Topic: AI-Powered Design Ideation: Midjourney, mnml & Nano Banana
Date: November 22nd, 2025
Time: 12:00 – 19:00 GMT
Format: Online on Zoom
Duration: 1 Session (8 Hours)
Registration Deadline: November 21st, 2025
Total Seats: 50 seats
Difficulty: Beginner-Intermediate
Language: English
Certificate: Yes
General Registration: 100 EUR
Join free: with Full Access membership
Fee For Digital Members: 85 EUR (15% discount available only for Digital Members)
Organized By: PAACADEMY
Tutor: Mohamed Fendi
Recordings: Recordings will be available for all participants afterward indefinitely.
Introduction to AI-Powered Design Ideation:
Imagine being able to transform your imagination into vivid design concepts within minutes. This workshop shows you how. AI-Powered Design Ideation is a hands-on journey into the future of creative design, where artificial intelligence becomes your collaborative partner.
This workshop will explore cutting-edge tools – Midjourney for generating stunning visuals from simple text, Nano Banana for magically editing images with a few words, and harnessing the power of Stable Diffusion in a visual node-based workflow.
These specific platforms were chosen because they represent the forefront of AI in design: Midjourney excels at rapid concept generation, Nano Banana offers intuitive image manipulation, and gives you unparalleled control over AI image outputs.
Whether you’re a student or a seasoned professional, learning these AI-driven techniques will supercharge your creativity and efficiency in the design process.
This Workshop provides practical skills grounded in real-world architectural vision. By the end, you’ll understand why AI tools are becoming indispensable in ideation and how to wield them to bring your ideas to life.
Methodology:
This workshop focuses on conceptual design and ideation across architecture and spatial design. We will delve into creating visionary designs – from futuristic architectural facades and imaginative pavilions to artistic interior scenes or even urban interventions – using a diverse array of AI tools.
You’ll get insight into generative workflows that can be applied to any design typology, with a focus on early-stage concept development.
Using Midjourney, we will generate broad creative visions and mood boards at the click of a button, exploring styles ranging from photorealistic to abstract. Nano Banana, Google’s latest AI image editor, will be introduced as a way to fine-tune and tweak images by simply highlighting parts and describing changes – imagine changing the material or lighting of a render just by telling the AI what you want.
The scope isn’t limited to purely digital workflows: we’ll also touch on integrating AI output with traditional design methods. For instance, we might use SketchUp (optional) to create a quick 3D massing or model and then feed it into our AI tools for further visualization, or take an AI-generated image and interpret its form in a 3D model.
By covering a range of design approaches, from AI-generated imagery to basic 3D modeling, the workshop demonstrates how AI can fit into and enhance your existing design process rather than replace it. Expect a creative, exploratory atmosphere – this is about experimenting with new possibilities in design and finding innovative visual directions for your projects.
We adopt a learn-by-doing methodology that keeps you actively engaged from start to finish. Short lectures and demonstrations will introduce each tool and workflow, but the core of the workshop is interactive practice.
We’ll walk through several distinct AI-driven workflows step by step:
- Text-to-Image Ideation: You’ll start by writing simple text prompts in Midjourney to instantly generate diverse concept images. This workflow helps kickstart the imagination – you can produce multiple ideas in minutes and then zero in on the promising ones.
- Image-to-Image Transformation: Next, we’ll introduce how to build on existing content. For example, you can sketch a rough outline of a building or upload a basic SketchUp model screenshot, and then use Midjourney’s variations to reinterpret and refine that initial idea. This teaches you to guide the AI with a design you’ve begun, marrying human intuition with machine creativity.
- Inpainting & AI Editing: We’ll use Nano Banana’s inpainting capabilities to modify specific parts of images. Is there a detail in your AI-generated render you don’t like? You’ll learn to mask it and change it – perhaps swap out the sky for a sunset, change a facade material, or add trees and people – all by instructing the AI. This workflow is incredibly powerful for iterating and polishing your concepts without starting over each time.
- Diverse Workflow Integration: Throughout, we emphasize that there’s no one “right” way – often the best results come from hybrid workflows. You might start in Midjourney, touch up with Nano Banana, and even loop back to sketching or modeling. We’ll demonstrate how to blend these tools seamlessly to suit different design needs. For instance, one workflow might be generating concept art in Midjourney and then using it as a style reference in Stable Diffusion to apply that style to another shape or model.
- Collaboration and Creative Freedom: For the final project, you will have full freedom to decide whether to work solo or form a small team. We encourage collaboration for those who want to brainstorm together, but individual exploration is equally supported. The instructor will be continuously available to guide and support both individuals and groups as needed.
The workshop is very much hands-on and iterative: try something, see the results, then iterate or pivot to a new approach. We want you to leave not just with cool images, but with a robust understanding of how those images were generated and how you can incorporate these AI techniques into your daily design toolkit.
Every step of the way, real-world tips and best practices will be shared – from crafting effective prompts to dealing with common AI quirks – ensuring you gain practical skills alongside creative confidence.
Key Learning Topics:
- Craft effective prompts in Midjourney for rapid concept generation
- Use Nano Banana for inpainting and AI-powered image editing
- Explore image-to-image and hybrid AI workflows
- Integrate AI with sketches and basic 3D models
- Develop a complete AI-driven concept design
- Gain confidence using emerging AI design tools
Program:
Foundations of AI Creativity
- Inspiration & Overview (Lecture/Demo): Kick off with how AI is transforming design ideation, with examples of architecture and products created using Midjourney and Stable Diffusion.
- Midjourney Hands-on Basics: Set up access and practice prompt-crafting live. Experiment with different prompt styles, from simple descriptive phrases to complex stylistic references, and generate a gallery of concept images. Learn how keywords like “ultramodern,” “wooden pavilion,” or artist names can change outcomes.
- Experimentation & First Project Ideation: Choose a theme (e.g., “futuristic cabin in the woods” or “floating city pavilion”) and apply what you’ve learned. Generate styles and moods in Midjourney, then refine or evolve them.
Advanced Workflows & Final Concept Development
- Advanced Techniques Demo: Explore image-to-image generation and Nano Banana inpainting. Learn to remove objects, change façade styles, and control randomness with seeds for design continuity.
- Integrating SketchUp (Optional): See how simple models can enhance AI workflows. Capture a view of a massing model and feed it into Midjourney to combine spatial geometry with AI-driven aesthetics. (Optional – participants not using SketchUp continue refining with AI.)
- Final Project Work Session: Guided studio time to finalize your concept. Generate last images, edit, or apply style transfers, and assemble your presentation. Work solo or in teams; the instructor will provide feedback and technical guidance. By session’s end, you’ll have a complete set of images or boards representing your AI-augmented design.
- Presentations & Wrap-up: Share your outcomes, discuss effective workflows, and celebrate progress. Open discussion on lessons learned, real-world applications, and tips for continued skill development. Leave inspired and ready to apply AI in future projects.
- Note: The schedule may be adjusted to match the group’s pace, ensuring no one is left behind.
Software:
- Midjourney (Standard membership required)
- mnml.ai
- Nano Banana
Workshop Notes:
- Please ensure you have all the software installed before the workshop starts. Software installation is NOT a part of the workshop.
Instructor:
Mohamed Fendi
Mohamed (Mo.) Fendi is an Architect, Professor, and Design Leader at the forefront of AI and Smart Cities. A RIBA Chartered Architect and CivX Smart Cities Challenge winner, with solid international experience leading transformative projects across hospitality, smart cities, and urban design.
He has delivered landmark developments such as NEOM’s Trojena, Diriyah, and The Line, along with world-class hotels and masterplans across the Middle East and North Africa, and won multiple architectural competitions.
Today, he fuses two decades of design leadership with cutting-edge AI tools like Midjourney, mnml, and Nano Banana, showing how technology and imagination can reshape cities and unleash new dimensions of creativity.
As an educator and practitioner, Mohamed brings a hands-on, exploratory approach, showing how emerging AI tools can unlock creativity, streamline workflows, and expand design possibilities for both students and professionals.
Important Notes:
- The “AI-Powered Design Ideation: Midjourney, mnml & Nano Banana” Studio workshop by PAACADEMY will start at 12:00 (GMT) on Saturday, November 22nd, 2025.
- Total sessions: 1 Session (8 Hours).
- The teaching duration per session will be 8 hours.
- Students will have time for a break between teaching hours.
- Each session and the entire studio will be recorded, and videos will be available for participants just a day after the class for an unlimited time.
- PAACADEMY will provide a certificate of attendance.
- The studio has limited seats. Tickets are non-transferable & non-refundable. Please read carefully before you register.
Topic: AI-Powered Design Ideation: Midjourney, mnml & Nano Banana
Date: November 22nd, 2025
Time: 12:00 – 19:00 GMT
Format: Online on Zoom
Duration: 1 Session (8 Hours)
Registration Deadline: November 21st, 2025
Total Seats: 50 seats
Difficulty: Beginner-Intermediate
Language: English
Certificate: Yes
General Registration: 100 EUR
Join free: with Full Access membership
Fee For Digital Members: 85 EUR (15% discount available only for Digital Members)
Organized By: PAACADEMY
Tutor: Mohamed Fendi
Recordings: Recordings will be available for all participants afterward indefinitely.
