Morteza Hazbei

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in design disciplines marks a shift in design agency, from predominantly human-centered processes toward distributed forms of Human–AI co-production. This study conceptualizes Human–AI co-production as an interpretive construct and examines it through Jasanoff’s co-production framework. As AI becomes involved in multiple stages of design, it functions not merely as a passive tool but as an influential participant in shaping the built environment. Yet, the normative challenges emerging from Human–AI co-production in public space design remain insufficiently examined. Using an exploratory, qualitative, concept-oriented approach, this paper develops a framework-guided synthesis of sixteen normative challenges that are reconfigured when AI is introduced into public space design. These challenges are analyzed at two levels. At the interactional level, they are grouped into four themes—Invisibility and Exclusion, Imposition and Rigidity, Erosion and Displacement, and Distortion and Deception—and reinterpreted through Jasanoff’s four dimensions: identity, discourse, institutions, and representation. At the constitutive level, the analysis suggests that AI recursively embeds an algorithmic rationality across these dimensions, interpreted here as a closed-loop mechanism that reshapes the normative foundations of public space design. The authors find that Human–AI agency can be understood as shaping public space design and its normative challenges immanently, rather than as an external force acting upon it.

The increasing complexity of the built environment—encompassing three-dimensional spatial dynamics, environmental footprints, and socio-cultural dimensions—necessitates innovative educational tools. Serious games have emerged as immersive platforms bridging theoretical knowledge and practical application in this domain. This narrative literature review examines the extent to which serious games effectively integrate and reflect sustainability principles within the context of the built environment, as well as their strategies for engaging learners. A comprehensive search was conducted across multiple databases using keywords such as “serious games,” “built environment,” and “sustainability.” The review identifies that while many games address tangible challenges like retrofitting simulations and resource management, their incorporation of sustainability concepts is often superficial. Critical aspects such as inclusivity, stakeholder engagement, and alignment with SDGs are frequently underrepresented. Furthermore, a lack of a common language among stakeholders and the tendency to focus on isolated aspects of sustainability, rather than adopting a holistic approach, were noted. Despite these limitations, the engaging nature of these games that are based on real scenarios offers potential for impactful learning experiences. However, challenges persist, including technical constraints, pedagogical limitations, and deeper epistemological and ethical tensions in game design. The findings underscore the need for a more integrated and comprehensive approach to embedding sustainability in serious games, along with more effective engagement strategies to ensure they function as impactful tools for education and learning in the built environment domain.

Parametric design and gamification rely on quantitative factors that can be easily translated into computer language. However, measuring and quantifying the complex urban qualities poses a challenge. This leads to the question of how to incorporate complex spatial quality into parametric design. This research, therefore, proposes a method to parametrize and quantify urban qualities by extracting main spatial qualities from three main sources, developing a comprehensive list of qualities that can be effectively parametrized, breaking them down into more tangible parameters, and assessing their interrelations within a system model. The results reveal that although urban qualities are complex, they are better defined and parametrized when their relations and originating factors are fully investigated. Furthermore, qualities are classified according to their degree of connection to other qualities within the system model and the nature of these connections. This classification results in six categories: Main Instigator, Mediating and Consequential qualities, as well as Minimally, Moderately, and Highly connected qualities. This research contributes to urban parametric design by providing a method to parametrize urban qualities and gamification fields, allowing developers to implement city complex qualities into the games.

“Context” holds a broad meaning in architectural discourse, and its definition and components have evolved over time. A comparison between contemporary parametric design and overall architectural practices reveals a contradictory connotation of context in these discourses. In parametric design, as it is currently practiced, the concept of “context” appears to have shifted primarily toward energy considerations and quantifiable parameters, neglecting the broader range of site forces. However, it raises the question of whether parametric design can still be considered contextual and sustainable design when it overlooks compatibility with broader contextual dimensions such as cultural, social, and historical forces. To answer this question, we establish a clear and comprehensive definition of “context” in overall architectural practices by exploring the different meanings and epistemologies of “context” in cultural, social, historical, physical, environmental, political, and economic domains. This process helps us determine which context components can be incorporated into parametric architecture and which cannot, thereby aiding in the integration of sustainability principles into parametric design. The results show that while physical and environmental components can be included in parametric architecture, intangible parameters such as cultural, historical, social, economic, and political aspects cannot be easily quantified and thus are difficult to incorporate.