TALAMANA · THE AI LITERACY MAP FOR ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN · Studio Practice · AGE 19—22 · FACTUAL · EVOLVING

Read the competition's AI rules

Silence in the brief is neither permission nor a ban, so ask the organiser in writing.

When to use

Before you start an entry — not the night before submission — and again before you submit, when the entry has changed since you first read the brief.

The method

Open the brief and the terms. For a competition in India, read them beside the Council of Architecture's Architectural Design Competition Guidelines, which set who may enter, how anonymity is kept and what a promoter must state; competition conditions are meant to be written under them. Then search the brief for the words: AI, artificial, generated, originality, disclosure, authorship. Read the clause in full, including what it says about labelling and proof. Write three lines: what is allowed, what is forbidden, what must be disclosed. Plan the process to fit — if AI-assisted images must be labelled, decide now which images will carry the label. At submission, draft the disclosure statement the clause asks for, in the form it asks for. Keep the clause and your statement in the project folder.

Watch for this

A brief with no AI clause at all. Silence is neither permission nor a ban. It is a question for the organiser, in writing, before you start. And if a clause reserves the right to ask for proof of originality, keep your process files: "proof" means showing the work.

Try it

Find a current architecture or illustration competition brief. Locate its AI clause, or confirm there is none. Summarise it in three lines and draft the disclosure statement an entry would need.

Prove it

Before submitting, show the exact clause and the entry's disclosure beside it, and explain how the process met the rule, image by image.

How it works

Competition terms are a contract, and entering accepts them. In India the frame above the contract is the Council of Architecture's competition guidelines: open competitions are for architects registered under the Architects Act, 1972; ideas competitions may admit students of architecture at the promoter's discretion; entries are assessed anonymously. As of this edition the guidelines say nothing about AI, so the AI rule, where there is one, sits in the individual brief. A growing number of briefs now carry one. One architectural-illustration society's terms for 2026, for instance, accept AI-assisted work but require it to be labelled, and reserve the right to demand proof of originality, with disqualification for refusal. Rules differ widely between organisers and change between years. That is why the card is EVOLVING and the method is "find and read", not "remember". Disclosure is also the professional habit this whole ring builds: say what was made, and how, before anyone asks. A competition's rule is not your school's rule; the academic-integrity card on this ring covers the submission you make for marks.

What this idea builds on

What this idea opens up

Sources

Open this idea on the map · The complete map · Logika · RBDS AI Lab, India · revised every edition.

Age grows from 11 at the centre to 22 at the edge, and six sectors show the learning strands. Tab into the map and the arrow keys step from idea to idea, following the links where there is one. Enter opens the idea under the cursor, and E reads out its links and the reason recorded on each. Press slash for Search, question mark for the full key list, and Escape to leave. Open Ideas for the complete readable list, including what each idea builds on and what it opens up.

LOGIKA · RBDS AI LAB INDIA
ON-RAMP · AGE 11 · FIRST ENCOUNTERS, NOT GATES — IDEAS · — DEPENDENCIES
DONE
OPENS NEXT
SOLID — STANDS ON