AI in Architecture: LA London meets LightField’s Jonny Cox
‘What I’ve seen in the last six months is extraordinary’: in the second in our series on AI in architecture, LightField founder Jonny Cox reveals how AI has evolved – and how architects might use it next
Jonny Cox, founder of LightField and Light Architecture
Jonny Cox remembers the old days of render farms. He spent 20 years at Foster + Partners, running a film and animation team. ‘You would put your renders off before you went home at night and hope to god they came out how you wanted the next day. It was like baking bread.’
The downside was that if Lord Foster wanted to make a minor change – turning a concrete column into a wooden one, for example – you’d have to go through the whole process again. There was no flexibility.
But companies like Nvidia started to bring out graphics cards, which got bigger and more powerful, making the process faster and more agile. Then Real-time gaming technology came along, which Jonny used in visualisations for Foster’s Apple Park in California.
‘Over the last 10 years, all these technologies have converged,’ he says, ‘Real-time is now right up there in terms of quality with the traditional renderers and AI is catching up every day.’
And now AI is blowing things up, ‘in a really nice way’. Jonny believes architecture as a sector is leading the way in its adoption, with 3D tools like 3ds Max and BIM already integrating AI technology with impressive results.
LightField is primarily a visualisation company for architects, but Jonny’s team has produced exquisite commercial films for the likes of Gucci, Charles Tyrwhitt and Drivers Club Miami. He also founded Light Architecture in 2022 with fellow former Foster star Hernan Kraviez, and the company has hospitality and eco-tourism projects on the go in South America and the Middle East.
Working with other architects, LightField uses AI to produce concepts, create visuals, and build models. AI is also super-handy for creating footage when stock video falls short – saving the significant time and expense of employing a film crew.
Architects’ clients are increasingly wanting an emotional connection to a project, which standard visualisations just don’t provide. LightField uses all the AI tools at their disposal to make images in a different way, to convey the experience of a building as well as how it looks.
Since its founding in 2018, LightField’s philosophy has been to embrace and adopt new technology as early as possible. Norman Foster was the same: ‘If you needed £5,000 for a new graphics card, he’d give it to you.’
But the studio’s work involves artistry as well as technology. ‘The films wouldn’t be so successful if we weren’t bringing in techniques like storyboarding and narrative,’ Jonny says. ‘At Foster + Partners I hired a musician to compose an original score. I worked with storyboard artists, concept artists and film industry people. LightField has continued in that vein.’
Jonny’s favourite building in London is 30 St Mary Axe, which he worked on as a young employee in Foster + Partners’ IT department. While newer buildings surrounding it may have dated, The Gherkin remains a classic. ‘The design and the look and the feel, it’s just beautiful.’
As for the future of AI in architecture, ‘The sky’s the limit,’ Jonny says. ‘What I’ve seen in the last six months is extraordinary’. There are new tools coming out all the time: Sora, Kling, Luma, and ‘they’re getting better and better and better’.
He envisions Star Trek’s Holodeck made real: a fully immersive experience that transports you to a place of your choice, based on your own prompts. ‘All the work you’ve done from an architectural perspective could be fed in and you could experience it in person. That’s what I would like. And it’s definitely possible.’
For more on the use of AI in architecture, read LA architect Miruna Stroe’s piece on its impact to date. In the next article, we’ll take a look at some of the ethical considerations.