by: Luciano Ligorio, Elvira Magherini, Marta Rosati, Anna Chiara Zei
THE FINAL EXHIBITION WILL BE HOSTED AT RIFUGIO DIGITALE GALLERY
