THE SHIFTING ROLE OF ARCHITECTS AS CURATORS IN THE AI ERA: MILLENNIAL ARCHITECTS IN YOGYAKARTA, INDONESIA
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Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) entered architectural practice faster than architects anticipated, leaving a practical question: What does an architect do when a machine produces dozens of design options in minutes? This study examines that question through curatorial agency, a framework that positions the architect as one who selects, contextualizes, and takes responsibility for options, rather than as the sole originator of form. The framework set the moment of judgment as the unit of analysis, supplied initial coding categories, and defined the cross-case criterion: where curatorial authority sits once machines generate alternatives. Five Generation Y architects, members of the Indonesian Institute of Architects, Yogyakarta chapter (IAI DIY), and design competition winners, served as informants. Data from semi-structured interviews, portfolios, social media, and news coverage were analyzed through thematic coding and cross-case comparison. Informants developed five curatorial competencies at once: technological literacy with critical judgment, contextual translation and cultural sensitivity, selective appropriation of tools, repetitive refinement under human supervision, and ethical reasoning grounded in human values. Their work forms three practice models (traditional technology-enhanced, AI-assisted exploration, and critical reflective digital), and in each, the architect retains design authority. Cultural mediation emerged as a distinguishing feature of the Yogyakarta cases, proposed as a candidate sixth competency, absent from the literature dominated by developed-country contexts, and in need of further testing. The study contributes evidence from a developing-country setting on the architect's shift toward a curatorial role, with implications for professional certification and competency frameworks. Its findings are analytically generalizable to comparable contexts, not representative of Indonesian architectural practice.
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