Beyond Tools: The AI-Integrated Studio

Designing Futures: Exploring AI, Data, Architecture and beyond.

Matthias Hollwich — founder of HWKN — joins Nathalie Rozencwajg and Melanie Rozencwajg on Designing Futuresto explore what it means to run a fully AI-integrated architecture studio. At HWKN, AI isn’t an add-on — it informs every stage of design, from concept to construction.
We unpack how this shift enables architects to reclaim their role as visionary world-builders — orchestrating not just form, but experience, performance, and community. AI opens the design room to clients and collaborators, accelerates iteration, and fosters a new kind of design dialogue.
We also delve into “contextual data” as an antidote to homogenised cities — like designing a London tower shaped by London’s own culture, behaviour, and spatial logic. Plus, how emerging robotic and construction technologies are expanding what’s possible — and affordable — to build.
Matthias shares why transparency with clients about AI matters, and how these tools are already reshaping the business of architecture — redefining how we design, plan, and construct.