AI for Decision-Making in Urban Planning

Introduction The Masterclass is organized together with the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalunya (IAAC) IAAC is a global pioneer in the intersection of technology, architecture, and urbanism, with a mission to envision the future habitat of our societies and build it in the present. Founded in Barcelona, IAAC has established itself as a leading center for research, education, and innovation in advanced architecture, urban planning, and design. With a strong technological focus, IAAC explores how data-driven analytics, artificial intelligence, and digital fabrication can transform the way we design, plan, and inhabit our built environment. IAAC is Education, offering pioneering master programmes that train the next generation of architects, urbanists, and changemakers to harness AI, computational tools, and ecological design. Through hands-on learning models IAAC empowers students and professionals to apply global agendas to local contexts with transformative impact.

IAAC is Innovation, home to Fab Lab Barcelona, the first and most advanced digital fabrication laboratory in the EU, and Green Fab Lab, the world's first digital fabrication lab focused on self-sufficiency. These facilities lead the way in prototyping urban futures, developing solutions that integrate digital manufacturing, urban analytics, and regenerative systems design.

IAAC is Research, with active participation in numerous European-funded and international projects that explore the future of architecture, cities, and the built environment. These projects investigate new applications of AI, circular economy strategies, and climate-adapted urban design, positioning IAAC at the forefront of applied research for regenerative, resilient cities.

IAAC is Community, a hub connecting hundreds of researchers, educators, institutions, and companies worldwide. For over 20 years, IAAC has built a reputation as an open, experimental, and radical foundation that thrives on collaboration. Inspired by Barcelona-a city known for its innovation in design and urban planning-IAAC links local excellence with global networks, advancing knowledge at the cutting edge of technology, ecology, and society.

Today, IAAC is recognized as a world leader in integrating artificial intelligence, data-driven planning, and ecological urban design-continuously developing solutions for zero-carbon neighborhoods, circular economies, and regenerative futures.

Workshop Overview

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping every sector-but urban planning often lags behind, caught between hype and hesitation. Designed for a wide range of urban professionals, this workshop will cut through the noise around AI and focus on applying it meaningfully to pressing, context-specific urban challenges. Beyond treating AI as a futuristic abstraction, participants will learn-by-doing: using no-code AI platforms to map, analyze, and design urban scenarios that directly respond to pressing issues-water scarcity, waste management, mobility, food security, and climate resilience. The workshop will combine high-level framing (what AI means for cities) with hands-on prototyping (how AI can be used today). The aim is for participants to gain new insights, as well as actionable workflows, templates, and prototypes that can be adapted to their own practice.

Why this Matter Now

Cities like Riyadh, undergoing massive transformation at record speed, cannot afford business-asusual planning methods. AI presents a unique opportunity to bridge fragmented data into integrated planning scenarios while forecasting urban growth impacts in real time. It also opens possibilities for accelerating decision-making with evidence-based recommendations, ensuring technology adapts to context. 

In a time when urban projects risk being prestige-driven rather than resource-sensitive, AI offers a way to move from spectacle to strategy.

Hands on Workshop 

The centerpiece of the session is a hands-on, problem-driven workshop where participants apply no-code AI tools directly to real challenges in Riyadh and other rapidly transforming cities. Participants will work in thematic groups, each tackling one pressing issue of contemporary planning, using AI to generate scenarios, test trade-offs, and propose data-driven, circular, and equitable strategies.

Workshop Categories

1.Mobility – Designing Zero-Carbon Transport Futures

AI will be used to simulate traffic flows, multi-modal networks, and last-mile connections, helping participants explore pathways toward zero-carbon neighborhoods and climate-neutral mobility. Scenarios will address congestion reduction, public transport optimization, 10-minute city models and pedestrian-friendly infrastructures.

2. Urban Regeneration & Nature-Based Solutions (NBS)

Participants will use AI to map underused or degraded areas and propose regenerative interventions that integrate nature-based solutions-from green corridors to water-sensitive urban design. This stream emphasizes circular and ecological urban planning, where waste and resources are cycled locally, and regeneration is aligned with planetary boundaries.

3.Public Space & Densification – Ecologies of Access and Equity

This topic will explore how AI can evaluate the availability, accessibility, and quality of public space as density increases. Participants will understand how AI can help design microclimates and increase public space accessibility through ecological performance, and resilience.

4.Environmental Analytics – Climate-Adaptive Cities

Environmental analytics will be focused on understanding how AI-based environmental analytics can be deployed to simulate heat islands, water scarcity, energy use, and air quality in urban environments. The challenge is to design zero-carbon and climate-adapted neighborhoods that balance comfort, resilience, and efficiency. This topic links building-scale design with city-scale systems, using AI to inform both policy and spatial planning decisions.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the masterclass, participants will:

• Understand how AI can support circular, regenerative, and equitable urban planning.
• Identify useful AI tools (beyond the hype) for city-making in both data-rich and data-poor
• contexts.
• Apply no-code AI platforms to map urban flows and test planning scenarios.
• Prototype interventions linking AI insights to urban metabolism (water, waste, food, energy).
• Translate AI-generated outputs into actionable planning and policy recommendations.

Workshop Structure

Day 1 – Framing and Exploration

• Opening & Framing – AI in urban planning: opportunities, limitations, and trends.
• Urban Challenges Overview – Key themes in global and regional contexts.
• AI Methods & Tools Crash Course – Introduction to accessible, no-code AI platforms for mapping, scenario testing, and generative design.
• Practical Examples – Case studies showing AI in action for urban resilience, mobility planning, and environmental strategies.
• Idea Generation – Group brainstorming on possible applications for the workshop challenges.

Day 2 – Application and Prototyping

• Hands-On Development – Teams refine their ideas into working prototypes using pre-built datasets and no-code AI tools.
• Scenario Testing – Adjusting parameters to explore different outcomes and trade-offs.
• Implementation Strategy – Translating prototypes into real-world workflows for urban projects.
• Presentations & Feedback – Sharing results with peers and facilitators, discussing future potential.

Material Requirements

Each participant must have a laptop and access to accounts of ChatGPT Pro, Canvas, Midjourney and other software to be defined upon confirmation of the workshop and according to the number of participants.

Application Form for Masterclass Participants→

Workshop Experts

Areti Markopoulou Academic Director

Angelos Chronis MaAI Director

Jan Bunge MaAI Executuve Advisory Board

Serjoscha Duering AI expert

The submission deadline is 27th of October. All participants who would like to take part in the Masterclass must be registered for the Congress. For any inquiries related to the Masterclass, please contact ISOCARP Executive Board Member Markus Appenzeller at appenzeller@isocarp.org.