Alexandros Haridis

Principal Investigator/Lecturer, Harvard University
PhD ’22, MSc ’17 Design and Computation, MIT

Email: haridis@seas.harvard.edu
LinkedIn: alexandros-haridis

Work: Publications, News, Projects

Integrating Architecture into the Quest for Human-Aligned Machine Intelligence

Overview

I am a design computation researcher, computer scientist, and licensed architect. With a 21^st-century convergence of maturing forces – advances in the science and engineering of human intelligence, data-driven AI, and a turn to architecture’s core values – my mission is to integrate architecture and design into the broader, transdisciplinary quest for human-aligned machine intelligence. Moving ahead from the 20^th-century pursuit of what computing and AI can “do” (e.g., what it can generate, or how efficient it is), my work focuses on the how it is doing it – that is, whether it is human-aligned – and to what ends we deploy computing intelligence. Fundamentally, my work views architecture and design a critical testbed for crafting intelligence computationally.

I operationalize this agenda in my research through three primary directions: computational tools for “specialized perception systems,” which can learn to discern and assess aspects of architecture or design objects such as form and part-structure, style and visual culture; critical and evaluative frameworks for AI in architecture, with an emphasis on unpacking the interface between aesthetics and ethics (e.g., aesthetic judgment, data copyright, authorship, and environmental impact); and human-aligned CAD systems, where spatial operations and user interaction patterns deploy rule-based computing within an AI-driven design workflow.

Currently, I am a Principal Investigator/Lecturer at Harvard University’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, with a joint affiliation with the Graduate School of Design. I am affiliated with the Harvard Data Science Initiative and metaLAB@Harvard of the Berkman Klein Center. Before that I received a PhD in Architecture: Design and Computation as a Presidential Fellow, and dual Master of Science in Architecture Studies and Computer Science, all from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I was a member of the Design and Computation Group (Department of Architecture) and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). I have received numerous fellowships and awards in support of my research and graduate studies; for details, review my CV linked above.

I am also active as an architect and architectural consultant in Greece and in the U.S., and serve as research scientist on applications of computing and AI technology in the built environment and in digital manufacturing. Beyond publications and scholarly work, I frequently translate my work into public-facing exhibitions and audiovisual products, some of which I have showcased internationally at venues such as the Venice Biennale of Architecture, MIT Keller Gallery, IASS Expo Pavilions, Biennial of Young Artists in Europe, and the Benaki and Byzantine Culture Museums.

Below, you will find recent and ongoing questions that my work addresses. This homepage documents a larger collection of publications, news posts, and projects.