The Evolution of Landscape Design Workflow: A 2026 Perspective on AI

The Evolution of Landscape Design Workflow: A 2026 Perspective on AI
As design professionals navigating the digital shift, skepticism towards "efficiency-boosting" tools is natural. However, the recent maturation of Generative AI is reshaping this perspective. After conducting a systematic review of the latest landscape-focused AI tools (utilizing the SUAPP platform as a primary test case), it is evident that intelligent software has evolved from experimental concepts to practical workflow accelerators. This report analyzes ten specific AI capabilities that directly address traditional pain points in landscape architecture, offering an objective roadmap for firms considering digital transformation.

01 Master Plan Design: From Zero to One in Landscape Architecture
Landscape master planning typically demands significant time for conceptual development and form composition. Under traditional workflows, a complete master plan takes at least 1-2 days of labor. Generative AI demonstrates significant potential here. In our testing with the SUAPP AIR module, this timeline was compressed into minutes. By inputting a structured design brief, such as "modern community park master plan with plaza, pathways, and children's play area," the algorithms generated multiple viable concept iterations within 30 seconds.

Option 1

Option 2

Compared to traditional software, the efficiency gains are dramatic. Based on actual tests, the process from concept to a complete master plan has been reduced from several days to just minutes, saving designers significant time on preliminary ideation.

02 Color Plan: Intelligent Color Filling
Creating colored master plans may seem straightforward, but it requires careful consideration of color harmony, material expression, and visual hierarchy. Manual coloring with tools like Photoshop is notoriously time-consuming. New algorithms optimize this process with its AI algorithms. By intelligently analyzing the base drawing, it automatically generates harmonious color schemes. In a test, I applied color to a residential landscape plan—simply by selecting a preferred style from existing examples and adding a few keywords. Instantly, the system produced a coordinated plan featuring lush greens for vegetation, serene blues for water features, and subtle grays for hardscape.

Notably, to achieve different effects, you can select various styles and input different keywords, meeting the needs of diverse presentation scenarios.

03 Urban Renewal & Photo Enhancement: Real-scene Integrated Design
In urban renewal projects, the greatest challenge lies in seamlessly integrating new design proposals with the existing real-world environment. Traditional methods force designers to model over site photos, design, and then render—a time-consuming and technically demanding process.

The "Image-to-Image" capability excels in this regard. After uploading a site photo, the system can automatically generate design proposals that align with the real scene's perspective and lighting—all based on simple text descriptions.

For a test case on renovating an old neighborhood block, I generated multiple redesign proposals in under ten minutes — including options like adding greenery, updating paving, and incorporating street furniture. This significantly improved communication efficiency with clients.

04 Plant Precision Pairing: Balancing Ecology and Aesthetics
Plant arrangement requires balancing ecological habits with aesthetic impact, representing a key professional challenge in landscape design. SUAPP AIR intelligently generates diverse plant combinations based on text input. During testing, I entered the prompt "desert plants, staggered arrangement, design-forward aesthetic." The system promptly produced a complete plant scheme including trees, shrubs, and ground cover, accompanied by detailed plant analysis diagrams with species names.

05 Paving Material Design: Real-Time Material Replacement
Paving material design often requires testing multiple combinations to find the optimal solution. In traditional workflows, each material change involves tedious readjustments to textures and rendering parameters.
SUAPP AIR's "Replace Material" feature simplifies this process. Designers simply select a paving area, choose an alternative from the Material Gallery, and the system instantly generates the updated effect while perfectly preserving lighting and perspective.
I tested different paving schemes for the same courtyard space—switching from granite to wooden decking to eco-friendly permeable bricks. Each material swap was completed within 10 seconds, making comparative design analysis faster and easier than ever.

06 Landscape Furnishing Design: From Concept to Model
Landscape furnishing design typically involves two stages: conceptual sketching and 3D modeling. SUAPP AIR can quickly generate multiple schemes, and the selected design can be directly imported into SUAPP AIM to create a model.
SUAPP AIM is capable of transforming simple 2D images into detailed 3D models. I tested this by uploading a picture of an outdoor seating unit, and within minutes, the system generated an editable 3D model compatible with SketchUp, significantly shortening the journey from concept to model.

For designers less experienced with complex modeling, this feature significantly lowers the technical barrier to 3D representation, allowing greater focus on creative ideation itself.

07 Analysis Diagram Production: One-Click Generation of Diverse Expressions
Landscape analysis diagrams are crucial in design presentations, yet time-consuming to produce. SUAPP AIR's "Creative Editing" function can quickly generate various analysis diagrams such as flow lines, functional zones, and sightline analyses.
I tested converting an aerial view into different types of analysis diagrams. Simply selecting the diagram category and style preference, the system completed the transformation within seconds while maintaining graphic clarity and a professional look.
Especially for designers who frequently prepare presentation documents, this feature enables rapid styling consistency across a full set of analysis diagrams, enhancing the overall professionalism of the materials.

08 Night Scene Lighting Design: Precise Control of Light and Shadow Effects
Night scene lighting design requires professional expertise and extensive experience, with parameter adjustments often being complex in traditional software. SUAPP AIR has been trained on a vast array of professional lighting design schemes, enabling more convenient and rapid light layout and color temperature adjustments.
In testing, I uploaded a daytime rendering of a courtyard scene. After selecting "Night Mode," the system automatically generated a well-reasoned lighting design scheme, including areas for accent lighting, ambient lighting, and functional lighting.
The lighting effect was natural and well-layered, effectively avoiding common beginner pitfalls like over-lighting or uneven illumination. This assists designers in creating professional-grade night scene visualizations.

09 Seasonal Representation: Visualizing the Dimension of Time
Presenting seasonal landscape changes to clients is a common need, but creating four-season visualizations typically involves extensive post-processing work. SUAPP AIR's style transfer feature can generate representations of the same scene across different seasons with a single click.
In a test of a residential courtyard scene, a single operation yielded visualizations for spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The system intelligently adjusted vegetation colors, deciduous conditions, and ambient lighting, producing natural and logical variations.
This feature is particularly valuable for explaining plant seasonal changes to clients or showcasing year-round landscape effects, saving significant time otherwise spent on repeated renderings.

10 Mood Board Generation: A Source of Inspiration in the Early Design Stage
In the early stages of design, collecting and creating mood boards is essential. SUAPP AIC can quickly generate effect images in various styles based on text descriptions, providing inspirational directions for the project.
I experimented by inputting the description: "Zen courtyard, dry landscape, stone lantern, moss-covered." Within moments, the system generated multiple mood images in different styles, each carrying a professional and inspiring aesthetic.
Compared to traditional image libraries, mood boards generated this way better align with specific project needs, avoid copyright issues, and provide design teams with more cohesive visual references.

Conclusion
This systematic review confirms that AI in landscape architecture is no longer futuristic speculation—it is a present-day productivity reality. The value of platforms like SUAPP reflects a broader industry trend: the leap from "static tool" to "intelligent assistant." It does not aim to replace designers but to elevate their role by automating execution. It does not aim to replace designers but instead takes over repetitive and low-efficiency tasks—such as color filling, material replacement, and basic modeling—freeing designers from the quagmire of technical execution. This allows more valuable time and energy to be focused on the most essential aspects: creative ideation and strategic decision-making.
In summary, SUAPP AI represents a clear direction for the digital and intelligent transformation of the landscape design industry. Yet its capabilities extend far beyond that—it also brings revolutionary changes to the fields of architecture and interior design. For architects, it enables rapid conceptual ideation and façade style exploration; for interior designers, it intelligently handles spatial planning and style coordination suggestions. Moreover, SUAPP AI supports the entire schematic design cycle:
● Early Design Phase: Quickly generates multiple conceptual sketches, inspires ideas based on text or images, and efficiently completes preliminary brainstorming.
● Mid-Design Phase: Intelligently refines existing schemes, rapidly modifies renderings, switches between different styles, and facilitates multi-scheme comparisons to support design decision-making.
● Final Design Phase: Assists in documentation preparation and produces high-quality renderings, analysis diagrams, and presentation animations with a single click, significantly improving both efficiency and output quality.
SUAPP AI aims to provide comprehensive, intelligent support for the entire built environment design field through a unified platform, enabling seamless workflows from concept to detail—allowing creativity to flow effortlessly across architecture, interior, and landscape design.