EmergentAI couples a large language model directly to Rhino, so it reads a real building model and designs within it — under the designer's control, step by step.
Most AI layout tools return a single finished drawing, detached from the designer's modelling environment. EmergentAI is different: the model acts as an agent that calls a professional CAD tool (Rhino), inspects the geometry it creates, evaluates it against rules, and iterates with the designer. Over a six-week pilot the project grew from a raw "LLM → 3D" mechanism into a disciplined, five-step conceptual-design protocol that reliably produces five context-aware, audited massing schemes for a 1,017 m² lobby — and builds a reusable library of ~218 design lessons along the way.
The first phase fixed how information flows — a typed input schema, a model-aware engine, and a prioritised set of outputs.
The emergent loop the project set out to test:
More than forty generations established a ladder of increasingly disciplined tests, then reversed "zone-first" generation into a five-step, designer-gated workflow.
Traffic, sightlines, walls, ceiling zones, light forces, programme candidates.
Five themes researched against real hotel precedents; one of six drawing methods each.
Full-coverage partition derived from both concept and site analysis.
Spatial devices first, then circulation, service, F&B, furniture last.
Extrusion to closed solids for review and rendering.
Free-text names (counter, screen, banquette) were ambiguous. Each element is defined formally — geometry, dimensions, placement rules — so designer and agent mean the same thing, and the model's layer names carry semantics the evaluator can read.
Over 25+ rounds the agent's working memory of a long protocol decays. The protocol is split into on-demand skills (~200–400 vs ~1,400 lines), and a three-tier evaluator (automated C#, semi-automated metrics, qualitative commentary) runs before every review.
Each step writes a self-contained diary (screenshots, audit, feedback, lessons); on "proceed" the agent re-reads that step and must show a pass/fail checklist. Compliance becomes self-documenting, and skipped phases are prevented.
Each option is carried through all five steps and checked for programme coverage, capacity and clearances. The concepts are real spatial alternatives, not restyled copies.
Programme split by the 12 m / 3.5 m ceiling change.
Zone dividers follow the site's ~64° force lines.
A processional journey, arrival drama to destination.
Programme assigned by daylight quality per façade.
The 4×4 column grid read as an urban plan.
Each week has its own interactive explorer recording every design iteration, the designer's enquiry, and how the protocol evolved. Launch them inline, or open full-screen in a new tab.
