We’re sure you’ve heard this before:
“Design is not new. Just a new take on something that already exists.”
Totally true.
The best design creates pathways and connections between previously unrelated ideas to unlock some improvement or high benchmark of experience.
The problem in our business is that most spatial design does not create new pathways and connections. And the experience hasn’t improved for a long time.
In fact, most design in the built world is copy and paste from some other built product or a collection of built products that we affectionately call “precedent.”
Why?
We’ve assumed age-old assumptions as modern facts: scale, space types, materiality = all follow a consistent archetype–since at least the turn of the 20th century–without major changes in form.
Likewise, we’ve buckled under the pressure of bad policy and zoning and a challenging capital and cost environment–all leading us to monolithic buildings that aren’t serving us particularly well.
And of course, we have a bad habit of building based on what everyone else is doing–because it feels safe to be the same–which has led to billions of dollars of investment in every city in the U.S. in substitutable real estate goods.
But we now we have AI. And we think it’s going to change some things.
At No Walls Studio, we started working with AI visualization as soon as we could get our hands on the stuff…because we’re obsessed with cutting edge.
With AI, we’re now able to tap into a brand story to create spaces that have never existed before. With extensive prompting and manipulating–the software is getting better, but it takes quite a bit of muscle–we’re able to pull from an infinite number of references in the world and compose new space types. We do the whole derivative part of design with the power of an unfathomable amount of AI compute.
What does this mean for designing “different?”
For us, principally, with AI, we can turn brand stories into spaces.
We strongly believe that architecture, interior architecture, and interior design should all follow a brand promise (not the other way around). But we’ve run into challenges coaching architects and designers how to translate a brand idea into a visual thing – even with really good mood boards and really good designers.
Now, with AI, we can use all of the building blocks of brand–text based prompts including positioning language, reference brands from fashion, food, music and more, and visual influences that are seedlings for our creative–to express our brands as spaces. We get ahead of any major programming and interior design with visceral examples of the ways our brand should show up in the built world.
The goal of all of this AI? To lead our design partners to create truly branded environments that stand out from everything else in the world.
Here are some examples:
We hope AI means a future of products that are more responsive to culture and human needs, designed both quicker and more thoughtfully; that more designers are effectively using these tools to create a better built world.
In the meanwhile, we’re starting to offer this Brand AI™ concept development as a service; to provide willing developers, architectural partners, space planners, workplace strategists (and anyone else designing real estate) a new way of thinking about the most important products in our lives…our spaces.
Reach out if you want to learn more.
🚨 WHO IS NO WALLS STUDIO (AND WHAT DO WE DO)?
No Walls Studio is a design and brand consultancy that helps real estate developers create spaces that people love.
Our mission is to make sameness extinct in real estate, which means that everything we do comes with new ideas and unique angles — all, grounded in a deep understanding of culture and consumers.
We do three things for our clients (often, all in the same project):
Research & Insights
Brand Development
Spatial Experience Design
Want to work with us or learn more?
