Posthuman Learning in the Age of AI: Rethinking Agency, Knowledge, and Policy in Architectural Education

Hakan Tong; Ayşegül Kıdık; Sema Alaçam

doi:10.38027/smart.v3n1-4

Authors

Hakan Tong Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Türkiye Author https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8964-9989
Ayşegül Kıdık Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Abdullah Gül University, Kayseri, Türkiye Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1497-2455
Sema Alaçam Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Türkiye Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5979-3282

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.38027/smart.v3n1-4

Keywords:

Posthuman Pedagogy, Artificial Intelligence, Architectural Education, Design Education Policy, Curriculum Governance, Ecological Intelligence

Abstract

Architectural education is being reshaped as Artificial Intelligence (AI) challenges human-centered conceptions of creativity, authorship, and knowledge production. However, current discussions on AI-supported architectural education remain largely focused on tool adoption, productivity, creativity, and student perception, while the policy implications of AI for curriculum design, studio governance, assessment, educator training, and ethical accountability remain underdeveloped. Addressing this gap, the study develops a policy-oriented posthuman framework for interpreting AI integration in architectural pedagogy and translating it into responsible design education principles. The study adopts a two-stage review design that combines a conceptual framing review of posthuman pedagogy with a systematic synthesis of empirical and pedagogical studies on AI, computational design, and architectural education published between 2010 and 2025. The review identifies three interrelated dimensions of AI-supported posthuman learning: distributed agency, in which design intelligence is shared across students, educators, AI systems, datasets, interfaces, materials, and studio environments; situated knowing, in which AI becomes pedagogically meaningful only when embedded in reflective, material, and context-sensitive design inquiry; and ethical entanglement, in which authorship, bias, accountability, originality, dependency, and environmental responsibility become core educational concerns. Based on these findings, the paper proposes ecological intelligence as a design education policy principle: the capacity to think, design, evaluate, and act responsibly within interconnected human, technological, material, environmental, and institutional systems. The contribution of the study is twofold. First, it clarifies the theoretical relevance of posthuman pedagogy for AI-supported architectural education. Second, it translates this theoretical perspective into a policy-oriented pedagogical framework that can inform curriculum development, studio pedagogy, assessment criteria, and ethical governance in architectural education.

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