Innovators, Insights, and Events Shaping the Future of AI Design Practices

Washington D.C., August 13, 2025 – The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) is bringing together innovators, thought leaders, and leading researchers at the 2025 Intersections Research Conference: AI Design Practices.

Hosted by the Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT), the AI Design Practices Conference will take place on September 25-27, 2025, in Boston, MA. The conference co-chairs, Tatjana Crossley and Antonio Furgiuele, WIT School of Architecture and Design, invite faculty, practitioners, and students to explore, propose, or challenge new and existing practices and paradigms in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. Through sessions, breakouts, workshops, and networking events, attendees are invited to critically examine the potentials and limitations of generative AI across design practices while building new partnerships, sources of funding, collaborations, and critical observations.

AI Design Practices will include plenary sessions with thought-leaders in architecture, technology, and engineering. The conference will kick off with an opening keynote by Antoine Picon, the G. Ware Travelstead Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology at Harvard GSD, where he serves as Chair of the PhD in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Planning. Trained as an engineer, architect, and historian, Picon works on the relationships between architectural and urban space, technology, and society, from the eighteenth century to the present. At the intersection of an enduring interest in the history of construction and his research on digital culture in architecture, Picon has developed a theoretical and historical approach to the question of materiality that has led to his book The Materiality of Architecture (2021).

The closing keynote will be delivered by Professor of the Practice of Urban Technologies and director of  MIT’s Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Carlo Ratti. An architect and engineer by training, Ratti works on the future of cities and the built environment. He is a founding partner of the international architecture and innovation office CRA-Carlo Ratti Association and has established several tech start-ups in the United States and Europe. Additionally, Ratti is the Curator of the 2025 Venice Biennale, 19th International Architecture Exhibition.

The conference will also feature inspirational roundtable discussions that bring together leading scholars and designers to engage and highlight key figures and critical topics in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning design practices. The first roundtable will focus on AI Computational Creativity & Pedagogy and will include Ryan Thomas (Wentworth Institute of Technology), Neil Leach (Florida International University), Sandra Manninger (New York Institute of Technology), and Andrew Witt (Harvard University). The second roundtable will focus on AI Practices and Methods and include George Guida (Harvard University), Cas Esbach (Savannah College of Art and Design), Kristen Forward (Design Technology Futures), and Martha Tsigkari (Foster + Partners). This session will address methods practitioners use to distinguish human creativity from Machine Learning.

Conference attendees will also have the opportunity to join advanced technology workshops. These include workshops hosted by xFigura and Autodesk. xFigura’s workshop invites participants to explore the AI-powered platform, which enables collaborative ideation and visualization for 2D and 3D design. The Autodesk Forma Architecture Training Workshop will offer a deep dive into cutting-edge industry cloud powered by AI.

During the conference, there will be a number of tour options to explore the greater Boston area. These include a walking tour of Harvard University’s campus, where attendees will learn the history of the institution and its relationship to the world around it through the rich mix of architecture and objects. Another tour will allow attendees to explore MIT’s dynamic campus and experience firsthand how MIT is making a better world. Finally, attendees can join the Boston: Art, Architecture and Gardens walking tour, exploring a journey through the southern Fens, a section of the Emerald Necklace designed by landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmsted.

AI Design Practices will conclude with a closing dinner where guests can network, connect, and share conference takeaways about how AI might reshape design possibilities and practices. Conference attendees will walk away with new ideas, new partnerships, and a new understanding of AI’s role in architecture and design.