Apparently, it was Skyscraper Appreciation Day this past week. To mark the occasion, Adobe shared a series of intriguing works imagining the future skylines of several UK cities. And they were all made using the new Photoshop Generative Fill tool.
Generative Fill is powered by Adobe Firefly, one of our choices as the best AI art generator. We've already seen it used to radically transform images, but this project suggests an interesting possible use for architecture.
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London before the AI intervention (click right to see the vision of the future)(Image credit: Andrea Astarita / Adobe)
The London skyline imagined in 2100 using Adobe Photoshop Generative Fill(Image credit: Andrea Astarita / Adobe)
We've already seen people using Photoshop Generative Fill to make all kinds of rapid transformations to images, often completing the kinds of compositions that would previously take hours of work at lightning speed. For this skyscraper project, Adobe challenged Photoshop creator Andrea Astarita to use the tool to imagine what the skylines of five major cities in the UK could look like in the year 2100.
The creative software company noted that with the approval of a new 935-feet skyscraper to be built in London by 2029, iconic skylines look set to radically transform as advances in technology make it possible to build taller futuristic buildings. Whether that's a positive thing may be a matter for debate, because we can see that in Astarita's imaginings, some of the cities look notably darker as new skyscrapers on the skyline block out the sun. Here's a look at Astarita's visions, before and after.
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Manchester today...(Image credit: Andrea Astarita / Adobe)
and in 2100(Image credit: Andrea Astarita / Adobe)
Newcastle before...(Image credit: Andrea Astarita / Adobe)
and after(Image credit: Andrea Astarita / Adobe)
The Glasgow skyline...(Image credit: Andrea Astarita / Adobe)
And how it could look in 2100(Image credit: Andrea Astarita / Adobe)
Belfast in the sunshine(Image credit: Andrea Astarita / Adobe)
And in 2100(Image credit: Andrea Astarita / Adobe)
We've already seen the power of Generative Fill for photo restoration. Astarita's project demonstrates another possible use case, which could allow architects to more quickly test out how ideas for new buildings might look, and the impact they could have on their surroundings. It's a scary thought that more and more city dwellers may spend a lot of their time in permanent twilight if skylines do continue to rise upwards.
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Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.
