Co-Creative Robotics : Turn-Based Human–Robot Assembly for Architectural Design Exploration

This paper investigates co-creativity in architectural robotics through a design-research experiment that repositions the robot from a fabrication tool to an active collaborator in spatial exploration. A turn-based assembly process enables a human designer and a robotic arm to alternately place modular bricks within a shared three-dimensional environment. Each move is evaluated through computational rules—support, stability, and collision—and interpreted in real time via an AI image-to-image diffusion model. This sequential exchange establishes a reciprocal design dialogue: the human reads the robot’s action as a spatial proposition, while the robot responds to the evolving structure. Creative agency becomes distributed across human and machine, encouraging reflection on intent and positioning robotic intelligence as a source of suggestion rather than execution. By prioritizing responsiveness and interpretation over efficiency, the research challenges conventional file-to-factory paradigms and frames robotics as an active participant in design thinking. It contributes to discussions on human–machine collaboration by proposing co-creative robotics as a framework for rethinking authorship in architecture. Keywords. Human–robot Collaboration, Co-Creation, Computational Creativity, Robotic Fabrication, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Fabrication, Generative Models, Discrete Assembly, Human–Machine Interaction.