SENSE-AI – Developing Spatial Experiences for Narrative and Sensory Emotions with AI.
Gensler. AI Excellence in the Design Process Award.
PI: Tang. Amount: $100,000. Period: 06, 2026- 06.2027.
I’m very grateful to share that UC’s proposal “SENSE-AI: Developing Spatial Experiences for Narrative and Sensory Emotions with AI” has received Gensler’s AI Excellence in the Design Process Award. It is truly an honor, and we deeply appreciate Gensler’s support.
We will explore how emerging technologies can support human-centered spatial prototyping in academic settings through iterative cycles of ideation, AI-assisted synthesis, immersive testing, and narrative refinement, informed by environmental psychology methods such as the Pleasure–Arousal–Dominance (PAD) framework. We will also explore how AI can function as a design collaborator throughout the full design process—from site analysis and early concepts to 3D modeling, animation, performance evaluation, and immersive representation—using AI and XR to experiment with new forms of architectural experience.
We are excited about the opportunity to share our research and teaching of AI with Gensler architects and to learn together about how emerging AI tools are shaping the future of professional design practice.
Motivation
Spatial design can be understood as a procedural system structured around differentiated knowledge layers, where core knowledge emerges from previous design iterations, reference material draws from precedent projects, critique incorporates user and community feedback, experience is captured through VR interaction logs, and judgment evolves through design decisions over time. This process is grounded in experiential cognition data, where design intelligence is not only derived from static information but from the dynamic interplay of precedent, narrative, user feedback, and simulation. Within this framework, digital twins act as integrative platforms that combine spatial data, behavioral simulation, historical layering, user perception, emotional response, and embodied interaction to create a more holistic representation of environments. While AI as a design agent has made significant progress through an automation layer that includes generative AI for images and design, simulation pipelines, and digital twin workflows, it still lacks critical human-centered capacities such as spatial reasoning, embodied experience, human perception, and emotional response. Future directions point toward bridging this gap through XR-enabled systems, where XR functions as a judgment engine by training AI with real-time human data such as VR user feedback, eye tracking, and emotional signals. In parallel, a human–AI co-design loop can be established in which AI generates ideas, humans critique them within immersive XR environments, and the system continuously updates its knowledge layers, enabling more informed, adaptive, and context-aware design intelligence over time
Reference
Gensler is a global architecture, design, and planning firm. Founded in 1965, Gensler has built a team of 6,000 professionals who partner with clients in over 100 countries each year on projects that act as catalysts for growth.
Design as Storytelling: How AI Is Transforming the Way We Imagine, Create, and Connect. Jordan Goldstein. Gensler blog.
Digital Twins, AI Design Showcase-Higher Education explored emerging digital technologies and their impact on the AEC industry. The event was organized by the 
