AI architecture design from sketches: architects' review by PHM TV

PHM TV is a Korean channel about architecture and building your own home. This episode is a round-table discussion, not a screen-recorded tutorial. The host talks with architects from the studio and an interior designer who used Rendair for one to two weeks on their own projects. They go through the images they made, from early massing studies to finished interiors, and are open about both the benefits and the frustrations. It's worth watching if you want a professional's view of where AI rendering fits in the design process.

What you'll see

1. An overview of the inputs you can start from: text, a hand sketch, a CAD plan or elevation, a photo, or an unrendered 3D view. Style keywords include well-known architects as references.
2. How the creativity slider works, and how a reference image, such as a brick facade, steers materials on a line-only sketch.
3. 3D Model to Render on a SketchUp model of a building with a concrete base and timber structure above. The tool dropped a wall they had emphasized and exposed rafters they meant to hide. Naming the base material, concrete panels, brought it closer.
4. 3D Model to Render on very basic massing for a competition entry. They found these results the most impressive, and the AI even read an unmarked shape as a stair.
5. 3D Model to Render on an apartment interior that already had materials mapped. A bedroom turned into a terrace, and glass blocks became grid doors.
6. Rerunning a finished retail interior at rising creativity. At high values it invented an entire street with cafes and cars.
7. A short mention of Image to Video, which adds gentle movement to a still image.

Takeaways

• They found the tool easy to learn in a day or two. Getting what you want takes practice, like learning which words the AI responds to.
• The strongest use is the early stage: massing studies, quick options for clients, and pictures that help a client or investor decide whether to go ahead. One architect described saving time on a feasibility study for a concert hall.
• On already-detailed designs, the gain was small, and the AI changed set materials and layouts.
• Even at zero creativity, they found it still makes some changes of its own, which they counted as a drawback.
• They warn that it's easy to keep generating without stopping. Showing a polished final image too early can also set client expectations the real project then has to meet.

Try it yourself

Use 3D Model to Render or Sketch to Render on early massing or concept sketches. Name key materials in the prompt and keep creativity low when your design is already fixed.

The video is in Korean.

Recorded with an earlier version of Rendair, so some screens and app names look different today.