Held earlier on the 24 January morning and co-hosted with Google Developer Group Hong Kong (GDGHK), the ArchiTech Hackathon was a first of its kind 3-hour collaborative event that brought together 40 architects, developers and students — half from the HKIA Young Architects Group (YAG) and half from GDGHK — to explore how AI can support architectural workflows. The participants learned to use Google’s Gemini model and no-code platforms to build AI agents for architectural design code compliance,

Led by Mr. Frankie Wu from GDGHK, Ms. Adeline Chan and Ar. Owen Lam, Executive Curators of UABBHK 2025, the event embodied UABBHK’s vision by fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration between the tech and design communities, showcasing AI as a practical and imaginative tool for the built environment.

The winning team is Mr. Eric Chan and Ar. Toby Chiu. They successfully built the AI ​​agent for the competition in an astonishing time of 3 minutes, 56.32 seconds within a 60 minutes timeframe, and, being able to answer 10 questions, as required by the competition, completing the complex professional architect exam questions with 90% accuracy under four minutes.

1. Executive Summary

The "ArchiTech Hackathon: Bridging Architecture and AI" is a 3-hour collaborative event co-hosted by GDG Hong Kong and the Urbanism\Architecture Bi-city Biennale (UABB). This in-person hackathon will bring together architects, developers, and students to solve real-world design challenges using Google's AI tools, creating meaningful connections between Hong Kong's tech and design communities during the closing phase of UABB.

2. Event Details

Format: in-person hackathon
Date: January 24, 2025 9am - 12nn
Location: Hong Kong Institute of Architects office, 19F, One Hysan Avenue, Causewaybay
Workshop Leader: Frankie Wu (GDG HK)
Participants: 20 YAG members + 20 GDG HK community 

3. Objectives

• Introduce AI tools to architects and designers through hands-on learning

• Enable developers to apply technical skills to architectural challenges

• Foster networking and collaboration between tech and design communities

• Extend UABB's impact through practical, future-focused programming

4. Event Structure

Introduction (20 min): UABB theme and challenge briefing

AI Workshop (40 min): GDG-led session on AI Agents for Architects: From Prompt to Automated Design Assistant with Gemini

Objective: To introduce participants to prompt engineering with Gemini and demonstrate how to build a no-code AI agent for architectural tasks.

Introduction: The Rise of AI Agents in Design (5 min)

• Briefly define AI Agents and their relevance to architectural workflows.

• Introduce Gemini as the AI model and a no-code platform (e.g., Dify) for agent creation.

Demystifying Prompt Engineering for Agents (10 min)

• Explain core prompt engineering concepts (Role, Goal, Constraints, Output Format).

• Live demo: Crafting an effective "System Prompt" for an architectural agent within the no-code platform.

Building & Interacting with a No-Code Architectural Agent (20 min)

• Live demo: Setting up a basic agent (Gemini integration, multimodal input enablement).

• Interactive demo:

  • Text-based query: Agent provides architectural considerations for a specific context.

  • The multimodal query feature enables the agent to utilize Nanobanana to generate images from a provided database and specified requirements, ultimately compiling them into a formal proposal.

Cloud credits from Google may be provided to participants.

2 people in a group, recommended to mix

Wrap-up & Next Steps for Hackathon (5 min)

• Recap the power of Gemini + no-code agents for rapid prototyping.

• Connect workshop content directly to hackathon challenges and encourage immediate application.

Team Hackathon (60 min): Collaborative problem-solving with mentors

Presentations & Awards (20 min): Team showcases and judging

• Participants

• Finalists (5)

• Winner