What is a test fit? Definition, process, and why AI changed its economics

What is a test fit?

A test fit is a preliminary space plan that shows how a company's requirements fit onto a specific floor plate: headcounts, team locations, workstations, meeting rooms and support spaces. It is produced before committing to a lease or a design contract, and it answers one question: does this space work for this organisation?

Test fits are prepared by architects, interior designers, design and build agencies, and corporate real estate teams. They sit at the very start of every office project, which is why their speed and quality shape everything that follows.

What does a proper test fit include?

• Capacity: how many people the floor accommodates under the organisation's space standards
• Layout: workstations, meeting rooms, collaboration and support spaces, positioned on the real plan
• Team adjacencies: which departments sit together, and how they connect across the floor or between floors
• Compliance: egress distances, occupancy rules and accessibility requirements checked, not assumed
• Quantities and budget: what the option costs, so it can actually be compared and decided on

A drawing without the counting, the checking and the costing is a sketch, not a test fit.

The traditional economics: days of work you might not get paid for

Manually, each option takes a designer from several days to two weeks: drawing, counting desks, checking egress, doing the take-offs, recosting after every client change. For design and build agencies this work is usually pre-sales, produced free to win a pitch. For corporate real estate teams it means waiting weeks to compare a handful of buildings, with one option per building if they are lucky.

The result of manual economics: decisions get made on the first fit that works, because there is no time or budget to explore alternatives.

How AI test fits work

AI test-fit platforms invert the economics. With Spacefit, the brief goes in: floor plan (PDF or DWG), headcounts, team adjacencies and the organisation's own space guidelines. Minutes later, three compliant layout options come out, single or multi-floor, each with capacity, quantities and budget. The designer explores and refines options; the algorithm does the counting and the checking.

First fit vs best fit

The deepest change is not speed. When options are nearly free to generate, the question moves from does it fit? to which option serves the organisation best? Capacity, adjacencies, compliance and cost can be compared across real alternatives instead of defended on a single drawing. That is the standard Spacefit was built around: not the first fit, the best fit.