Can AI Draw 2D Architectural Drawings?
Testing Nano Banana 2 to see if AI can generate architectural elevations, diagrams, and sections from a single image.
Shaun McCallum
March 16, 2026I’ve mentioned it a few times already but Nano Banana 2 is a seriously impressive model. It’s almost as good as Nano Banana Pro, about 2× faster, and uses a lot fewer credits. A win in most cases.
I wanted to test how well it could document a project from a single image, specifically whether it could generate architectural drawings and diagrams.
Above is the image I started with.
Timber Home in Scotland
A timber house on a hill with multiple materials and a butterfly roof. I chose it because it has some complexity. Level changes, different materials, windows, and a relationship between front and side elevations.
Not difficult for an architect, but definitely a challenge for a first year architecture student.
First test: elevations
Prompt:
“draw a 2D elevation of this architecture keeping the color as a simple drawing on a white background.”
Then the front elevation:
“draw a 2D elevation of the front face of this architecture where the door and bridge is, keeping the color as a simple drawing on a white background. It's the front elevation”
It does a surprisingly good job.
Next: massing / parti
Prompt:
“create an axonometric diagram of this project showing the massing parti diagram on a white background showing 3 steps left to right”
This worked well. With a bit more prompting you could probably refine these into clearer diagrams.
Finally: section
Prompt:
“based on this architecture create a horizontal 2D section in color through the project on a white background”
This is where it struggles a bit. The drawing is clean, but it doesn’t fully understand the space yet.
The effort to drawing ratio is extremely low, and the outputs are crisp. It still falls short of truly understanding the architecture, but it’s already a very useful tool for diagrams and illustrations.
Try it yourself and show me what you create.
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