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Jonathan Dortheimer

Head of Lab

About

Jonathan Dortheimer is an architect, educator, and innovator passionate about using technology to improve people’s lives. With a career spanning over two decades, he has significantly impacted the development of cities, architecture, and digital tools.

Jonathan is the head of the Architectural AI Research Laboratory, a senior lecturer at the Ariel University School of Architecture, and a guest scholar at the Chair of Architectural Informatics, Technical University of Munich in Germany.

Jonathan completed his doctoral studies in 2021 at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Eran Neuman and Prof. Tova Milo. Then he had the privilege to be a postdoctoral researcher at the Material Topology Research Lab at the Technion in collaboration with the Future Automation Lab at Cornell-Tech University under the supervision of Prof. Aaron Sprecher and Prof. Wendy Ju.

In addition to his academic endeavors, Jonathan is a successful entrepreneur. He has founded several start-up companies and received three mentions in the National Library’s Israeli Internet History Project. He also co-founded the Meirim, a website promoting democracy in urban planning in Israel. As a registered architect since 2008, he has designed over 30 projects and participated in competitions.

Jonathan’s research focuses on spatial design (buildings and cities) as a collective and political-cultural action based on technology. His approach harnesses the potential of advanced technologies to enhance human design ability, particularly emphasizing using AI to help architects address planning challenges. He has developed methods and technologies for collaborative architectural design, enabling effective collaboration between architects and communities.

Jonathan is an active educator, teaching design, research methods, and programming. He taught courses at the Tel Aviv University (2018-2020) and the Technion (2019-2021) and lectured at TU Munich and Cornell-Tech. He also advocates for accessibility and inclusion, developing tools to integrate disadvantaged communities and people with special needs in design processes.

Jonathan Dortheimer is an inspiring architecture, technology, and community engagement leader. His innovation and dedication to improving people’s lives make him a valuable asset to any organization.

Publications

Stephen Yang, Jonathan Dortheimer, Aaron Sprecher, Qian Yang (2024). When design workshops meet chatbots: Meaningful participation at scale?. International Journal of Architectural Computing doi:10.1177/14780771241253440

Jonathan Dortheimer, Nik Martelaro, Aaron Sprecher, Gerhard Schubert (2024). Evaluating Large-Language-Model Chatbots to Engage Communities in Large-Scale Design Projects. Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing doi:10.1017/S0890060424000027

Jonathan Dortheimer, Stephen Yang, Qian Yang, Aaron Sprecher (2023). Conceptual Architectural Design at Scale: A Case Study of Community Participation Using Crowdsourcing. Buildings doi:10.3390/buildings13010222

Jonathan Dortheimer, Gerhard Schubert, Agata Dalach, Lielle Joy Brenner, Nikolas Martelaro (2023). Think AI-side the Box! Exploring the Usability of Text-to-Image Generators for Architecture Students. eCAADe proceedings doi:10.52842/conf.ecaade.2023.2.567

Eytan Mann, Jonathan Dortheimer, Alona Nitzan-Shiftan, Aaron Sprecher (2023). Of Stones and Words – Computational Framework for Multifaceted Historical Narration of Wadi Salib. CAADRIA proceedings doi:10.52842/conf.caadria.2023.1.373

Jonathan Dortheimer (2022). Collective Intelligence in Design Crowdsourcing. Mathematics doi:10.3390/math10040539

Eytan Mann, Jonathan Dortheimer, Aaron Sprecher (2022). Toward a Generative Pipeline for an AR Tour of Contested Heritage Sites. 2022 IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AIVR) doi:10.1109/AIVR56993.2022.00026

Anna Boim, Jonathan Dortheimer, Aaron Sprecher (2022). A Machine-Learning Approach to Urban Design Interventions In Non-Planned Settlements. CAADRIA proceedings doi:10.52842/conf.caadria.2022.1.223

Jonathan Dortheimer, Nikolas Martelaro, Gerhard Schubert, Aaron Sprecher (2022). CHATBOTS IN THE DESIGN PROCESS -Automating Design Conversation in Urban Design Projects. Unpublished doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.31654.40003

Jonathan Dortheimer (2021). A Crowdsourcing Method for Architecture: Towards a Collaborative and Participatory Architectural Design Praxis. Unpublished doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.13031.11682

Jonathan Dortheimer, Talia Margalit (2020). Open-source architecture and questions of intellectual property, tacit knowledge, and liability. The Journal of Architecture doi:10.1080/13602365.2020.1758950

Jonathan Dortheimer, Eran Neuman, Tova Milo (2020). A Novel Crowdsourcing-based Approach for Collaborative Architectural Design. Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe) [Volume 2] doi:10.52842/conf.ecaade.2020.2.155

Jonathan Dortheimer (2016). Open Source Architecture: Challenges and opportunities. Unpublished doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.30538.57285

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