# The Island Exchange — Image Generation Prompt Pack

A structured, copy-paste ready set of prompts for Grok / Gemini / ChatGPT / Midjourney to generate concept renders of the project.

May 2026.

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## How to use this document

Each prompt below is structured for direct copy-paste. Paste the **primary prompt** into the tool, then append the **universal style anchors** and **negative prompt** if your tool supports them separately.

### Which tool to use, honestly

- **Gemini (Imagen / Nano Banana)** — best for architectural realism in 2026, fast, free tier, follows instructions closely. Start here for most images.
- **Midjourney v7** — best for atmospheric/emotional images. $10/month. Use for the hero shot and any image where mood matters more than literal accuracy.
- **ChatGPT (GPT Image)** — best for predictable, prompt-faithful output. $20/month. Use when you want to iterate conversationally.
- **Grok Imagine** — cinematic style, good for video extension. Wrong register for this project's restrained vibe — skip it for stills.

### General rules of thumb

- **Generate 4–6 variations** of each prompt and pick the strongest. AI image generation isn't deterministic.
- **Don't trim the prompts.** They're dense on purpose. Specificity is what stops the model defaulting to generic "civic building near sea."
- **Iterate by editing**, not by starting again. If you have a near-miss, use the tool's "remix" or "vary" feature.
- **Aspect ratios:** in Midjourney use `--ar 16:9`. In Gemini just say "16:9 widescreen format." In ChatGPT just describe it.
- **Reference images:** if your tool supports image-to-image, upload the aerial photo of La Valette (in the website ZIP at `svg/05_site_aerial.jpg`) as a composition reference. This dramatically improves location-fidelity.

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## Universal style anchors

**Append this to every prompt** to keep aesthetic consistency across the whole set:

> *architectural concept render, contemporary civic architecture rooted in coastal vernacular, Channel Islands coastal context, granite and oak and brass material palette, soft natural light, atmospheric and unpretentious, working harbour quality not luxury hotel aesthetic, photographic realism, restrained tonal range of navy blues, warm beiges, brass accents, cream lime render, the building feels like it has been there for 30 years already, photographed on a medium-format camera with natural light, slight film grain, slightly overcast or golden hour light*

## Universal negative prompt

**Append this to every prompt** as a "do not include" list, or paste into the negative prompt field if your tool has one:

> *no glass curtain wall, no chrome, no corporate office building aesthetic, no luxury hotel signage, no resort vibe, no palm trees, no white-rendered Mediterranean villa, no models in business suits as main figures, no AI artefacts, no warped perspectives, no impossible structures, no readable text or logos on the building, no Disney-castle exaggeration, no over-saturated colour, no digital sheen, no fantasy lighting, no cruise ships, no helicopters or drones visible, no styled fashion shoot quality, no influencer aesthetic, no perfect symmetry, no plastic modernism*

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# PART 1 — EXTERIOR & ARCHITECTURAL RENDERS

## IMAGE 1 — Hero Exterior, golden hour, across the bay

**Purpose:** The headline image. Document covers, website hero, social shares.

**Aspect ratio:** 16:9 (widescreen) or 3:2

**Primary prompt:**

> A four-and-a-half-storey contemporary civic building stands on a curved Victorian granite sea wall on the seafront of a small Channel Islands harbour town. The building inhabits the wall — it sits ON the wall, not beside it — with the wall reading as the building's foundation and architectural starting point. The form is dense but disciplined: a main mass of warm cream lime-render and unpolished granite, stepped up at the corner to a circular atrium tower clad in standing-seam patinated bronze, the highest point of the building. The roof is a public terrace with planted edges, timber decking, and a few people seated at a long table. Brass detailing at the cornice line and around the windows. Tall, irregularly-spaced windows, some shuttered in oiled hardwood. Sail-canvas awnings shade a ground-floor café terrace. The sea is teal-green Channel Islands sea at mid-tide, with seaweed-darkened rocks visible. Mid-evening golden light from the west, raking across the granite wall and warming the bronze atrium. A few people walk along the seafront promenade — a couple with a sandy child carrying buckets, a cyclist in lycra, two older women chatting. The view is from across the bay at low tide, perhaps 200 metres distant, slightly raised, looking back at the building with the wooded cliffs of Havelet rising behind it. The neighbouring residential terrace is visible up the hill — a Victorian granite-and-stucco vernacular — and the building reads as belonging to the same architectural family.

**Communicates:** belonging, weight, dignity, place-rootedness. The building looks like it could have been built in 1900 or 2026.

---

## IMAGE 2 — Approach view, pedestrian arriving on La Valette road

**Purpose:** Daily-life view. The building seen from the perspective of someone walking past.

**Aspect ratio:** 4:5 (portrait) or 3:4

**Primary prompt:**

> A pedestrian's-eye view walking south along a curving coastal road in a Channel Islands harbour town. The road is on the landward side; the sea is on the right, beyond a curved Victorian granite sea wall. Approaching, on the right, a four-storey contemporary civic building emerges from the wall. The ground floor is a café — sail-canvas awning over a paved terrace with cast-iron tables, four bicycles racked to railings, a few people sitting outside drinking coffee. A small wooden A-frame sign reads "THE HALF MOON" in restrained lettering. Above, the building rises in cream lime-render with granite framing, with a circular bronze-clad atrium tower at the corner, set back slightly. Tall hardwood-shuttered windows on the upper floors. The roof terrace is partly visible above with planters and a few people sitting at a long timber table. The day is cool, overcast, soft maritime light, low cloud. A person in cycling kit is locking a bike to the railing of "The Dock" — a covered cycle and motorcycle parking slot at street level. A woman with a buggy walks past. The atmosphere is everyday Tuesday morning, not special-occasion.

**Communicates:** approachability, daily use, the café as the front door, the building inviting people in.

---

## IMAGE 3 — Aerial view of the seafront cluster

**Purpose:** Site context. The relationship between Bathing Pools, Island Exchange, and harbour.

**Aspect ratio:** 3:2 or 16:9

**Primary prompt:**

> An aerial drone-style view of a contemporary civic building on the seafront of a Channel Islands harbour. The building sits on a curved Victorian granite sea wall, on a corner site of approximately 696 square metres. To the south, 200 metres along the coast, a recently-restored Victorian sea-bathing pool complex with two oval seawater pools, a wooden sauna structure, a small café, and a pedestrian promenade connecting the two buildings. To the north, the working harbour with sailboats moored, a granite jetty, and a Victorian island fortress (a small castle on a tidal island) visible in the distance. The building itself is four-and-a-half storeys, dense rectangular plan with a circular tower at the seaward corner, public roof terrace clearly visible from above with planters and seating. Cream lime render, granite framing, patinated bronze on the tower. The wider context is a small Channel Islands town with steep wooded cliffs rising inland, Victorian terraced housing in granite and stucco, narrow lanes. The sea is teal-green, low tide exposing seaweed-covered rocks. Cloud cover with patches of sun breaking through. Aerial perspective from approximately 100 metres altitude, looking down at a 60-degree angle.

**Communicates:** the seafront cluster, the relationship between Bathing Pools and Island Exchange, scale within the harbour town.

---

## IMAGE 4 — The inhabited sea wall, close-up

**Purpose:** The architectural commitment to "the wall is the project." Stage 1 reversible interventions.

**Aspect ratio:** 4:3 or 3:2

**Primary prompt:**

> A close-up view along a curved Victorian granite sea wall on a coastal promenade. The wall is approximately 1.8 metres tall on the seaward side, curving gently to the right, made of weathered granite blocks with the irregular hand-cut character of mid-19th-century stonework, lichen-marked and salt-weathered. Carved into the landward side of the wall, at adult sitting height, are a series of timber bench inserts — broad oak boards, oiled and weathered, fitting precisely into rectangular niches in the granite. Brass handrails run along the top of the wall. Brass-rimmed display niches set into the wall hold small archived objects: a fragment of an old fishing net behind glass, a brass ship's plaque, a black-and-white photograph in a recessed frame. Climbing planting (sea pinks, valerian, thrift) softens some of the niches. Two people sit on one of the benches — an older man reading a book with a small dog at his feet. A child crouches examining one of the display niches. Soft morning light. The sea is visible just beyond the wall, calm, mid-tide. The interventions read as carefully reversible — every timber piece could be unbolted and removed without damage to the wall. The wall is the protagonist of the image.

**Communicates:** reversible heritage intervention, archive in granite, the wall as architectural backbone not boundary.

---

## IMAGE 5 — Corner atrium interior, looking up

**Purpose:** The lantern, the mast, the social stair. Light shaft from roof to ground floor.

**Aspect ratio:** 4:5 (portrait, vertical emphasis)

**Primary prompt:**

> An interior view looking up through a circular five-storey atrium in a contemporary civic building. The atrium is approximately 6 metres in diameter, lined in cream lime-rendered walls and oiled oak balconies that run around the perimeter at each floor level. A glass roof at the top floods the space with soft daylight. A spiral staircase in oiled oak with brass handrails wraps around the inside edge, becoming a social stair where people can sit on the steps. Five floor levels are visible from below: ground floor (café, partly visible through an open archway), first floor (workspaces, glimpsed through balcony), second floor (suites, more enclosed), third floor (suites), fourth floor (rooftop access). Brass detailing on the balcony edges, brass uplighters set into the walls. A few people are visible — someone descending the stairs, two people leaning over a balcony in conversation, a child looking up. The light is the protagonist: a column of warm daylight falling through the atrium, casting soft shadows on the cream walls. The view is from the ground floor looking straight up. Clean, spacious, reverential without being austere — a daylight cathedral for everyday civic life.

**Communicates:** the corner atrium as lantern and social heart, vertical openness, light as material.

---

## IMAGE 6 — The Half Moon café interior, the Tide Table

**Purpose:** The café at the heart of the building. Multigenerational mixing.

**Aspect ratio:** 16:9 (widescreen) or 3:2

**Primary prompt:**

> Interior view of a Channel Islands seafront café on a Tuesday morning. The space is open and airy, with cream lime-rendered walls, oiled oak floor, a long communal table at the centre — the "Tide Table" — running about 6 metres long, with bench seating on both sides, sized for 12 people. Brass pendant lights hang above the table. A wooden wall plaque carved with "THE HALF MOON" hangs near the counter. The counter itself is a long granite slab on a base of weathered oak, with brass fittings. Behind the counter, a chalkboard menu lists honest food at honest prices. Tall windows on the seaward side show the curved sea wall and the bay beyond, with soft morning light streaming in. People at the Tide Table: a child of about six is colouring with crayons, sitting next to a 75-year-old man reading a newspaper; further along, a young couple is sharing breakfast; at the far end, a teenager is doing homework with headphones on; an older woman is having coffee with a friend. The atmosphere is unselfconscious, mixed-generation, warm. A buggy is parked in a low-walled nook near the window. Cast-iron coat hooks line one wall. A repair-café notice is pinned to a cork board. No service-charge sign at the till. The light is soft and natural — overcast Channel Islands morning. Photographic, documentary style.

**Communicates:** ambient multigenerational mixing, affordability, the café as civic heart, the Tide Table as architectural commitment.

---

## IMAGE 7 — The roof terrace at sunset

**Purpose:** "The roof is the civic gift." Public roof terrace at the top of the building.

**Aspect ratio:** 16:9 (widescreen)

**Primary prompt:**

> A roof terrace on top of a contemporary civic building on a Channel Islands seafront. The terrace is approximately 200 square metres, with timber decking underfoot, planted edges (sea grasses, lavender, hardy coastal perennials), and a long communal timber table down the centre with mixed seating — bench, chairs, an old steamer chair. A view across the harbour to a Victorian island fortress, the sun setting low to the west, casting long warm shadows. Brass uplighters mark the edges of the terrace. A simple awning of weathered sail-canvas provides shade in one corner. The atrium tower rises through the centre of the terrace, with a glass roof through which warm light glows from below. Around the table: a small group of people having an informal evening event — a 70-year-old in conversation with a 25-year-old, a family with a small child playing on the decking, two cyclists with bikes leaning against a railing, a couple looking at the view. The atmosphere is golden, generous, civic — not exclusive, not styled. A wooden notice on a small post lists today's "public hours" and reminds visitors that "the roof is the civic gift." Late summer evening. The sea below is calm, gold-tinted by the setting sun. Low key audio rather than music — conversations, gulls.

**Communicates:** the roof as civic gift, mixed use, the building open to all.

---

## IMAGE 8 — The Storm Room interior

**Purpose:** The named architectural element for grief, recovery, contemplation. Watching the weather.

**Aspect ratio:** 4:5 (portrait) or 1:1

**Primary prompt:**

> A small contemplative room in a Channel Islands civic building, designed for quiet, grief, recovery, or simple weather-watching. The room is approximately 4 by 5 metres. One entire wall is a tall window framed in oiled oak, looking directly out to a stormy Channel Islands sea — grey waves with white crests, a horizon under heavy cloud, rain on the glass. The other walls are warm cream lime render, with two oak benches built in, layered with thick hand-woven wool blankets in muted tones (grey, navy, oatmeal). A single low timber table holds a flask of water, two simple ceramic cups, and a small brass-bound notebook for visitors to write in if they wish. A woven rush rug on the oak floor. Soft daylight from the window only — no electric light. A single person, an older woman, sits on the bench wrapped in a blanket, looking out at the sea. The atmosphere is held, hushed, dignified — a room for being unwell, bereaved, or simply needing to be alone with the weather. Nothing therapeutic-looking, nothing clinical — it feels like the front room of a house that happens to have a very good view of the sea. Soft, low-saturation tones, slightly cool light, weather-real not romanticised.

**Communicates:** the Storm Room as named civic architecture for difficult human moments. Quiet dignity, not performance.

---

# PART 2 — INTERIORS, MATERIALS & PROGRAMME

## IMAGE 9 — The reading room, weekday late morning

**Purpose:** The everyday quiet civic space. The hour of dedicated quiet work.

**Aspect ratio:** 16:9 or 3:2

**Primary prompt:**

> Interior of a small contemporary civic reading room in a Channel Islands building. The space is approximately 8 by 6 metres, with cream lime-rendered walls and an oiled oak floor. Floor-to-ceiling oak shelves on three walls, filled with books — a real working library, not styled, with paperbacks, hardbacks, used and new, slightly disorderly. A long oak reading table down the centre with brass-shaded reading lamps at intervals, and four leather-upholstered chairs around it. Two armchairs in worn but good leather face the seaward window. The window is tall, framed in oiled oak, looking out to the curved sea wall and the harbour beyond. The sky is overcast — Channel Islands soft daylight. Three people in the room: an older man reading at the long table with a notebook, a young woman in an armchair with a book and a coffee, a teenager at the far end of the table with a laptop and headphones. A small brass plaque reads "Quiet hours, 10:00 to 14:00." A trolley with a kettle, mugs, and a tin of biscuits is in the corner. The atmosphere is studious without being formal, generous without being precious. Photographic, documentary, slight film grain.

**Communicates:** the reading room as a working civic library, used by all generations, soft and inclusive.

---

## IMAGE 10 — The Dock — cyclists and motorbikers' shelter

**Purpose:** Practical civic infrastructure. Not designed for designers — designed for use.

**Aspect ratio:** 3:2 or 16:9

**Primary prompt:**

> A covered ground-floor space in a Channel Islands civic building, sized to function as cycle and motorcycle parking and rider's shelter. The space is open on one side to a coastal road, with a low granite wall and brass-railing barrier. Inside, ten bicycle racks in oiled oak with brass mountings, three of them holding road bikes. A motorcycle (a vintage Triumph) is parked on a dedicated stand. A wash-down station with a brass tap and granite floor has a built-in drain. A small changing-cubicle with a rough-sawn timber door is in the corner, with hooks for jackets. A long timber bench runs along one wall with bike-tools hanging above it on pegboard. A simple chalkboard reads "THE DOCK — riders welcome." A cyclist in lycra is removing his helmet, talking to a motorbiker in leathers. The space is concrete-floored, granite-walled, brass-fitted — utilitarian but high-quality, the materials chosen because they age well and survive water and salt. The sea is visible through the open side. Daytime, soft Channel Islands light. The atmosphere is welcoming-utilitarian — the kind of place where someone in muddy cycling kit can sit down without feeling out of place.

**Communicates:** practical civic infrastructure, the building serving real users with real needs (riders coming in off the road), the materials honesty.

---

## IMAGE 11 — Material palette study (close-up still life)

**Purpose:** A composed image showing the building's material language. For the Building page.

**Aspect ratio:** 4:5 or 1:1

**Primary prompt:**

> A composed material palette study, photographed as a still life on a granite slab in soft natural light. Six materials arranged on the slab, each labelled with a small brass plaque: a rough-cut block of weathered granite (lichen-marked, hand-tooled); an oiled oak board (warm honey tone, visible grain); a polished brass strip (with the slightly-tarnished patina of age, not the gleam of new brass); a piece of weathered bronze sheet (dark green-brown patina); a sample of cream lime render (textured, hand-applied); and a folded square of weathered sail canvas (off-white with a slight ochre stain). The slab is on a workbench beside an open coastal window, soft Channel Islands daylight slanting in. The materials are arranged not too neatly — like a working architect's table, not a styled product photo. A pencil and a small sketchbook lie at the edge. The atmosphere is craft, restraint, materials chosen because they earn their place over decades. Photographic, slightly desaturated, film-quality colour.

**Communicates:** the material discipline, restraint, materials that age well in coastal exposure.

---

# PART 3 — MULTIGENERATIONAL LIFESTYLE SHOTS

These are the human-presence images that support the multigenerational claim. Each focuses on one generation in genuine use of the building.

## IMAGE 12 — Saturday morning storytime

**Purpose:** Children and parents using the reading room. The 3-year-old at storytime.

**Aspect ratio:** 4:3 or 3:2

**Primary prompt:**

> A Saturday morning scene in the reading room of a Channel Islands civic building. A small group of children, ages 3 to 7, sit cross-legged on a thick wool rug on an oak floor, gathered around a librarian (a woman in her 40s) who is reading from a children's picture book. Behind her is a wall of oak bookshelves. The children are absorbed — one is leaning forward to see the book, another is sitting in a parent's lap. A few parents (mothers, a father, a grandmother) sit on low benches at the back, holding coffee cups. A buggy is parked against a wall. Tall windows on one side show soft Channel Islands morning light coming in. The walls are cream lime render, the floor oak, the rug muted tones. A few drawings made by previous storytime children are pinned to a cork board on the wall, slightly dog-eared from use. The atmosphere is warm, lived-in, public — not styled, not performative, just an ordinary good Saturday morning that lots of families come to.

**Communicates:** children belonging in the building, daily multigenerational use.

---

## IMAGE 13 — The youth zone, Tuesday afternoon

**Purpose:** Teenagers using their dedicated space. The 16-year-old who has nowhere else to be on a wet Tuesday.

**Aspect ratio:** 16:9 or 3:2

**Primary prompt:**

> A youth zone in a Channel Islands civic building on a wet Tuesday afternoon in February. The space is approximately 8 by 6 metres, with raw timber walls, an oiled oak floor, large windows looking out at heavy rain on the sea. The room has the slightly-shabby, lived-in quality of a teenage space — comfortable but not styled. A couple of beat-up sofas in worn olive-green leather. A long bench-table along one wall with USB-C charging at every seat and a printer. A bookshelf with a mix of books, board games, and a pile of well-thumbed magazines. A small acoustic-isolated music practice room is visible through a glass-paned door, with a battered upright piano inside. About six teenagers, ages 14–17, are scattered around: two on a sofa with their phones, one at the bench-table doing homework, one with a guitar in the corner, two having a casual conversation. None are styled — they look like real Guernsey teenagers. A small chalkboard near the door reads "Youth Council meeting Thursday 4:30." A poster for an upcoming gig is pinned up. No supervising adult is visible. The atmosphere is unselfconscious — they are not under surveillance, they are just hanging out. The light is grey-soft from the rain.

**Communicates:** the youth zone as genuine teen space, not surveilled, real teenagers in real use.

---

## IMAGE 14 — Friday morning film club

**Purpose:** Older adults gathering. Tuesday/Friday programmes for the 75-year-old.

**Aspect ratio:** 16:9

**Primary prompt:**

> Interior of a small civic auditorium / civic room in a Channel Islands building, set up for a Friday morning screening. The room seats about 40, in a mix of comfortable chairs (some upholstered armchairs at the back, padded folding chairs in the front rows). The screen is at the front, currently showing the title card of a black-and-white classic film (vague, not legible). The audience is mostly older adults — people in their 70s and 80s, with a few people in their 60s and one or two younger. A trolley by the door has coffee, tea and pastries. A few people have just arrived and are taking off coats. Two women are chatting in a corner. A man with a walking stick is being shown to a seat by a younger volunteer. Brass-shaded wall lights are dimmed. Small chalkboard at the entrance reads "10:30 — Film Club — Coffee & Pastry £4." Cream lime walls, oak floor, the atmosphere warm and slightly faded — not styled, not modern-corporate. The light is mostly from the screen and the side wall lights. Documentary-style, photographic.

**Communicates:** older adults using the building regularly, the film club as social anchor against loneliness.

---

## IMAGE 15 — The repair café, Saturday morning

**Purpose:** Intergenerational mixing. Older adults teaching younger adults to fix things.

**Aspect ratio:** 3:2 or 16:9

**Primary prompt:**

> Interior of a community repair café in a Channel Islands civic building on a Saturday morning. The space is set up for repair: four long workbenches arranged around the room, each with tools laid out — screwdrivers, soldering irons, a sewing machine, fabric scissors, glue. About 15 people are gathered: at one bench, an older man (70s) is showing a young woman (20s) how to rewire a lamp, both leaning in over the work. At another bench, an older woman is helping a teenager mend a tear in a denim jacket using the sewing machine. At a third, two children watch a man (40s) take apart a kettle. A coffee station in the corner has a kettle and a tin of biscuits. A chalkboard reads "BRING IT IN, FIX IT FREE — Saturday Repair Café." Items waiting to be repaired are stacked on a side table: a wooden chair with a broken leg, a cardigan, a toaster, a ceramic mug being glued. The atmosphere is warm, focused, busy. Cream lime walls, oak floors, the workshop feel of a useful place. Soft natural light from a tall window on one side. Documentary style, no styling — real people, real tools, real broken things.

**Communicates:** the repair café as the strongest intergenerational mixing event — practical, useful, mutual exchange of skills.

---

## IMAGE 16 — The memory café, Wednesday afternoon

**Purpose:** People living with dementia and their carers. The 90-year-old hearing the song her father used to sing.

**Aspect ratio:** 4:5 or 3:2

**Primary prompt:**

> A monthly memory café session in a Channel Islands civic building, on a Wednesday afternoon. The civic room is set up for it — round tables of 4 to 6, with vintage tea cups and saucers, a plate of biscuits on each table. About 20 people are present: older people living with dementia (in their 80s and 90s) seated with their carers — a daughter with her mother, a husband with his wife, a son with his father. A volunteer is playing soft music from the 1940s and 1950s on a small upright piano in the corner — the music dementia patients respond best to. One older woman is smiling, perhaps recognising the tune. Her daughter, sitting next to her, is watching her face with quiet emotion. A trained volunteer host moves between the tables. The walls are cream lime render, with framed photographs of old Guernsey on the walls — the past visible in the present. Daylight from a window on one side, soft and warm. The atmosphere is unhurried, dignified, gentle — held space for an emotionally significant hour. Nothing institutional, nothing clinical. Just an afternoon in a beautiful room with music, tea, and care.

**Communicates:** the memory café as the most important commitment — proof that the building serves the most vulnerable not as charity but as design.

---

# PART 4 — CONTEXTUAL & DETAIL SHOTS

## IMAGE 17 — Public Benefit Meter, atrium gallery

**Purpose:** The moral dashboard. The live reporting of the building's outputs.

**Aspect ratio:** 4:5 or 1:1

**Primary prompt:**

> A close-up of an architectural display in a circular atrium gallery in a contemporary civic building. The display is mounted on a cream lime-rendered wall, framed in oiled oak with brass corner fittings. It is a "Public Benefit Meter" — an analogue-feeling live display showing the building's social outputs in real time. Brass dials and small electronic numerical readouts (like an old factory tally board, but elegant) report figures: "Room nights sold this month — 142", "Community hours this month — 87", "Therapy sessions subsidised — 23", "Youth sessions hosted — 31", "Local supplier spend YTD — £284,000", "Innovation Fund grants made — 4". Each label engraved on small brass plaques. A small explanatory plaque at the bottom reads: "Updated daily from operator data. The moral dashboard of the building." Two visitors stop to read the meter — an older woman with reading glasses, a teenager looking up from his phone. Soft natural daylight from above. Photographic, slightly close-up, the display the protagonist.

**Communicates:** transparency, accountability, the public-benefit promise made tangible. The meter as architectural element, not screen.

---

## IMAGE 18 — Storm-tide, building withstanding weather

**Purpose:** Coastal resilience. The building during a winter storm. Counter-balance to the golden-hour image.

**Aspect ratio:** 16:9 (widescreen) or 3:2

**Primary prompt:**

> A four-and-a-half-storey contemporary civic building on the seafront of a small Channel Islands harbour town, photographed during a winter storm at high tide. Heavy grey clouds, horizontal rain, white-crested waves breaking against the Victorian granite sea wall and sending plumes of spray ten metres into the air, visible against the building. The building stands solid against the weather — granite, cream lime render, patinated bronze atrium, hardwood shutters closed on the seaward windows. Warm yellow light glows from the ground-floor café windows behind the storm. A few brave figures are visible: a sea-swimmer running along the promenade, two older women in waterproofs, a cyclist taking shelter under the café awning. The roof terrace is empty, the planters tied down. The materials of the building are doing their job — repelling water, weathering visibly, designed for sixty winters of this. The view is from the seafront promenade, mid-distance, looking up at the building. Late afternoon, the storm darkening early. Atmospheric, weather-real, slightly dramatic but not romanticised.

**Communicates:** the building as coastal resilience made architectural — not a Mediterranean fantasy but a working harbour building that can take the weather.

---

## IMAGE 19 — Construction phase aerial

**Purpose:** Phase 1 underway. Construction logistics in evidence. For Section 16a of the IM.

**Aspect ratio:** 3:2 or 16:9

**Primary prompt:**

> An aerial view of a construction site on a Channel Islands seafront, mid-build. The site is approximately 696 square metres on a corner plot beside a curved Victorian granite sea wall. Construction is well underway — the first three storeys of structural frame are visible (a hybrid of timber and steel), wrapped in scaffolding and weather-proofing membrane. A tower crane is centred on the site. A site management hoarding faces the road, with information boards visible. Construction vehicles are organised on a tight site, with materials neatly stacked. Adjacent to the site, the road is partly closed but pedestrian access along the seafront is maintained — a temporary timber walkway with handrails routes pedestrians around the work. A contractor in high-vis is talking to two architects in a corner. Dust suppression sprays are running. The Bathing Pools are visible in the distance, undisturbed, with their own café operating normally. Soft midday light, mid-spring. The atmosphere is well-organised, considerate construction — not a chaotic site, but the site of a project that has thought about its neighbours.

**Communicates:** construction logistics, the project's commitment to a considerate-constructor approach, the wider context preserved.

---

## IMAGE 20 — Opening day

**Purpose:** Civic launch. The day the building opens. The community arriving.

**Aspect ratio:** 16:9 (widescreen)

**Primary prompt:**

> Opening day at a contemporary civic building on a Channel Islands seafront. A weekend morning, late spring. The seafront in front of the building is busy — perhaps 200 people gathered on the promenade and around the café terrace, a mix of all ages: families with small children, older adults, teenagers, cyclists, sea-swimmers in dryrobes coming up from the Bathing Pools, dignitaries (a few States members, a deputy bailiff), the local press, neighbours from the residential terrace up the hill. A long bunting of recycled sail canvas in muted ochre and navy strung across the café terrace. A small wooden lectern set up in front of the building. A young person from the Youth Council is speaking, with the project team standing behind — five people, named the originators of the project. The crowd is listening, some clapping. The building behind them is open — front doors flung wide, the atrium glowing through the entrance, a banner reading "WELCOME — THE ISLAND EXCHANGE — La Valette." Soft sun, light breeze, gulls overhead. Documentary-style, not styled — the real opening of a real civic building, on a real Saturday morning. The atmosphere is warm, considered, civic — proud but not triumphant.

**Communicates:** the moment the building enters the island's life. Multigenerational, civic, modest.

---

# PART 5 — TIPS FOR ITERATION

When the first render isn't quite right, here are the most common adjustments:

**If the building looks too modern / corporate:**
Add to prompt: *"the building has weathering, soft edges, materials that have been touched by salt and sun for years; not pristine, not new, not corporate"*

**If it looks too "Mediterranean villa":**
Add: *"this is a Channel Islands building, not a Mediterranean one — granite and cream and bronze, not white stucco; under maritime cloud, not strong sun; the sea is teal-grey, not turquoise"*

**If the people look like a fashion shoot:**
Add: *"the people are real Guernsey islanders going about ordinary daily life, not models, not styled, not in business suits, not in resort wear; their clothes are practical, slightly rumpled, real"*

**If the atrium / interior looks too sleek:**
Add: *"warmer, lived-in, with the patina of use; oak that has been walked on for years, brass that has been touched by hundreds of hands, lime render that has had a few small chips repaired by hand"*

**If the sea looks tropical:**
Add: *"the sea is North Atlantic / English Channel — teal-grey, sometimes green-blue, with seaweed and rocks; cool light, not warm light"*

**If the scale feels wrong:**
Add: *"the building is approximately 4–4.5 storeys, modest for a city but tall for this seafront; in proportion to the Victorian terrace up the hill behind it, not towering above it"*

**If text/signage appears garbled:**
This is an AI limitation. Either:
- Accept the garbled text and crop it out
- Use Ideogram (free tier) for any image that needs readable text
- Add: *"any signage should be plain wood with hand-painted lettering, simple and small"* — this often produces less garbled-looking text

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# DELIVERABLES CHECKLIST

If you generate the full set, you'll have:

- 1 hero exterior (Image 1)
- 1 approach view (Image 2)
- 1 aerial cluster (Image 3)
- 1 inhabited sea wall (Image 4)
- 4 architectural interiors (Images 5–8: atrium, café, roof, Storm Room)
- 3 programme interiors (Images 9–11: reading room, The Dock, materials)
- 5 multigenerational lifestyle (Images 12–16: storytime, youth, film club, repair café, memory café)
- 4 contextual/detail (Images 17–20: Benefit Meter, storm, construction, opening day)

**Total: 20 images** — enough for a complete project visual identity.

For the website and social shares, the priority order is: 1, 6, 7, 12, 14, 16, 4, 2 (in roughly that priority).

For the Information Memorandum, the priority order is: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 4, 11, 18, 19 (architectural emphasis).

For the 2-page Pitch, just the hero (Image 1).

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*The Island Exchange — May 2026*
*This prompt pack is part of the project's communications kit.*
