Home is not only a physical entity, but a meticulous work of curation; home is a structure that affirms our existence. We often ascribe physical attributes to the spaces held most dearly to us—the warm hum of the central heating unit in your childhood home; the eerie flickering light at the bottom of the staircase, leading to a cold unfinished basement. The emotional language we use for our homes substantiates relationships with our nesting mechanisms, although at present they cannot tangibly engage in relation with us...But what if they could?

Imagine a home that not only shelters, but understands. A space where the walls move with the breath of life. Where a squeak of a floorboard is not just a signifier of aging design, but instead an affirmation of these homes’ sentience—the home a living being quietly observing, learning, evolving. Here, the home is simply not a feat of the tools and ingenuity used to design it, but a merger of all that has gone into its creation.

AI Sapien: Variations on Architecture (Oro Editions, 2024) takes these ideas to an ultimate spearhead, pointing in a direction where AI is enmeshed with the very essence of place and cannot, or rather, will not, be separated. Author Robert Cha, a Korean American architect and artist, explores the concept of artificial intelligence not merely as a tool to aid in the creation of architecture, but as an infusion into the physical entity itself. Cha introduces a future where one could argue that homes are not being built, but instead, birthed—intelligent, evolving entities that serve not just as vessels but as sentient habitats with their own unique needs and desires, possibly beyond the scope of human understanding. The book features 128 pieces of original AI-generated artwork, each depicting a different form of architecture, accompanied by lyrical poetry and prose co-written by artificial intelligence programs.

The artwork transcends the physical limitations of human architecture, generating spaces and structures that are the amalgamation of the every day and the fantastic. Spanning from what some might classify as contemporary architecture, space-age futurism design, to material anthropomorphic structures—capable of self-sustainability— these photos gift the reader visual insight into the extension of the AI’s and, therefore, the universe’s creative force. The texts interspersed with philosophical dialogues between humans and AI; including ChatGPT, Claude, and LaMDA (Bard), and range from deep explorations of sentience to practical discussions on the structural integration of AI into architecture.

AI Sapien is also set to Bach’s Goldberg Variations, a soundtrack that encapsulates the inquisitive spirit of navigating a world in which the line between the sentient and the instrument is blurred. The score jumps from moments of extreme precision and clarity, to lively bursts of notes, exemplifying the curious nature of the book itself, facilitating a sensory-filled journey through a reimagined future. As critic Father John Culkin Jr. says, “We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.”

Amidst the conversations that interrogate artificial intelligence in service to humans, Cha investigates a deeper, more intimate correspondence with the AI itself. The readers are challenged to conceptualize a material reality in which the intelligence we use not only serves our purposes, but also has its own intrinsic insight and emotional response—a world in which we advance alongside our AI counterparts as we would any other living being. Cultivating a new physical understanding in which our relation to the technical is defined by how we choose to engage with AI, whether it be domestication, cohabitation, other, and more interestingly, how it chooses to engage with us. Cha writes, “We often think we are us and technology is the other. Are we not all part of the universe and its manifestation?” In breaking down the barriers between the technological and the physical, we are encouraged to challenge our ideas of the dichotomy between human versus machine. By viewing artificial intelligence as an extension of the universe’s creative force, we begin to understand AI as a natural evolution of the indomitable human spirit—integral to our identities and, by extension, our existence.

In this conception, AI is not only a program used to explore its own themation within the text, but rather a co-collaborator with Cha. The partnership between the two redefines traditional authorship, serving as real time reflection of content matter explored throughout the work. Not only does artificial intelligence act as a muse, it is titular to create the genuineness in understanding the blend between humanity and the living mechanism. Cha implores us: lean into this unknown third space. Trust in the ingenuity of human creativity. Open our minds to the possibility of what can lie ahead when we challenge our understanding of what, or who, AI truly is.

In AI Sapien, we encounter a vision of the future that challenges our deepest assumptions about home, identity, and technology. As AI becomes an integral part of our habitats, we are left to wonder—are we building homes, or are they building us? This symbiotic relationship between human and machine signals a new era, one in which the boundaries of normal are not just pushed, but redefined entirely.