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Generate a series of architectural concept images by extracting a single variable (like material) from a prompt and driving it from a separate node. Once the pattern is set up you can swap concrete for rammed earth or translucent glass without touching the rest of the prompt. Time: 8 minutes You’ll need: A Runchat account (free Starter plan is fine)

Open the example workflow

Make a copy of this workflow in your account to follow along.

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1. Drop in a Create node

Open a new workflow. Double-click the canvas and type sdxl to add an SDXL Lightning node. SDXL is fast and cheap, so it’s the right model for this kind of exploration. You’ll swap it for something higher-quality once you find a direction you like.

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2. Write a baseline prompt

Architectural prompts work best when they mention three things:
  1. Subject: what’s in the image
  2. Lighting: golden hour, raking light, overcast, dawn
  3. Rendering style: naming “architectural photography” or a photographer pushes the model toward grounded imagery instead of generic AI aesthetic
Avoid generic adjectives like “cinematic” or “beautiful”. Specific words and named references give the model something to latch onto. For this example, paste in: 
A modernist concrete pavilion at golden hour, raking side light, deep
shadow, architectural photography
Run the node. You’ll get a single image.

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3. Generate variations

One image is rarely enough when you’re feeling out a concept. The variations setting lives on the settings bar at the bottom of the node. Turn it up to 4 and run again. You can page through results in Pages view, or flip to Table view to see them all side by side.

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4. Extract a variable into its own node

Right now the prompt is one lump of text. Swapping “concrete” for “rammed earth” means rewriting the prompt every time. Instead, pull that word out into its own node:
  1. Add a Text Input node and type concrete
  2. Rename its output to material (so it’s clear what it does later)
  3. Click into the SDXL prompt field
  4. Press @ to open the reference picker
  5. Pick the material input, it drops into your prompt as a tag
  6. Edit the prompt so the tag sits where the word concrete used to be
Now changing the Text Input from concrete to rammed earth to translucent glass updates the SDXL prompt automatically. Each value gives you a fresh set of variations without rewriting the prompt. For more on inline references, see Data Referencing and Connecting Nodes.

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5. Drive the variable from an agent

A Text Input is one source. You could swap it for any other node that produces text, including an Agent node that generates a list of materials for you.
  1. Add an Agent node
  2. Set its output format to list in the settings bar
  3. Prompt it: Generate 5 architectural materials for a pavilion. Return a single word or short phrase per item.
  4. Run the agent
  5. In the SDXL prompt, reference the agent’s list output with @ instead of the Text Input
Because the agent’s output is a list, each item becomes a separate run of SDXL. With variations set to 2, a list of 5 items gives you 10 images out of one run.
Drop variations down to 2 when driving from an agent list. Otherwise a list of 5 items at 4 variations each blows out into 20 images per run. See Credits for cost details.

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6. Swap models for the final pass

Once you spot a direction you like, swap the SDXL model for Imagen 4 Fast or Flux 2 Pro for higher-quality output. Keep your prompt and the rest of the workflow, just change the model on the Create node. This is the iterate-cheap-then-finalise pattern, covered in more detail on the Create node page.

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Next steps