Jimmy Wei-Chun Cheng
Jimmy Wei-Chun Cheng is a designer, researcher and educator. Prior to joining Carnegie Mellon University, Cheng served as an instructor of studios, workshops and seminars at Boston Architectural College, Rhode Island School of Design and the Architectural Association Visiting School. From 2019 to 2021, he practiced architecture as a project designer in Tokyo with junya ishigami associates and Sou Fujimoto Architects.
Cheng’s research investigates how technique, medium and technology transform the architectural design process, with a particular emphasis on digital representation in the context of artificial intelligence (AI). His work delves into how AI affects the meaning of language, imagery and form, analyzing these impacts through the frameworks of semiotics, media theory and simulation.
Cheng holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan, a Master of Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design, a Master of Science in Architectural Technologies and a Master of Science in Design Theory and Pedagogy from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), where he received the Hsinming Fung + Craig Hodgetts Postgraduate Thesis Prize.
News
March 25, 2025: Special Faculty Jimmy Wei-Chun Cheng presents the paper, "Customize3DForm: Introducing human subjectivity to objective objects using text-based generative pipeline," at CAADRIA2025, taking place March 22-29, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan.
December 7, 2024: Special Faculty Jimmy Wei-Chun Cheng is one of three featured designers at Taiwan Design Week 2024 in Taipei. His exhibited work focuses on the theme of radical pedagogy, exploring the future of AI in design.
Fall 2025 Teaching
This mini-course explores the theoretical foundations of generative AI and its emerging role in architectural design.
This mini-course is structured as a series of hands-on workshops focused on engaging with a range of text- and image-based AI models, including both open-source and proprietary platforms.
This course prepares students for modeling geometry through the scripted development of parametric schemes, primarily for design applications. The goal of the course is to introduce students to basic scripting in a geometrical modeling environment with a focus on form-making algorithms, and to reinforce and extend basic concepts of parametric modeling.
Spring 2025 Teaching
This course focuses on the search engine and the discussion of digital representations in the context of search engines and generative AI.
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This course focuses on using software as a storytelling machine to provoke architectural thinking about reality. Through the interaction, simulation and immersion of play, we can experiment with ideas, collect data and create narratives about our vision of the future built environment. Students will learn generative systems such as cellular automata, wave function collapse, and generative AI to construct a fictional world that speculates about future urban spaces using the Unreal Engine (UE) game engine by Epic Games.