Designing Resilient Subcenters in Urban Space: A Comparison of Architects’ Creative Design Approaches and Artificial Intelligence-Based Design

This paper presents a comparative study on the transdisciplinary design of resilient urban subcenters, examining the interplay between human-led and artificial intelligence (AI)-generated design approaches. By employing holistic design methods, we prepare and present revitalization projects for two areas of urban space. Our goal was to create a resilient urban subcenter that contributes to the development of a resident. The first revitalized site reflects the multicultural past of the city. The second project addresses the need to revitalize a subcenter reserved for residents. In the non-AI approach, holistic design is implemented across various universities, fields, and academic disciplines—the humanities, social sciences, engineering, and the arts. Transdisciplinary teams of sociologists, engineers, interior designers, architects, urban geographers, and acousticians transcend workshop limitations as well as cognitive boundaries, promoting the creation of new, unconventional knowledge. The AI-integrated approach employs artificial intelligence in a dual capacity: both as a generator of alternative design visions and as an analytical tool for assessing technological readiness. The findings contribute to the evolving discourse on sustainable urban development and the transformative potential of technology in transdisciplinary design practices.