TestFit is transforming building feasibility studies by offering real-time generative design to an ever-increasing number of projects - significantly lowering time to market for much needed housing developments
DALLAS, Jan. 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TestFit Inc., the world’s first building configuration software leveraging practical generative design, announces significant growth and customer momentum to further advance its mission to increase the quality and quantity of commodity architecture across the world. Since raising seed capital last year, the Dallas-based startup has doubled its multifamily housing customer footprint by working with more than 150 clients in architectural, real estate developer and general contractor markets who use TestFit’s ultra-efficient solution for rapid design in feasibility studies without the need for generative design programming knowledge.
TestFit’s growth was driven by a number of software innovations, which have increased its addressable market and provided added support for lower density housing, hotels and volumetric modular buildings, structured garage and mixed use retail, and automation for road and infrastructure generation. They have tripled their headcount by hiring more engineers and developers and have further expanded their capabilities by offering clients geographic information systems (GIS) integration for parcel data across the US to increase design accuracy and depth. Optimized for the International Building Codes, TestFit automatically incorporates the intricacies of those codes with compliant life safety, custom zoning profiles and instant reporting of zoning pass/fail.
“The ratio of buildings designed to buildings actually built is currently at about 20:1,” said Clifton Harness, founder and CEO, TestFit. “In a challenging housing market, TestFit is creating more efficiency and less wasted opportunity costs on feasibility studies. Our goal is to provide our clients with the generative design tools to maximize time and resources, which will in turn reduce the housing costs and improve the quality of commodity architecture.”
“Not a week goes by when we have not utilized TestFit to demonstrate to ourselves as well as property owners what might be possible,” said Tom Settle, partner at Paramount Development LLC. “We have a number of properties being negotiated today and those discussions were jump-started using TestFit."
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the move toward more lower density locations. TestFit has the scalability to adapt to the everchanging housing market - specializing in lower density building types such as garden apartments, which currently make up 40 percent of the US market. The level of customization, speed, responsiveness and automation makes TestFit’s kind of generative design easily accessible to better facilitate the construction of more affordable and sustainable residential housing. TestFit is also working on enhancements that will enable zero friction to create more energy-efficient designs.
The current booming housing market has also played a part in TestFit’s growth. With more people on the hunt for a house to own (rather than rent), interest rates at an all-time low, and home inventory levels low across the country, the opportunity to build at a quicker pace due to a shortened design timeframe is appealing to architects, real estate developers and general contractors alike - meeting the demand, quicker and more sustainably. Embracing a data-driven approach to smart urban planning, TestFit has removed barriers in the adoption of generative design in order to expedite the development of much needed housing options. To date, TestFit’s technology has been used in the completion of thousands of feasibility studies, providing opportunity cost savings that can be passed down to their users.
“Our long-term goal is to get to a place in our software development and adoption where we can focus on building out the capabilities to incorporate total cost of ownership analysis, energy analysis, carbon cost analysis, and carbon footprint of shipping,” said Harness. “With this data, we will be able to better inform sustainable building options.”
About TestFit Inc.
TestFit Inc. provides a radically new approach to solving site feasibility studies. Harnessing the concept of co-creation, TestFit combines user knowledge with the power of proprietary AI algorithms into the first building prototyping solution using generative design that produces compliant results in milliseconds. Architects, real estate developers and general contractors rely on TestFit to bring their designs to life in a manner more efficient, sustainable and imaginative than ever before.
Media Contact:
Anya Nelson
Scratch Marketing + Media for TestFit
anyan@scratchmm.com
617-817-6559