sculptural, AI-generated facades merge renaissance + baroque forms with fluid silk

Mohammad Qasim Iqbal’s tensile renaissance + baroque facades

Mohammad Qasim Iqbal continues his experimentation with Midjourney to present a series of AI-generated structures exploring renaissance and baroque facades, intertwined with delicate fabric-like elements. The grand, intricately ornamented structures retain the rigidity of the historic stone architecture alongside their characteristic baroque and renaissance forms. Taking these elements into new territories, the rendered facades are engraved from tensile silk in a fluid, dream-like, contemporary expression that invites viewers to closely observe the contrasting yet complementary materials as they unexpectedly unfold and fuse together.

all images by Mohammad Qasim Iqbal

revealing dream-like silk + stone carvings

Developing his previous artificial intelligence design series ‘Silk & Stone Baroque Façades’, architect Mohammad Qasim Iqbal injects the delicately dynamic contours of silk into the robust details of renaissance and baroque structures. The architectural stone elements — including undulating forms, sculptural statues, sweeping arches and columns, rich ornamentation, and carved frescos – are juxtaposed with the unpredictable nature of fabric which ‘moves with the wind and weathers through the seasons’.

The sculptural silk and stone elements are boldly yet seamlessly merged, blurring the boundaries between the materials, wherein fabric appears to becomes stone, and stone appears to becomes fabric. Viewers are invited to explore and question the AI-generated structures, their material and intricacies, and to ‘imagine something which they would only dream’. Creating a new surreal ‘in-between’ architecture, the AI generated buildings hover between reality and imagination, and ambiguity. ‘It is in those moments that one begins to question the Architecture, the material, and its detailing, as all good Architecture should’, concludes Mohammad Qasim Iqbal.