“Algorithmic recommendations are addictive because they are always subtly confirming your own cultural, political, and social biases, warping your surroundings into a mirror image of yourself while doing the same for everyone else.”
— Kyle Chayka, Filterworld Goodreads

When Kyle Chayka coined Filterworld to describe the algorithm-mediated cultural environment, he meant to capture how algorithms don’t simply recommend—they shape. They don’t just reflect what we like; they steer us toward what looks safe to the system.

In architecture now, tools like BIM and AI risk doing something analogous: flattening the design field by privileging what is “feasible,” “optimum,” or “safe” over what is expressive, experimental, or contextually responsive. The danger is not just loss of novelty but the erosion of intent in design.

This essay addresses that tension for an audience of architects and design professionals:

• How Filterworld’s logic maps to algorithmic architecture
• Where “intent” is disappearing in AI/BIM workflows
• How to reclaim authorship in a world of machine-mediated design