For sixty years, Jahn has approached every project as a question about what a building can owe to its city. The tools we use to answer that question have always evolved — from hand-drafted sections, to early CATIA and parametric models, to the integrated digital practice we run today. Studio Intelligence is the next chapter of that evolution: a deliberate, transparent application of computational design and machine intelligence to the work we already do — at the cadence the discipline now demands, without ever ceding the editorial voice that makes a Jahn building recognizable.
A standing position from Jahn, Chicago · May 2026
The /ideas series that launches alongside Studio Intelligence. Each one is a standing position — what we mean, what we won't replace, what we've found.
The practice of architecture is not what machine intelligence threatens. It is what machine intelligence is most useful to. This post lays out what Studio Intelligence means at Jahn — a set of working methods, not a product, not a department — and what we have decided it will never replace.
The category is moving fast. SOM has a /topic/machine-learning content stream and cited the West Bund Convention Centre as AI-designed in Dezeen in December 2025. Gensler's CEO publishes on AI in Fortune. ZHA reports rendering throughput at ~5× prior pace.
JAHN's site search for “AI” returns zero results. The work is happening — every firm at JAHN's tier is using these tools — but the firm hasn't told the story yet. Studio Intelligence is the position the firm takes before someone else takes it on the firm's behalf.
Evan is publicly framed as the modernizer protecting Helmut's legacy. This is the modernization story.
This entire page is a single AI brief away. The hero lede, the three launch-post section headers, the “Why now” framing — all drafted in roughly two minutes of model time. A Jahn editor would shape the final voice; the structure and positioning are ready as shown.
Demo built by JD Graphic for Stephanie Jolipa, Director of Marketing. Not affiliated with JAHN; not published.