Associative Trails

Deep Learning Architect - Classification for Architectural Design through the Eye of Artificial Intelligence (2018)

Notes on a 2018 paper by Yuji Yoshimura, Bill Cai, Zhoutong Wang, and Carlo Ratti

Using a convolutional neural network to recognise top-level architects' individual styles. Almost 70% or architects can be distinguished with 80% accuracy. 20,000 sample images by 34 past Prisker Prize winners.

Read the paper: arXiv, ResearchGate, PDF.

  • Convnet to classify works belonging to 34 different architects. 77% accuracy.
  • Using images scraped from he web, and some photos taken by researchers
  • Architects then clustered together and compared to conventional architecture theory
  • Difficulty in classifying modern architects - detecting space, not features
  • Uses NASNet - Zoph and Schlens (2018)
  • Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (Grad-CAM). Enables us to understand the focus of the machine eye for classification
  • Dimension reduction and clustering - Linear principal component analysis. k-means clustering
  • 34 architects - all past Prisker Prize winners
  • 20,000 total sample images
  • Goolge Tensorflow. Two GeForce GTX 1070Ti. Training complete in 8 hours.
  • 30 epochs.
  • Tends to confuse Koolhaas, Holl, Perrault with other architects
  • Correctly distinguishes Kahn, Siza & van de Rohe
  • “Top 1 accuracy indicates the probability of whether the image can correctly match with the target label. Conversely, the top 5 accuracy suggests the probability of whether the correct image can appear with the target label among five pictures ordered according to their highest probability.”
  • Almost 70% of architects can be distinguished with more than 80% probability (Top 5 accuracy)
  • 45% distinguished with 90% probability (Top 5 accuracy)
  • Indoor scenes more distinguishable to machine eye (~5% more accurate)
  • k-means clustering:
    • Foster, Renzo, Rogers (High-Tech Design)
    • Lloyd Wright, "Normal House" (Prarie style)
    • Ando, Eisenman, Miralles (Deconstructivists)
    • Mayne, Gehry
  • Does not distinguish Architect's work over time
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