Every seat was taken, and the room was close to standing-room-only, for “AI Labs: Practical Tools for Architects,” a three-hour hands-on studio led by Brian Penschow, AIA, and Bill Martin, AIA. Attendees worked on one shared project, a suburban retail plaza, using AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok, whichever they brought) to run code checks, annotate drawings, and draft client-ready writing.
The “light bulb” moments. The code-compliance lab surprised most people. The real learning came in the follow-up questions. Some models caught and corrected their own mistakes when pushed. Others stayed confident throughout, and models often assumed missing inputs instead of asking for them. The sprinkler and hygrothermal-risk exercises drew the most discussion, partly because vapor-barrier placement is exactly what young architects often don’t know to look for. One attendee watched the assistant mark up his drawing with red lines and said, “Look, it just marked up the drawing for me.”
Verify, don’t trust. In one lab, the AI flagged its own early error before the user noticed. Several participants realized they hadn’t reviewed the output as carefully as they thought, which was the point of the exercise.
Confidentiality and ethics. Questions on data security were among the best of the day: whether files sent to a cloud model are shared with other users. Brian explained that cloud tools create separate environments for each user, and often for each chat or project, and that past cross-over incidents have largely been fixed. The ethics segment drew on what architects already know. The difference between sealed and unsealed inputs matters, and the machine can’t be held accountable, so the professional stays responsible.
The takeaway. Presenters encouraged attendees to be bold, ask about use cases they haven’t considered, and automate every repeatable, low-risk task in their office.
The session materials are on the public AI Labs Resource Hub: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://claude.ai/artifact/WzK2o1KM4xToBGyFxuXd4P&source=gmail&ust=1793830717926000&sa=E
