SENSE-AI Studio
SENSE–AI: Developing Spatial Experiences through Narrative, Senses, and Emotions with AI
ARCH 4001 studio. SAID, DAAP, UC.
This SENSE-AI design studio invites students to explore the complex relationship between architecture, human emotion, cultural heritage, and experiential design through the conceptualization and design of a new museum at Fort Ancient, part of the UNESCO-listed Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks. Using an AI-assisted design approach, students will explore how generative AI, computational analysis, digital heritage, and immersive technologies can support research, site interpretation, design ideation, visualization, and evaluation throughout the architectural design process. Students will investigate how spatial design can evoke, mediate, and communicate the histories, stories, and cultural significance of Fort Ancient—moving beyond functionality to create environments that resonate on psychological, sensory, and emotional levels. By integrating AI-assisted design with architecture, landscape, Indigenous cultural narratives, storytelling, and digital heritage, students will develop proposals for a museum that serves not only as a cultural and educational institution, but also as a place of reflection, empathy, discovery, and connection to the earthworks and surrounding landscape.
The studio examines how space can evoke memory, shape emotion, and deepen our understanding of history and culture. Students will use AI-assisted design, Extended Reality (XR), and immersive visualization as design tools to explore ideas, test spatial experiences, and communicate narratives. Through digital modeling, virtual reality, and interactive media, they will develop and evaluate architectural experiences that engage visitors on sensory, emotional, and cultural levels.
Working closely with the Fort Ancient team, students will create museum proposals that tell the stories of Native American communities through research, design exploration, immersive prototyping, and narrative development. The studio emphasizes thoughtful design, interdisciplinary collaboration, and emerging technologies as a means to create meaningful places that connect people with history, culture, and one another.
Site: Fort Ancient Earthworks, Hopewell UNESCO World Heritage Site, Ohio
Program: Museum of Emotions
Note: This studio is supported by the Gensler Award
Image: Left: computer rendering from CERHAS, UC. John Hancock. Right: AI Renderings by Meghan Powell. ARCH 4001. SENSE studio. 2025.
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