Desk Mate: A Collaborative Drawing Platform

Abstract

Machine Learning (ML) in architecture is an emerging field with myriad potentials to impact the design process. Despite its many possibilities, ML is typically employed when the design problem is sufficiently defined, and further, is only integrated within software environments. Desk Mate is collaborative drawing machine that can be used early in the design process by coupling tangible tools like pens and trace paper with ML driven feedback and generation. Embedding physical tools that are familiar and intuitive with digital intelligence offers designers new ways of engaging with ML algorithms interactively, potentially changing the way the architectural industry approaches design problems. Desk Mate chains together image retrieval methods from machine vision with generative ML models like variational autoencoders (VAE) and generative adversarial networks (GANS) to react to design sketches as they are drawn. This pipeline allows Desk Mate to iterate through designs with the designer. Thus, Desk Mate demonstrates an interactive platform that collocates designer and machine as creative agents, facilitating drawing with ML driven feedback, potentially accelerating design iteration in the early stages of ideation.