{"id":11733,"date":"2026-05-04T23:41:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/?p=11733"},"modified":"2026-05-05T03:16:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T03:16:32","slug":"imagining-the-future-of-architecture-with-ai-expert-tim-fu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/articles\/imagining-the-future-of-architecture-with-ai-expert-tim-fu\/","title":{"rendered":"Imagining the Future of Architecture with AI Expert Tim Fu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\n(function(){var s=document.createElement('style');s.type='text\/css';s.textContent='.bespoke-transcript{width:100%;font-family:inherit;color:#1a1a1a;line-height:1.85;font-size:inherit}.bespoke-transcript .bt-heading{font-family:\\'Helvetica Neue\\',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:22px;font-weight:700;margin-top:52px;margin-bottom:20px;color:#111;letter-spacing:-0.3px;border-left:4px solid #97d422;padding-left:14px}.bespoke-transcript 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Neue\\',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif!important;font-size:13px!important;color:#888!important;font-style:italic!important;text-align:center!important;letter-spacing:0.3px!important}.bespoke-transcript .bt-cuecard{margin:48px 0 6px 0!important;padding:24px 0 0 80px!important;border-top:2px solid #97d422!important;position:relative!important;font-family:\\'Helvetica Neue\\',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif!important;background:none!important;box-shadow:none!important;border-left:none!important;border-right:none!important;border-bottom:none!important;border-radius:0!important;transform:none!important}.bespoke-transcript .bt-cuecard::before,.bespoke-transcript .bt-cuecard::after{display:none!important;content:none!important}.bespoke-transcript .bt-cuecard-num{position:absolute!important;left:0!important;top:18px!important;font-family:\\'Helvetica Neue\\',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif!important;font-size:32px!important;font-weight:800!important;color:#97d422!important;line-height:1!important;letter-spacing:-1.2px!important;writing-mode:initial!important;text-orientation:initial!important;text-shadow:none!important;background:none!important;z-index:auto!important}.bespoke-transcript .bt-cuecard-num::before{content:\\'Q\\'!important;color:#1a1a1a!important;display:inline!important;margin-right:1px!important;font-size:32px!important;font-weight:800!important;letter-spacing:-1.2px!important;font-family:\\'Helvetica Neue\\',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif!important;text-shadow:none!important}.bespoke-transcript .bt-cuecard-num::after{content:none!important;display:none!important}.bespoke-transcript .bt-cuecard-q{margin:0!important;padding:0!important;color:#111!important;font-size:20px!important;font-weight:500!important;line-height:1.45!important;font-family:\\'Helvetica Neue\\',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif!important;letter-spacing:-0.3px!important;position:relative!important;z-index:1!important;background:none!important}';document.head.appendChild(s);})();\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"bespoke-transcript\">\n<div class=\"responsive-video\" style=\"position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; margin-bottom: 36px; border-radius: 4px;\"><iframe style=\"position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: 0;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rxSC0cO1TLA\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-intro\">Tim Fu is the founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timfu.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Studio Tim Fu<\/a>, a ten-person AI-centric architecture practice based in Marylebone, London. A former researcher at Zaha Hadid Architects and a graduate of the Architectural Association&#8217;s Emergent Technologies programme, Tim has positioned the studio at the front of a quiet shift in how buildings get designed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-intro\">In this conversation with Bespoke Careers, Tim talks through the design of the Cacao Greenhouse for Maison Cailler&#8217;s chocolate theme park in Broc, Switzerland. He explains how a Midjourney prompt back in 2023 turned into a planar-panelled organic structure now headed for construction, why his clients often have no idea they&#8217;re working with an AI-forward studio, and why he took equity instead of fees on a 70-villa Dominican Republic project. He also covers the move from Zaha Hadid to founding his own studio without a UK work visa, the development of Urban GPT, and what he thinks every architect should be learning right now.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">A 200-Year-Old Chocolatier and a 10-Person Studio<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Tim, thank you so much for joining us. Maison Cailler, a 200-year-old Swiss chocolatier, is building a chocolate theme park designed by a 10-person AI studio from Marylebone. How on earth did you get that project?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">There&#8217;s a big team behind this whole process. We&#8217;re collaborating with ARCADIE, the local architects, and there is BRC, the experience designers, and our developers Jogne Invest. Verzone Woods Architectes is doing the landscape. So really to mention but not limited to this group of people, and ourselves, who are designing the main vision and concept.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">As a collective it&#8217;s been very synergetic. We keep in charge the overall concept and vision, and with the help of a small team with AI tools, it allows us to target precisely what we&#8217;re looking for in a shorter amount of time. From early concept stage all the way to the detail design stage that we&#8217;re at, it&#8217;s been very helpful to have AI. I don&#8217;t think you need a huge team to undertake these type of process.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-image\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/studio-tim-fu-team.jpg\" alt=\"The Studio Tim Fu team in Marylebone, London\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-caption\">The ten-person Studio Tim Fu team in Marylebone.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">How Clients Actually See AI<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">When a client like this comes to your practice with this idea, where does AI factor in that conversation? Do they immediately want to discount because they think a computer is doing half the work? Or do they want to be seen as on the vanguard of technology? Or are they being dragged along kicking and screaming?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Frankly, for this particular client and project, I don&#8217;t even think the client is aware that we are AI-centric in our approach. When we were approached, it was through our existing collection of designs that we&#8217;ve shared online. So I think it&#8217;s the design that spoke to the clients, which then came to us to want to do this project, because it seems that we have certain vision and styles and aesthetics that is fitting to the ambition that this project is looking for.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Right off the bat, it was a design project. We didn&#8217;t really advertise ourselves as AI forward. I think it&#8217;s strategic to keep it that way for the time being, because AI has a lot of negative connotations more or less in this industry. It&#8217;s a bit of a sensitive thing that it&#8217;s better to just focus on the design and the philosophy and everything else pertaining to architecture. AI for us is a tool.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">Some clients know we&#8217;re superpowered by AI as designers. Some clients don&#8217;t. And frankly, it&#8217;s not so much relevant. It&#8217;s about delivering the end results.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Tim Fu<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Some of our projects and clients know that AI is one of our expertise. So they know that they&#8217;re getting the most out of a technology, but behind the team is also architects, urban designers, parametric and facade design and detailing. We still have to uphold our responsibilities to those clients. They know we are the whole package of architects plus the tools. Some clients just don&#8217;t know. And it&#8217;s the outcome that the clients actually worry about. If you&#8217;re producing something that fulfills the criteria and is an end result of quality output, I don&#8217;t think the clients really care which methodologies you&#8217;ve deployed in the process.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">Speed, Quality, and the Internet at Your Fingertips<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Do you think you as a practice are able to provide something of a different quality through these tools?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">I stand firmly on this. Both quality and speed and the thoroughness of being able to explore so many opportunities in one go. That alone is an advantage. Who would forego such an advantage? It&#8217;s like having the internet at your fingertips and you&#8217;re using it to do research, to get ideas, to do mood boarding. More opportunities provide more dialogue and discussion that then can shape the outcome of your design. But of course, driven and curated through a human team that is driving the human philosophy in the process. So you can end up shaping an end result that is definitely beyond satisfactory than a traditional office that does not employ any of the advanced tools that we have available.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<!-- MAISON CAILLER CASE STUDY --><\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-casestudy\">\n<h4 class=\"bt-cs-label\">Project Spotlight<\/h4>\n<h3 class=\"bt-cs-title\">The Cacao Greenhouse, Maison Cailler<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-gallery\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-gal-hero\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cailler-cacao-greenhouse-01-aerial.jpg\" alt=\"Cacao Greenhouse aerial render\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cailler-cacao-greenhouse-02-aerial.jpg\" alt=\"Cacao Greenhouse facade detail\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cailler-cacao-greenhouse-03-exterior.jpg\" alt=\"Cacao Greenhouse interior\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cailler-cacao-greenhouse-04-interior.jpg\" alt=\"Cacao Greenhouse panelisation\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cailler-cacao-greenhouse-05-interior.jpg\" alt=\"Cacao Greenhouse site context\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-cs-text\">Phase one of Maison Cailler&#8217;s chocolate park expansion in Broc, Switzerland. A three-storey greenhouse housing live cocoa trees brought in from Ethiopia and other growing regions, sat in the Gruy\u00e8re landscape where the chocolatier was founded and where milk chocolate itself was invented.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cs-text\">The brief: open the visitor experience with the raw material. Tourists begin with the bean, then move through the chocolate-making process across the wider park. The form takes its cue from the cocoa bean itself. An organic, doubly-curved geometry rationalised into entirely planar metal and glass panels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cs-text\">Studio Tim Fu started work in 2023, when Midjourney was the only diffusion model worth using. Early concept renders, generated through prompt-crafting, sold the vision to the client. By 2024 and 2025 the project moved into Rhino and Grasshopper for structural optimisation, facade rationalisation, and detail design, with AI continuing to feed into rendering and form-finding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cs-text\"><em>&#8220;It was a driving philosophy that guided us to explore AI tools to give us our first visions of it. With that tool alone we were able to showcase our vision. The prompt-crafting process designed a result that convinced the client to proceed.&#8221;<\/em> Tim Fu<\/p>\n<p><video class=\"bt-video\" controls preload=\"metadata\" playsinline><source src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/cailler-cacao-greenhouse.mp4\" type=\"video\/mp4\" \/><\/video><\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-meta\">\n<div><strong>Location<\/strong> Broc, Switzerland<\/div>\n<div><strong>Client<\/strong> Maison Cailler (Nestl\u00e9)<\/div>\n<div><strong>Collaborators<\/strong> ARCADIE, BRC Imagination Arts, Jogne Invest, Verzone Woods<\/div>\n<div><strong>Status<\/strong> Detail design<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- END MAISON CAILLER --><\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">From Prompt to Planar Panel<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">When you type &#8220;cocoa-inspired greenhouse&#8221; into Midjourney, take me on the process of refining that. Is it just about spitting out hundreds of options that the human is then sifting? How does that interwoven thing between human and machine actually work?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">It&#8217;s really just about ticking the boxes of what you&#8217;re looking for. You welcome the process of abundant exploration. There&#8217;s nothing wrong with that. Then your role is to curate the process and guide it towards accuracy of site, cultural relevance, material understanding, construction realism, and fabricational constraints.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">As you&#8217;re sifting through these ideas, you know, oh this is a doubly curved geometry, harder to panelise. That&#8217;s more technical understanding that aids us in this process. Everyone can produce a lot of ideas, but you need to have a background understanding of what you are seeking so it complements how something can be constructed. My background was Zaha Hadid, a lot of parametric design, fluid and bespoke geometries. As a research team I was always specialising in rationalising that to understand how it can be constructed. That sort of expertise helped me understand what to look for in form-finding. And that ultimately led to where we are today, which is a very organic geometry where every single panel is planar.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">There&#8217;s a misconception that AI has to be controlled, has to be prescribed to your understanding. It can be there to jog your creativity. We prompt and see where it goes. It&#8217;s almost like rolling a dice.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Tim Fu<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">The Fallacy of AI&#8217;s Polish<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">If something looks a certain way, people believe it is considered in a certain way. The panelisation in the AI image has lines on it, but that doesn&#8217;t mean it&#8217;s right, correct, or thought through. That links back to what people fear about AI. It appears finished.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">You&#8217;re touching on a very valid point. This is the fallacy of AI&#8217;s use today. But I think it&#8217;s more of a fallacy of humans than AI. The technologies will provide better and better results. How we interpret those results is a human factor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">When we work with less conscious clients, we&#8217;re explicitly stating with disclaimers that these visuals are produced for form-finding, for early concept visualisation. Some clients work with us, they know the AI process already. Some clients prompt some stuff themselves and send it to us. They understand that eventually our technical expertise will kick in and refine everything. But we need to talk about the global picture: vision, concept, philosophy, materials. AI is great for that.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">A lot of people are still living in the pre-AI paradigm. We live in an era of abundance instead of scarcity. The scarcity is no longer the refined visuals. It&#8217;s the ideas behind them.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Tim Fu<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">From AI Imagery to Structural Reality<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">For Maison Cailler, what does the process look like now? How does an AI-generated form actually get built?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">The traditional tireless nights of working on columns and fire escapes are completely within our process. We couldn&#8217;t bypass that. We work with local architects to make sure it&#8217;s code compliant. There&#8217;s also a unique phase where we strategically work on the parametric facade and how to rationalise it from a completely organic curvilinear envelope to a fully rationalised system, where both the metal panelisation and glass have to be planar, how we triangulated the structure, the joints and the details.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">That process became AI to Grasshopper, to actually understanding the thickness of the material, the mullions of the windows, applying that through the structure, getting structural analysis, working through it as you would a Zaha Hadid project.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">And presumably you wouldn&#8217;t be able to do that without the experience at Zaha?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">100%. This is why I felt daring when I saw AI. I was hoping to bring AI towards constructibility, and that&#8217;s why I really took on AI as a main tool of use. All those organic geometries that are now at your fingertips are something you can think about and potentially rationalise, if you know how to go about it.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">The Instagrammification of Architecture<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Lots of people in the profession see the visuals: the Midjourney images, the compelling videos. They&#8217;re hungry for tools that do the second half. The constructibility. A lot of practices question the value of AI in the back end.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">It&#8217;s right to be questioned. I used to call it the Instagrammification of architecture, because these tools narrow the conversation of architecture to formalism and facadism, to how it&#8217;s represented visually. Which is not what architecture is. You have to have that understanding philosophically while engaging with these tools.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">The factual nature of AI today is that the diffusion model is there to improve the early stage. The later stage, AI is not quite there yet. We are in the process of trying to engage with that, with our development of Urban GPT and our parametric process. We&#8217;re hoping to get there at a later stage when something like a large language model or spatial models are actually as competent as diffusion models are with visual design.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">If one day BIM modelling becomes superpowered by Claude 1000, we&#8217;ll just be open-minded to that. But today is not that day. Today the revolution comes from the diffusion side.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Tim Fu<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">Urban GPT<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Tell me about Urban GPT. I&#8217;ve seen the visuals. It&#8217;s a really interesting way of approaching it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">We&#8217;re living in an interesting AI development pipeline. The diffusion model side is very creative but lacks spatial understanding. Then you have the configurators, these pipelines that give us prescriptive logic for how to develop parcels, do networking, come up with solutions under control of a 3D spatial world. There&#8217;s no convergence of the two.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Our research team is working on this GPT urban designer, a large language model. The idea is you should be able to prompt an idea, put in a lot of site data and environment data, and allow it to come up with its own solution. Creativity of the diffusion model with the accuracy of configurators. Everything you&#8217;ve seen from our social media so far is completely produced within a day, completely digitally through the AI process. 3D model output, rendering output, the whole pipeline. We don&#8217;t manually do any of that process.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-image\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/urban-gpt-output.jpg\" alt=\"Urban GPT generative output, Studio Tim Fu\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-caption\">Urban GPT output. A full generative pipeline from prompt to 3D model to rendering, produced inside a day.<\/p>\n<p><video class=\"bt-video\" controls preload=\"metadata\" playsinline><source src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/urban-gpt-generative.mp4\" type=\"video\/mp4\" \/><\/video><\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">Equity, Not Fees<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">I read somewhere that on your Dominican Republic project you&#8217;ve taken an investment rather than just fees. So many architects I speak to talk about fees and where value sits. Tell me about that move.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">The clients came to us. They saw us as the overall vision and brand of their developments, and they wanted to develop not just this project but more projects in the future. They proposed we become partners and invest a percentage. So our design fees are nominally very low to work on this project, but we&#8217;ll have stake in the actual investment of the real estate itself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">It&#8217;s a unique change for us as a practice because we&#8217;ve always only ever done service fees. This was the first one where we took on as an investment as partners. It&#8217;s also advantageous for them, because if the project is successful it&#8217;s now integral to us. We put our blood and sweat and tears into it, quite a lot more than any other project so far. Investments are more than services. You can think of better wealth growth and management as an architectural practice. Architectural-developer-real-estate mix as a service. Something we can develop into a later stage.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-image\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/dominican-republic-aerial.jpg\" alt=\"Dominican Republic villa complex, Studio Tim Fu\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-caption\">The 70-villa Dominican Republic complex. Tim&#8217;s first equity-based commission.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">Why Big Firms Struggle to Adapt<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">It&#8217;s refreshing to see a practice openly showing something like that. Allocating risk in a different way.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">That&#8217;s one of the advantages of being a small team. We can adapt to the client and the circumstances. The trajectory hasn&#8217;t been drawn for us as a company. We have a vision and a goal, but how we go about it is still up for grabs. The technology is constantly shifting. The way we work is shifting. Organisational structure of an office is shifting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">I&#8217;d like to question the current structure. Client service relationships. The internal organisational structure of a company. What we provide. Our assets. Everything could be rearranged to be more advantageous to a post-AI practice. There&#8217;s so much structure and hierarchy and process ingrained in the architectural process because it&#8217;s such an age-old profession with so much human specialisation. It&#8217;s so much harder for a bigger company to uplift and unroot what they&#8217;ve already established. That&#8217;s also one of the driving forces that made me decide to fund my own company. To see what the alternative is.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">From Canada to the AA to Zaha Hadid<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Tell me about your background and the early years.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Risk-taking, right from the start. I didn&#8217;t take the traditional route of continuing a secondary education. I did my undergraduate in Canada, where I&#8217;m from. Typically you&#8217;d just continue to university. If you want to take some risk, you go to the States. I took more risk by coming to the UK. Putting everything up in the air. Coming to a university like the AA was also a unique decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">The AA is very experimental, especially in their master&#8217;s programme, Emergent Technologies, which I took. There&#8217;s a lot of non-traditional ways of education that&#8217;s beneficial. I learned how to think differently, how to explore new technologies, then rethink architecture through those technological discoveries. We worked closely with the PhD candidates. Genetic algorithms, parametric-driven logic in generative urbanism. A creative place to develop the way of thinking that I used to progress to later in my career, including in Zaha Hadid and ultimately to starting my own firm.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">What were the big learnings from working at a practice like Zaha Hadid?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">There&#8217;s not many firms that are so receptive to technological exploration, pushing technology and engineering to its edge. Zaha Hadid constantly does that with taste, with finesse. It&#8217;s that beautiful balance of embracing technology and also executing to a desirable outcome. That balance really drove me to go there for my time. It&#8217;s a value that sticks with you.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-image\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/zaha-hadid-facade-work.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu's facade work at Zaha Hadid Architects\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-caption\">Tim&#8217;s facade rationalisation work at Zaha Hadid Architects. The parametric and constructibility expertise he carried into Studio Tim Fu.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">Starting a Studio Without a Visa<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">You decided at some point that starting your own practice was the right idea.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">It was a turning point. A fork in the road. I either continue at Zaha Hadid and pursue AI research under a certain framework, or really push it to the edge with no one dictating the direction of research or starting an enterprise. I thought I&#8217;d take that risk because it was the right time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">It was a big risk. I didn&#8217;t have a work visa at the time after I&#8217;d left Zaha. I&#8217;d never started a company. I didn&#8217;t know what the situations were around that, or if I&#8217;d even be able to support myself after I&#8217;d left. But like they say, fortune favours the brave. Everything worked out in the end.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">Sleepless nights were there. But those are character-building moments. You take the risk. You have the conviction. You have a self-aware understanding of your momentum in this industry.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Tim Fu<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-image\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/marylebone-studio-office.jpg\" alt=\"Studio Tim Fu's Marylebone office\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-caption\">Inside the Marylebone studio.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">Where the Tech Falls Down<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">A question from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/articles\/keir-regan-alexander-on-the-future-of-architecture-ai-and-finding-your-niche\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Keir Regan-Alexander<\/a>, a past guest on the podcast and expert voice on AI in architecture. Tim, you&#8217;ve championed AI-centric methods. When have you found AI let you down technically on a live project? Where have you pushed up against its actual limits?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">The weaknesses are a constant thing we are addressing. It&#8217;s not like suddenly one day it does something wrong. Everything we produce is weak on something and we constantly have to push it towards the right direction. It will get the materials incorrect. It will get the tone incorrect. It will give you construction solutions that don&#8217;t make sense. It&#8217;s a daily, if not hourly, struggle. When it comes to the later stages, we don&#8217;t even bother with so much AI. At some point you let go and start to do the process traditionally.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">With large language models there are moments where it hallucinates and gives you wrong data. Those could be quite dangerous if you&#8217;re not aware. You have to vet everything from data sets to images. As long as you uphold that responsibility and use AI responsibly, you&#8217;ll take advantage of it without its weaknesses.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">Is AI Contributing to Architecture&#8217;s Demise?<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">A question from Reddit. Are you concerned that you&#8217;re contributing to architecture&#8217;s demise, both creatively and economically?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">I am concerned that certain architects are contributing to architecture&#8217;s demise. Some firms will contribute to architecture&#8217;s improvement through AI. It&#8217;s in the responsibilities of the architects and the individuals that use the tool. Yes, there&#8217;s going to be value shifts. But you have to learn how to work through it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Another from Reddit. When a building is designed by AI and it goes through planning, who signs it off? Who&#8217;s liable if something goes wrong?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">You have to stop seeing AI as an agent at the moment and see it as a tool, operated by the tool user. We&#8217;re not going to sue ChatGPT the same way we&#8217;re not going to sue AutoCAD. We sue the architect using it. You still have to work through it traditionally as a tool set.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">We&#8217;re not going to sue ChatGPT the same way we&#8217;re not going to sue AutoCAD.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Tim Fu<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">The Post-AI Value System<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">What about the next generation of architects coming through? They&#8217;ll have to find their way through a different way value is created.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">In the post-AI era, we have to identify scarcity again. Because that&#8217;s value. The abundance of refined visuals is no longer a scarcity it once was. The perceived effort is no longer present. So effort comes into the resolution of ideas and having good ideas. Those are still fundamental.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">I don&#8217;t think that changes much. I really don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s fundamentally shifting a lot of the original values we once held as architects. Those things have to be human. Whether you&#8217;re protecting the environment, benefiting the client, the heritage, the locality. Those are human values and they require humans to dictate. The tools we use have just accelerated that process.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">Architecture in 10 Years<\/h3>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">10 years in the future. What will you be doing? What will you be standing for?<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">10 years is a long time to predict. There&#8217;s a saying in Silicon Valley that you&#8217;re not allowed to talk about what&#8217;s after five years. But I can speculate. Automatic prototypers deployed on site, building and designing things in real time. Space colonisation made easier by AI agents sent out to excavate, produce, design as automated agents. Drone-operated construction. A lot of cool things that will speed up how we design and build our built worlds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">It&#8217;s going to make a lot of the process much more effective. We&#8217;ll be building faster and better, more accurately, with less resources. Especially human labour resources and human thinking process, which are the things that delay our current process. Right now everything is partitioned. We have different specialists in every sector because we&#8217;re human. We&#8217;re limited to a certain way of thinking within a certain knowledge base. AI doesn&#8217;t have that limitation. It could embrace all the intelligence, expertise and knowledge at once and give you a cohesive result. That power is a lot more effective in producing architecture than humans. We want to facilitate that future and build that pipeline that allows for this automation to happen. What is being built will still be within the control of humans. To some extent.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">AI doesn&#8217;t have that limitation. It could embrace all the intelligence, expertise and knowledge at once and give you a cohesive result.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Tim Fu<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<hr class=\"bt-hr\" \/>\n<h3 class=\"bt-heading\">The Cue Card Round<\/h3>\n<p class=\"bt-cc-intro\">Tim works through a stack of cue cards. He reads each one, then answers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-cuecard\"><span class=\"bt-cuecard-num\">01<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cuecard-q\">What&#8217;s the one AI tool every architect should learn today?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">In the diffusion world, probably Nano Banana. You can access that with Gemini or AI Studio. For a large language model, Claude. Right now a lot of what it does has surpassed ChatGPT.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-cuecard\"><span class=\"bt-cuecard-num\">02<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cuecard-q\">What&#8217;s one take you have on AI that most people disagree with you on?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">That AI forces you to be more creative. A lot of people think your creativity is being lost. Actually AI made the creative process easier, which means you have to be more creative to generate original ideas and curate processes that work. The onus becomes on you.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-cuecard\"><span class=\"bt-cuecard-num\">03<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cuecard-q\">Is AI accelerating architecture&#8217;s race to the bottom?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">AI is accelerating the race of people who are responsible to the top. People who are tourists in the AI world or the architecture world will bring architecture to the bottom. It&#8217;s the user, not the tool.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">AI is accelerating the race of people who are responsible to the top. People who are tourists in the AI world will bring architecture to the bottom.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Tim Fu<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"bt-cuecard\"><span class=\"bt-cuecard-num\">04<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cuecard-q\">Is AI going to kill the junior architect role?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">AI is going to kill the junior architect role in its current form. A lot of processing and production is going to be automated, which was traditionally junior&#8217;s role. Junior architects need to learn more about the system design and the process behind production. That&#8217;s what&#8217;s going to drive your career further in the post-AI world.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-cuecard\"><span class=\"bt-cuecard-num\">05<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cuecard-q\">I&#8217;ve been an architect for 15 years and I&#8217;ve never used AI aside from the occasional ChatGPT. Am I cooked?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">It&#8217;s about time to pick up some AI. You don&#8217;t have to be a technologist, but you do have to be technologically literate in the post-AI world. Hire a junior who can work on the technical tools for you, but you need to understand its capabilities. Even using ChatGPT, start using AI, generate AI images, see how you can push it further.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-cuecard\"><span class=\"bt-cuecard-num\">06<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cuecard-q\">Most architects aren&#8217;t short on ideas. They&#8217;re short on cash. Did you have money before starting your firm?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">No. My family were immigrants. We came from China to Canada and were skilled professionals. I further immigrated to the UK by myself. There&#8217;s no generational wealth. There&#8217;s no angel investor. I did a lot of designs, published it, built a brand and did everything from scratch. In the post-AI world we can all have the opportunity to produce our ideas and develop a career.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-cuecard\"><span class=\"bt-cuecard-num\">07<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cuecard-q\">Can a one-person studio compete with a 200-person firm?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">This is a great opportunity for smaller firms to out-compete big firms. AI allows for more production in a shorter amount of time, which traditional offices used to reap the benefits of through scale. A smaller team is more nimble and gives better ideas and results than a big firm dealing with management and human inefficiencies. Being very ideas-driven is something an individual can almost mastermind better than a collective. The risk-taking, the more ambitious projects usually come from smaller teams. Bigger offices tend to go for what is safer, more industry-respected, what is typically being done.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-cuecard\"><span class=\"bt-cuecard-num\">08<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cuecard-q\">Where do your clients come from? Are they all attracted from AI concepts on Instagram?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Not all, but having a brand presence and social media presence is a huge benefit. Most of our clients come from our showcase of design through Instagram, LinkedIn, and our technical showcase like Urban GPT. It attracts more developers focused on the technical side. It&#8217;s a bit of both.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-cuecard\"><span class=\"bt-cuecard-num\">09<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cuecard-q\">What are you genuinely worried about for the future of architecture?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Technology like AI ends up focusing architects&#8217; vision and priorities on the visuals, on the formalism and facadism of a project, as opposed to solving 3D space and placemaking. These technologies glorify this approach to thinking. That brings a lot of attention towards it. Architects who are less aware of the integral process become too focused on this.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-cuecard\"><span class=\"bt-cuecard-num\">10<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cuecard-q\">Why did you not take your part three to become a registered architect?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">It doesn&#8217;t matter. The first half of my career I was educated in North America, the second half in the UK. That alone makes the process complicated. I can&#8217;t just continue. The two continents really don&#8217;t work together educationally. As long as we have a team of registered architects and urban designers, we fill each other&#8217;s gaps as a collective. I don&#8217;t necessarily need to be registered in the UK system. Those are traditional routes that are helpful, but none of us operate on the traditional route.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-cuecard\"><span class=\"bt-cuecard-num\">11<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cuecard-q\">What do you think Zaha Hadid would have made of AI?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">She would definitely be open to exploring it. One of her famous sayings was that there can be no end to experimentation. That&#8217;s the spirit she held. Edge to technology, openness to exploration. AI is a powerful tool. I&#8217;m sure she&#8217;d personally be very excited by it. The firm itself today has been heavily researching AI as well.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bt-pullquote\"><p><span class=\"bt-pq-mark\">&#8220;<\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"bt-pq-text\">There can be no end to experimentation. That&#8217;s the spirit Zaha held for the whole process. Edge to technology, openness to exploration.<\/span><\/p>\n<footer class=\"bt-pq-attr\">Tim Fu<\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"bt-cuecard\"><span class=\"bt-cuecard-num\">12<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"bt-cuecard-q\">My daughter is an architecture student. AI is making her question whether she made the right choice. What should I tell her?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Tell her AI is questioning every career in existence right now. Architecture is a creative-driven and problem-solving process. AI is here to help us, but we need to help the AI help us. Instead of being the creators yourself, you are creating a process for AI to progress. There&#8217;s a lot of roles humans need to take. She doesn&#8217;t need to worry about it. But she does need to be open-minded about exploring the potential future shifts of where AI is going with architecture.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-chris\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Chris-Simmons.jpg\" alt=\"Chris Simmons\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\"><span class=\"bt-green\">Bespoke Careers<\/span> (Chris Simmons)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Tim, fascinating discussion. Thank you so much for sharing this through real projects. It really helps people see how it&#8217;s actually being used. A practice like yours at the front of these things, thinking about architecture in a different way. That&#8217;s really valuable. Thank you.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bt-speaker bt-tim\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bt-avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-01.cms-eu-v2i.applyflow.com\/bespoke\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tim-fu-profile.jpg\" alt=\"Tim Fu\" \/><span class=\"bt-name\">Tim Fu<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"bt-quote\">Thanks so much.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tim Fu sits down with Bespoke Careers to set the record straight on AI in architecture. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,68,69,22,67],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-11733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-employers","category-jobseekers","category-podcast","category-students-and-graduates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11733"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11760,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11733\/revisions\/11760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/11738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11733"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bespokecareers.com\/af-api\/wp\/v2\/location?post=11733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}