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SUAPP AIR: 5 AI Reference Tutorials for Architects

Published: 2026-6-17 09:43| Publisher: 灵犀一指| View: 180| Comments: 0

Every designer knows this:

One good reference image often says more than ten vague sentences.

Words mean different things to different people. But show someone an image, and everything becomes instantly clear—proportions, materials, lighting, composition, design language. All those abstract feelings suddenly make sense.

That's why, in the age of AI, many designers find themselves stuck. They write detailed prompts, yet the results always fall short. The problem usually isn't the words—it's the reference image. In architectural design, a prompt feels like giving instructions; a reference image calibrates the taste.

So how should you use reference images effectively? Let's break down the five most common and powerful ways to feed images in architectural design—once and for all.

01 Facade Transfer

The fastest way to establish a design vocabulary

Many projects go through a phase where the massing is there, the spatial relationships are mostly set, but the facade just doesn't feel right.

Maybe it's too plain.Maybe it's too busy.Or maybe it just lacks character.

At times like this, the most effective move usually isn't staring at the model—it's finding a good reference. Because the hardest part of a facade isn't drawing windows; it's establishing order. fenestration rhythm, solid-to-void ratios, tectonic proportions, material zoning and detail scale… These elements together form a building's design language. And the real power of a reference image is handing that language directly to AI.

Case 1: Urban Office Building DesignSUAPP AIR Tutorial:

● Reference: Image Style

● Style: General-Perspective4

● Prompt: Urban office building with luminous interiors, enveloped by a lush urban park and thoroughfares. Realistic render style. The reference image only applies to the facade of the middle building.

Case 2: Commercial Street Design

SUAPP AIR Tutorial:

● Reference: Image Style

● Render Style: General-Perspective4

● Prompt: None

Case 3: Courtyard Landscape Renovation Design

SUAPP AIR Tutorial:

● Reference: Image Style

● Render Style: Smart Edit-Banana Pro

● Prompt: Courtyard landscape inside a villa wall, remove the wooden deck, open space in the middle of the courtyard. The reference image only applies to the courtyard open space. Reasonably reference and plan the color tone, plants, paving, and water features. The final image should deliver a stunning result.

When using Banana Pro, here's what to look for in a reference image:

● A clear front elevation

● Complete massing logic

● Clear material representation

● Avoid busy backgrounds

The results are usually far more stable than text-only generation.Because it's not guessing what you want—it's understanding the standard you gave.

In design, nothing is harder than working without a reference. Same goes for AI.

02 Atmosphere & Environment Transfer

What often determines the sophistication of a rendering isn't the building itself

The problem with many renderings isn't that the building looks bad—it's that the atmosphere feels off. The over-exposed sunlight makes the environment feel vacant, the sky looks fake, the environment feels empty, and the trees seem like they were dragged in from a stock library. The whole image ends up looking like an underdeveloped presentation.

But in truly great renderings, what grabs you first usually isn't the building—it's the atmosphere. The warmth in the light, the moisture in the air, the story in the scene. These things are hard to describe accurately with words. But a reference image can do it.

Case 1: Urban Hotel

SUAPP AIR Tutorial:

● Reference: Image Style

● Render Style: Smart Edit-Banana Pro

● Prompt: A modern high-rise hotel building in the image, high-end and elegant. Keep the building's original materials. The reference image only applies to the weather tone, material texture, and lighting atmosphere. Glass reflections, transparent and lightweight feel. Rich landscape plants and surrounding environment. A tranquil atmosphere. Clean sky with a blue-white gradient, like an evening background vibe.

Case 2: Fourth-Generation Housing

SUAPP AIR Tutorial:

● Reference: Image Style

● Render Style: Smart Edit-Banana Pro

● Prompt: A fourth-generation modern residential building in the image, high-end and elegant community environment. Keep the building's original materials. The reference image only applies to the color tone, atmosphere, and material texture. Rich landscape plants and surrounding environment. A tranquil atmosphere.

Case 3: Modern Office Building

SUAPP AIR Tutorial:

● Reference: Image Style

● Render Style: Smart Edit-Banana Pro

● Prompt: Urban office building. Strictly preserve existing objects and structure. Isolate and replicate the reference image’s meteorological conditions, volumetric lighting, and color temperature.

You love the stillness in Tadao Ando’s work. You like the reflections in the humid air by the sea. You’re drawn to the warm golden light of a city at dusk. Just feed the image. AI will understand:

● Lighting relationship

● Color temperature

● Landscape mood

● Environmental texture

● Lens language

Then transfer it all into your design.

Architecture defines the structure. Atmosphere defines the soul.Many times, what turns an image from “acceptable” to “worth saving”is exactly this layer.

03 Local Reference

Design isn't about changing everything—it's about precise optimization.

Many designers make the same mistake when they first start using reference images: wanting everything. The facade from this image. The entrance from that one. The canopy detail from another. In the end, it's a mess, and the result feels out of control.

The mature way to use references is locally. Let AI learn just one part. Be precise about what's worth referencing.

Case 1: Urban Hotel

SUAPP AIR Tutorial:

● Reference: Image Style

● Render Style: Smart Edit-Banana Pro

● Prompt: Commercial street. A commercial mixed-use building is shown in the lower-middle part of the image. The reference image only applies to the exterior skin of the lower-middle commercial building. Rich landscape plants, rooftop greenery, a lively atmosphere. The final image should deliver stunning rendering lighting and shadow effects.

If you can clearly describe the local reference range, use the prompt to define it.

Case 2: Urban Hotel

SUAPP AIR Tutorial:

● Step: Editing Mode → Style Reference → Upload Reference → Paint Mask

● Reference: Image Style

● Render Style: Smart Edit-Banana Pro

● Prompt: Commercial street. A commercial mixed-use building is in the center of the image. Keep the building's original structure. The reference image only applies to the exterior skin of the frontmost commercial building in the center. The surrounding environment remains unchanged.

If you can't clearly describe the local reference range, use the local mask painting tool in Reference.

The elegance of this approach lies in keeping your overall design on track while selectively upgrading localized architectural detailing. It's just like refining a design方案—not starting over, but making things more precise at the key points.

Good design optimization isn't about big changes. It's about getting the critical details right.

04 Multi-Image Fusion

Combining the strengths of different images into a brand new solution. This is the most powerful way to use reference images. And it's the closest thing to real design creation.

One image for proportions.One for materials.One for lighting.And another for landscape relationships.

Feed all the strengths into AI at once, and let it blend them together.

Case 1: Coastal Park Landscape S

SUAPP AIR Tutorial:

● Step: Editing Mode → Style Reference → Upload Reference (multiple images separately)

● Reference: Image Style

● Render Style: Landscape-Universal 1

● Prompt: In the central plaza area of Image 1, reference Image 2 for landscape design while retaining the main structure in the middle. Place the installation from Image 3 on the right. Redesign the lawn area in the lower-left corner of Image 1 referencing Image 4 as a leisure plaza with lawn. Rich, layered planting design. Keep all elements in the image harmoniously unified.

At this point, AI is no longer just transferring—it's fusing.It automatically finds the common logic between the references and reorganizes them into a new expression.

This process closely mirrors the typological precedent studies conducted by architects: study many cases, absorb their strengths, and eventually develop their own solution. Only now, the process is dramatically accelerated.

Truly advanced referencing doesn't just copy—it grows something new from the fusion.

05 Material Transfer

Material is the most underestimated part of design. The same massing can feel completely different with concrete, terracotta, metal, glass, or wood veneer. Many schemes don't look premium—not because the form is bad, but because the material language isn't there. That's when a single material reference image becomes essential.

Case 1: Interior Bathroom

SUAPP AIR Tutorial:

● Step: Editing Mode → Style Reference → Upload Reference (multiple images separately)

● Reference: Image Style

● Render Style: Smart Edit-Banana Pro

● Prompt: Image 1 is an interior bathroom scene. Reference the cabinet material from Image 2, the floor tile material from Image 3, and the wall tile material from Image 4. The final image should be realistic and stunning.

It enables the AI to decode:

● Surface micro-textures

● Photometric reflectivity

● Tactile joint/seam scaling

● Chromatic layering

● Patina and aging quality

This is especially efficient when working across architecture, landscape, and interior disciplines. You can even take the same model, feed it three different material directions, and generate three distinct schemes in no time. Scheme comparison becomes incredibly fast.

Material is not surface decoration—it's part of the design language.

06 A Final Thought

In the past, we relied on studying countless cases to build our design judgment. Only after seeing enough did we truly understand what comfortable proportions feel like, what premium materials look like, and what gives a space its character.

Now that AI is here, the approach hasn't really changed. It's just shifted from "you looking" to "showing AI." Every image you feed it tells AI your standard. Over time, it gets closer and closer to your aesthetic sense. And at that point, it becomes more than just a tool—it starts to feel like a design assistant that truly understands you.

The ultimate variable is never the AI itself—it is the vision of the designer who curates the inputs.

All the techniques above can be tried right now in SUAPP AIR and SUAPP AIT. If you've only been using them as rendering tools, that's a bit of a shame. Because once you really open up the reference image feature, you'll find:AI doesn't just draw anymore—it begins to understand design.

Try it yourself: suapp.ai