TestFit: Designing at the Speed of Decision
How a generative feasibility tool reshapes early-stage design, giving architects and developers instant clarity and reclaiming time for what matters most.
Hey Archinnovators,
In the early stages of a project, every architect has faced that awkward pause. The moment when a client asks, “Can we fit it?” and you realize it’ll take days to know for sure. Feasibility studies, once a design bottleneck, are now an opportunity for speed, clarity, and creativity, thanks to tools like TestFit. Built by a designer-developer duo frustrated with traditional timelines, TestFit reimagines what early-stage design can be: immediate, iterative, and deeply informed. It’s not just about faster answers, it’s about smarter beginnings. Let’s dive in!
1. Design Philosophy Meets Business Reality
Imagine standing on a vacant site with a client who wants to know: “Can this work?” Instead of retreating to the office for a week to crunch numbers and run massing studies, you open your laptop and show them answers, right there, on the spot. TestFit bridges the immediacy of design intuition with the rigors of pro forma and code compliance. It turns feasibility into a fast, iterative design conversation, not a slow back-office process.
2. Core Innovation at a Glance
TestFit’s key innovation is generative real estate feasibility - a design configurator that fuses code constraints, unit mixes, parking requirements, and financial metrics into one instant, adjustable model. Think of it like a parametric sketchbook with a calculator built in. You sketch with data, not just lines.
3. Origin Story
TestFit was born from a pain point: its founders, an architect and a developer, were frustrated by how long feasibility studies took and how disconnected early designs were from real-world constraints. They set out to automate the “deal or no deal” phase, using computation not to replace architects, but to give them superpowers at the most critical decision-making moment.
4. The Business Canvas, Simply Explained
Value Creation: Enables rapid site feasibility studies by integrating zoning, parking, unit mix, and financials into one generative model.
Revenue Streams: SaaS subscription model; firms pay for access based on team size or usage.
Key Relationships: Partnerships with data providers (e.g., zoning, parcel data), real estate developers, and architecture firms.
Resource Strategy: Focuses on software development and customer onboarding; invests in user training to help firms fully leverage the tool.
Client Approach: Markets directly to architects, developers, and urban designers who need faster feasibility. Offers webinars, tutorials, and real-time demos to show value.
5. Making It Work Day-to-Day
Architects use TestFit in pre-design or early schematic phases. Instead of spending days drawing parking layouts and tweaking units, they generate dozens of schemes in minutes. The tool becomes a design partner, freeing them to focus on massing logic, urban form, and client alignment. For developers, it slashes weeks off the due diligence phase and lets them engage architects earlier.
6. Trade-offs and Hard Choices
TestFit isn’t a silver bullet. It works best for certain typologies, like multifamily, mixed-use, and parking-heavy developments. Using it requires a mindset shift: trusting algorithms with constraints while still asserting design intent. And yes, some architects worry it commodifies early design, but others see it as reclaiming time for better conversations.
7. Signs of Success
Firms using TestFit report faster project starts, improved collaboration with developers, and reduced redesign cycles. Clients love seeing real options sooner. Internally, teams are freed from repetitive layout tasks and can redirect energy toward design refinement and storytelling.
8. Lessons for Other Practices
Automate the Repetitive to Elevate the Creative: Use tools that free up your team’s time to focus on design quality, not manual labor.
Embrace Constraints as Inputs, Not Limitations: Good design starts with reality. TestFit makes constraints visible and adjustable.
Prototype Early, Often, and With Data: Treat feasibility like a design exercise, not a back-office task.
Invest in Tools That Sell Your Thinking Faster: When you can test and show options live with clients, you become not just a designer, but a strategic partner.
TestFit doesn’t replace the architect, it amplifies their role at the most critical stage of the project. By turning feasibility into a collaborative, design-driven dialogue, it empowers firms to work more fluidly with clients, developers, and data. The lesson is clear: when business tools align with design intent, better architecture happens faster. For practices willing to adopt a new rhythm of rapid iteration and strategic input, TestFit offers not just efficiency, but a blueprint for relevance in a changing industry.