People keep asking me whether AI will take architects' jobs
I think that may be the wrong question. AI's biggest effect on our industry might not be the software that helps us draw. It might be the buildings AI has to live in: data centres.
Every question you put to an AI is being answered inside one of these. Vast grey boxes that are mostly machinery: servers, power, cooling, backup batteries and cable everywhere. US data centre construction is set to double, and the pushback is just as big. Several polls this year found that around seven in ten Americans do not want one built near them.
Dezeen asked on 29 September whether data centres can ever be well designed:
・The academic Marina Otero Verzier said: "Data centers are, in general, an example of poor design." If the most architects can offer is a facade, she argued, that says more about the profession's lack of ambition.
・A data centre investor said architects were sidelined because these were treated as engineering projects, buildable on efficiency alone. He compared computing to parking: it can be a whole building, or part of one.
My own angle is a little different. I work in the UK as a Principal Designer, which in plain terms means thinking at design stage about the safety of the people who build, maintain and clean a building. I have not designed a data centre. But looking at one, my first thoughts are not about how it looks:
・It is almost all machinery, and it is maintained while it keeps running. When a machine breaks, can it be swapped out without someone clambering over equipment that is still live?
・With that many batteries, if one catches fire, how do firefighters get in?
・The programme is often set by the date the power is switched on. When a decision saves a few weeks, who ends up carrying the cost?
Several polls this year found that around seven in ten Americans do not want one built near them.
Those answers are fixed in the first few layout drawings. A good-looking facade added later cannot buy them back.
The UK designated data centres as Critical National Infrastructure in September 2024, so more of these will be landing on UK design teams' desks.
So when we talk about AI and architecture, I would ask two questions, not one. Can AI draw? And who designs the buildings AI lives in, and how?
The caveats, plainly: the seven-in-ten figure is from US polls about sites near people's homes; the quotes all come from one article; and the points above are questions I would ask, not answers.
If a data centre were planned near your home, how would you want it designed? Tell me what you think in the comments 👇
Dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/2026/09/29/data-centres-design-architecture-hyperscale-ai/
The same topic on LinkedIn: Most talk about AI in construction is about software
