URBAN MAP GENERATION IN ARTIST’S STYLE USING GENERATIVE ADVERSARIAL NETWORKS (GAN)

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence is a field that is able to learn from existing data to synthesize new ones using deep learning methods. Using Artificial Neural Networks that process big datasets, complex tasks and challenges become easily resolved. As the zeitgeist suggests, it is possible to produce novel outcomes for future projections by applying various machine learning algorithms on the generated data sets. In that context, the focus of this research is exploring the reinterpretation of 21st century urban plans with familiar artist styles using different subtypes of deep-learning-based generative adversarial networks (GAN) algorithms. In order to explore the capabilities of urban map transformation with machine learning approaches, two different GAN algorithms which are cycleGAN and styleGAN have been applied on the two main data sets. First data set, the urban data set, contains 50 cities urban plans in .jpeg format collected according to the diversity of the urban morphologies. Whereas the second data set is composed of four well-known artist’s paintings, that belong to various artistic movements. As a result of training the same data sets with different GAN algorithms and epoch values were compared and evaluated. In this respect, the study not only investigates the reinterpretation of stylistic urban maps and shows the discoverability of new representation techniques, but also offers a comparison of the use of different image to image translation GAN algorithms.