Introduction

This compendium documents three years of practical work with artificial intelligence in an architecture practice. It begins with our first research into generative AI and ends in the current year — in a state we would call not finished, but reliable for now.

Our motive was not fear of a new technology but the ambition to do our work better. The key insight after three years: the real challenge in using AI is not a technical one. It is organisational. Learning AI takes little time. Making a practice ready for it is another task altogether.

About this compendium

The text is laid out as a wiki, not as a linear report. Each section stands on its own. The cross-references between topics are deliberate — if you are looking for a way in, you will find one in many places.

The content is brought together from two sources: the AI Codex, a professional self-examination, and a practice report from recent years. Where the texts overlapped, we kept the more precise wording. Where they complement each other, they stand side by side.

Thanks

This compendium documents our engagement with AI and new digital planning tools over the past three years. Much of it arose ad hoc — noted down while the office ran. Which passages were written when, and by what means, is recorded at the end of each section. Various language models were used to produce and edit the text. Without that support it would not have been possible to finish the book alongside daily practice.

Special thanks go to Eric Sturm, with whom Philipp Eichstädt has run numerous professional development events on “AI in architecture and planning” since 2024. Sections B, “A New Continent”, and C, “New Tools”, draw in substantial part on the seminar material they developed together.

Thanks also to the team in Berlin and Sofia: Zofia Krol, Gergana Marks, Velin Daskalov and Manfred Wickert have supported the partners’ side activities since 2023 — and can always be persuaded into a new experiment.

About the Authors

Christina Gresser and Philipp Eichstädt have run se·g architekten – Studio Eichstädt Gresser – together in Berlin since 2010. The practice specialises in large and complex projects and works for clients in Germany and abroad.

Christina Gresser studied interior architecture at the Peter-Behrens-Schule in Düsseldorf and completed a master’s degree at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London in 1997. She began her career at Foster+Partners, where she was made an Associate in 2003. She then worked at Kohn Pedersen Fox and as a partner at Make Architects before returning to Germany in 2009.

Philipp Eichstädt studied at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin from 1992 to 1999. After graduating he returned to Foster+Partners in London, where he was made an Associate in 2001, an Associate Partner in 2003 and a Partner in 2007. He returned to Germany in 2009.