Artificial Intelligence & lighting design
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used in various aspects of design to enhance efficiency, creativity, and problem-solving. Here is how we see the potential and how we used it in our project for the Harry Potter Theatre in Hamburg.
The lighting scheme of the Harry Potter Theatre looks poetic, yet it is very technical and realised through parametric design and detailed engineering. The biggest challenge in this project was dealing with the static limitations and the constraints of the listed building, whilst creating a dense cloud of light bulbs.
Algorithms enabled us to merge the different limitations and generated design variations based on specified criteria and constraints (slide to see the overview). The light cloud consists of more than 3000 and 7,5km cable. From early on in the design process we started working with parametric design (Rhino + Grashopper), due to the complexity of the structure and the design intent for the lighting scheme. This allowed us to experiment with the shape of the cloud and design a system in which every one of the 3,000 pendants with 37 different lengths could be allocated.
Like this, AI helped us to manage complexity from planning and production to mounting of the lighting. We see a future in AI powered architecture, and thus lighting design.