[totalview]

I read a lot of these posts on stable diffusion, midjourney, etc., and I don’t want to fall into the classic “I don’t think this is ready yet” camp, but one thing an Architect will be able to do really well which these tools won’t is make a kitchen that is actually usable. I mean, this thing is basically a corrupted Pinterest of kitchen ideas with doors and drawers intersecting, beams that make no sense, and flooring that looks menacing. And until we have AGI I don’t think our program sophistication will be able to iron out these “uncanny valley” isms that seem built into every aI image generation tool.

Now I know that this tool is just a “starting point” for using as ideas, but I have seen way more fabulous (and sane) kitchen designs en mass on houzz, dezeen, basically any online blog. The technology is cool, but it seems limited. As in we can only get weird amalgams of human concepts. All this to say, I work with architects professionally, and I do not see this as something that will cause their field concern in the near to mid term. These programs cannot make drawings with structural suggestions, floor plans for the layout they produce, or anything else that a person pays an architect for. Just my two cents

[naet]

This isn't meant to be a literal blueprint maker- it's an idea machine. The advantage of Stable Diffusion is that you can put an actual photo of your real life kitchen in as a seed, and see the ideas applied to your space. It's not the same as browsing through pictures of kitchens on pintrest or houzz, which show entirely different locations of different sizes, different lighting conditions, or different dimensions; it's hard to imagine or apply those ideas to my space if my space is radically different. My kitchen is a small apartment kitchen with a single window and a narrow space, it isn't analogous to 99% of the posts I saw scrolling through houzz just now. But if I could upload a picture of it and see 5-10 new cabinet arrangements or designs, I might be inspired by one and use it as a jumping off point for a new setup.

Someone with zero design experience could run this over a photo of their kitchen and realize that their exact real world kitchen would look nice with a different set of paneling, or a different set of chairs, or a larger window, etc. Obviously they have to consult with an architect or other expert to see how feasible larger renovations are, it's not meant to replace architectural work, but there is plenty of value already added as an inspiration tool. In fact it might lead to a lot more work for architects, if they can use a tool like this to show potential clients a bunch of inspiration for how their kitchen could look, without doing any actual architectural work up front.

[BizarroLand]

Yeah, that's what I saw too, a digital mood board with blobs of abstract kitchen-like things that you could theoretically cut and paste the parts you like onto a digital whiteboard.

Once that part was done, then the designer could use those bits and pieces to identify what you like best and cross reference that with what is available and what is possible within your budget and get you the result that you would be happiest with.

With that, the actual designer is still a very important piece of the puzzle and this does very little to replace them.

[snek_case]

The images definitely look good enough to serve as ideas/inspiration IMO. A sketch doesn't need to look photorealistic to inspire you.

[azinman2]

But at that point does it need to be your room even? If the results aren’t actionable because of constraints, why not just flip through images of existing real world kitchens?

[avereveard]

Well yes a double sink and a six top cooking space look great on brochures but it's only when you try to fit the fridge, the window and that awkward door that you realize you'd end up with a single 60cm working space or the corner element won't open or the dish washer door interferes with the fridge door or walkable space or you can only open drawers standing on their side

[azinman2]

GP was talking about inspiration. That doesn’t mean you get to carbon copy anything.

When the AI blows away support walls and rearranges things that can’t structurally work, its utility is limited too. It can also dream up sinks/fridges/ranges that don’t exist with sizes that aren’t realistic either.

I’m supportive of the general direction but in a model that’s built for it where all the real constraints can actually be accounted for reliably. That would allow you to go beyond looking at pics for inspiration into renderings you can flip through easily. Bonus points if it can approximate cost, including plumbing and electrical in rearranging things for where plumbing and electrical already are.

[peteradio]

It doesn't look like this stable diffusion would be able to tell you that either. You can see it changing the shape (angles) of the room in real time. It does not show cabinets at real depth etc.

[zachkatz]

Correct. In a different field, we're using AI to do the same thing but for streets: https://twitter.com/betterstreetsai

...and it's already led to actual change: https://twitter.com/MikeBradleyMKE/status/157083982421467545...

[aaroninsf]

I will suggest that in a critical way, none of us, you included, "know" that this is a starting point.

So much of the reaction and subsequent reasoning about such tools is bounded (predictably, inevitably, naturally) by human cognitive error—in particular, our total collective inability to reason with non-linear extrapolations.

We "know" this is a starting point, but even the linear line from "nothing like this existed at the start of 2022" to now, projects into a "what exists in 18 months" which is itself an effectively instant timescale (residential A&D projects here in SF are often 3-year endeavors...)...

...what this looks like for a loose interpretation of "this," is literally unimaginable to us.

One technical thing: I was just telling someone 30 minutes ago, in the lats week, my #aiart timeline and feed on Twitter started saturating this week with extrapolations into AR/VR applications.

The toolchains which will exists in this domain prior even to the launch of Apple's long rumored AR goggles are already eyebrow-raising. Assuming there is a path to deploy experiences onto Apple glass, there's going to yet another infusion of energy (cough money) into the precambrian explosion going on around ML/imagegen etc.

Don't make the mistake of thinking flaws in proof-of-concept first-passes like this (which is already IMO quite compelling for ideation), are going to be a permanent fixture or blocker.

If you review the evolution of imagegen over the last two years, you can get a taste of how ephemeral most such limitations are...

...and the egregious ones tend to attract a frenzy of work.

To put a point on it, I think you're OK saying "near" term, but "mid"... absolutely not. This is just one more place where disruption is clearly visible on the horizon.

[trabant00]

I don't think there's any need to be shy in saying this only looks cool but it's completely useless. The "starting point" for using as ideas already exist - it's the data this has been trained on.

[mgraczyk]

This is not going to replace architects or designers in the near term, but it could still transform the industry.

The conversion pipeline for things like this today relies on ads, word of mouth, and expensive sales processes. Imagine a homeowner uploading a photo of their kitchen and being shown hundreds of possible redesign styles. The homeowner can choose one to start a conversation with a designer. That pipeline will convert way more people than the status quo, and the industry as a whole will grow.

[joshstrange]

> Now I know that this tool is just a “starting point” for using as ideas, but I have seen way more fabulous (and sane) kitchen designs en mass on houzz, dezeen, basically any online blog.

Somehow I doubt those blogs have the same floor plan as my house or any easy way to filter for things that would fit in my own kitchen. Don't underestimate the power of seeing a design in your exact kitchen/space. What looks good in one layout isn't guaranteed to look good in another.

> All this to say, I work with architects professionally, and I do not see this as something that will cause their field concern in the near to mid term. These programs cannot make drawings with structural suggestions, floor plans for the layout they produce, or anything else that a person pays an architect for.

Ok but that's not the point, at least it's not for me. I'm not trying to replace architects, I'm trying to figure out what I want so I can take it to someone who knows better and say "I want this". They can kick back anything that's not going to work structurally but I kind of doubt this is going to be a big problem as, not to be an ass but, I have a brain. I know where the cabinets can go (the same place my existing ones are) along with my sink/oven/dishwasher. What I'm looking for is designs/colors/etc and how that would look in my kitchen, I'm not designing a kitchen/house from an empty plot of land.

As with all Stable Diffusion (and most AI stuff, see CoPilot) the goal (or at least my goal) isn't to replace the designers/architects/programmers/etc but to automate away the parts that waste a bunch of time. For CoPilot that's boilerplate or similar code blocks, for this it's letting me see designs and (hopefully) tweak or re-gen parts I don't like until I get it close enough to take it to an expert. I fully understand the "kitchen remodel" tool doesn't exist today but it's not hard to imagine what it would look like with image input, in/out-painting regions, and a nice GUI wrapped around a Stable Diffusion core.

[subw00f]

>“uncanny valley” isms

What exactly does that mean? I bet most people would fail to tell things apart on a blind test comparing kitchen designs generated by humans vs. ai (not counting the "transitory" images with blurred corners etc.). Same thing with concept art.

[alar44]

Did you watch the video??

[subw00f]

Yep. I forgot to add that on this imaginary blind test, the ai images would have to be hand selected to avoid these "transitory" frames where things get blurred and joined.

[hn_throwaway_99]

Seriously???

I'm not talking about "transitory" frames. I'm talking about things like the bottom of the top kitchen cabinets frequently being missing, top beams being at different levels in an impossible "MC Escher"-like configuration.

I definitely could see this being useful in plugging in different "styles" to decide what you like, and then taking that to a designer or architect to build out a real design, but anyone paying attention should easily be able to identify the generated images.

[subw00f]

Now you gave some characteristics to pay attention to, and that's fine, but it's not exactly an "uncanny valley", is it? At least that does not elicit the same effect on me as when I see a CGI of eyes in a super-realistic 3D render of a person. I could totally see myself missing these details and misjudging images like these as human-generated. Maybe I'm just not an attentive person.

[wil421]

So you are basically proving OPs point. If a human has to hand curate computer generated images then the computer isn’t taking the place of a designer/general contractor/architect anytime soon.

[subw00f]

I never said AI-generated images would take the place of human professionals soon. I asked what exactly "uncanny valley" isms mean.

[arrosenberg]

Uncanny Valley is a term to describe things that look mostly correct, but are "off" in a way that triggers an alarm in most human brains.