Prompt templates

The following templates are designed to be edited, not used verbatim. Each one is a deliberately verbose, well-structured first prompt that you should trim and customise before sending to your AI tool of choice (we used floorplanai.net when testing the examples in this guide).

Each template follows the same five-part structure:

  1. Context sentence describing the project type.

  2. Footprint and total area.

  3. Required rooms with target sizes.

  4. Adjacency rules (which rooms must be next to which).

  5. Non-negotiable constraints specific to your situation.

Studio apartment (25-40 sqm)

Design a single-room studio apartment of approximately 32 square metres in a rectangular footprint twice as long as it is wide. Include one bathroom of at least 4 square metres, a kitchenette along the short wall opposite the entrance, and a sleeping area separated from the living area by a half-height storage divider rather than a full wall. The main window should be at the far end from the entrance so that natural light reaches the deepest part of the space. Keep at least 1.2 metres of clear corridor between the entrance door and the bathroom door.

One-bedroom apartment (45-70 sqm)

Design a one-bedroom apartment of approximately 55 square metres on a roughly square footprint. Include a separate bedroom (minimum 11 square metres) with its own door, one bathroom accessible from a short corridor rather than directly from the living space, an open-plan kitchen and living area, and a small entrance hallway with space for a coat cupboard. The bedroom and living area should each have at least one exterior window. The kitchen should be along an internal wall so the better-lit walls can host the living area and the bedroom.

Two-bedroom family flat (70-95 sqm)

Design a two-bedroom family apartment of approximately 80 square metres on a rectangular footprint. Include a master bedroom (around 14 sqm) with built-in wardrobe, a second bedroom (around 10 sqm) suitable for a child, one main bathroom and one smaller guest WC, an open-plan kitchen-dining-living area, a small utility cupboard for a washing machine, and an entrance hallway. The two bedrooms should share a wall to keep plumbing for the bathroom centralised. The living area should face the longer exterior wall.

Three-bedroom family house (110-140 sqm)

Design a single-storey three-bedroom family home of approximately 125 square metres on a rectangular plot oriented east-west. Include a master bedroom with en-suite at the east end, two children’s bedrooms sharing a family bathroom at the west end, an open-plan kitchen and dining area opening onto the south garden, a separate living room near the entrance, a small home-office or study niche, a laundry room next to the bathrooms, and an entrance hall with coat storage. Place the kitchen, bathrooms and laundry along a single plumbing wall to simplify construction.

Accessory dwelling unit (ADU, 30-50 sqm)

Design a detached accessory dwelling unit of approximately 40 square metres on a rectangular footprint. Include one bedroom (minimum 9 sqm) that is visually separated from the living area but does not require a long corridor, one full bathroom with shower, a kitchenette suitable for cooking simple meals, and a combined living-dining area with space for a two-seater sofa and a small dining table for two. Include a built-in storage wall opposite the kitchenette. The unit should have an entrance door and at least two windows on different walls for cross-ventilation.

Small open-plan office (40-80 sqm)

Design a single-tenant open-plan office of approximately 60 square metres on a roughly square footprint. Include an open work area with space for six desks, one enclosed meeting room (minimum 8 sqm) with a glass partition wall, one small phone booth (around 2 sqm) for private calls, a kitchenette with seating for four, one accessible bathroom, and an entrance area with space for a coat rack and a small reception desk. The work area should have the best natural light; the meeting room and phone booth can sit along an internal wall.

How to adapt a template

When you copy a template, change three things first:

  1. Total area to your actual footprint.

  2. Orientation (replace “south garden”, “east end” with the directions that match your site).

  3. One specific constraint that matters to you, written as a single short sentence at the end.

Leaving the rest of the wording intact gives the model enough structure to produce a coherent first draft.