ARCHITEChTURES: AI-Powered Building Design and Space Planning Platform

Most AI tools in architecture focus on one slice of the design process. Some generate floor plan layouts. Others handle massing or feasibility analysis. ARCHITEChTURES takes a different approach. It covers the full building design pipeline from site definition through massing, floor plan generation, structural grid layout, and BIM-ready export, all within a single cloud-based platform. Instead of optimizing one step, it connects every step so that changes at the massing level cascade automatically into updated floor plans and structural systems.

This guide covers what ARCHITEChTURES does, how the end-to-end workflow operates in practice, the parameter controls available at each stage, residential and mixed-use project applications, BIM export capabilities, how it compares to tools like Finch 3D and TestFit, pricing, limitations, and practical advice for integrating it into your existing design process.

What ARCHITEChTURES Does

ARCHITEChTURES is a cloud-based AI platform that generates complete building designs from a set of input parameters. You start with a site boundary and project requirements, and the system produces 3D building massing, floor plan layouts for every level, structural grid placement, and exportable models in IFC and other BIM formats. The entire process runs in the browser with no local software installation required.

The core idea is that building design involves deeply interconnected decisions. The shape of the building envelope determines what floor plates are possible. Floor plate geometry constrains room layouts. Room layouts affect structural column placement. Structural grids influence floor plan efficiency. ARCHITEChTURES treats these as a connected system rather than isolated problems, generating designs where massing, plans, and structure are coordinated from the start.

The platform targets residential, mixed-use, student housing, senior living, and hotel projects. These building types share a common pattern of repetitive unit layouts within a larger building envelope, which makes them well suited for algorithmic generation. You are not going to use ARCHITEChTURES to design a museum or a concert hall. But for any project built around repeated dwelling units or hotel rooms distributed across floors within a defined envelope, it can compress weeks of schematic design exploration into hours.

The End-to-End Design Workflow

ARCHITEChTURES organizes the design process into a sequential workflow where each stage feeds into the next. Understanding this sequence is essential for getting useful results.

Stage 1: Site and Zoning

You begin by defining the project site. This can be done by drawing a boundary polygon directly in the browser-based editor or by importing site geometry. You then set zoning parameters including building height limits, setback distances, floor area ratio (FAR) constraints, and maximum site coverage. These parameters define the envelope within which the AI can operate.

The platform also lets you specify orientation preferences, entry points, and frontage requirements. If your site has a primary street frontage that requires retail or a specific facade treatment, you can designate that edge so the system respects it when generating the building form.

Stage 2: Massing Generation

With the site and zoning constraints locked in, the system generates building massing options. This is not just a simple extrusion of the site boundary up to the height limit. The AI explores different building footprint configurations within the site, including L-shapes, U-shapes, bar buildings, and courtyard arrangements. Each option respects setbacks, FAR limits, and height constraints while maximizing usable floor area.

You can influence the massing by specifying preferred building typologies, minimum courtyard dimensions, or required distances between building wings for daylight access. The system generates multiple massing alternatives, and you select the one that best fits your project goals before moving to the next stage.

Stage 3: Floor Plan Generation

Once you have selected a massing option, the platform generates floor plans for each level of the building. This is where ARCHITEChTURES distinguishes itself most clearly from massing-only tools. The AI distributes dwelling units, corridors, vertical circulation cores, and common areas across the floor plate, optimizing for a target unit mix that you specify.

You define the unit mix as a set of unit types (studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom) with target counts or percentages, minimum and maximum areas per type, and preferred aspect ratios. The system then packs these units into the floor plate while maintaining corridor access, adequate daylight frontage for each unit, and compliance with the structural grid.

The floor plan generation also handles internal unit layouts. Each generated unit includes room partitions for bedrooms, living areas, kitchens, and bathrooms, positioned according to programmatic rules about adjacency and exterior wall access. Wet rooms cluster together. Bedrooms get exterior walls for windows. Living areas face the preferred orientation. These are not abstract bubble diagrams. They are dimensioned room layouts within fully resolved unit plans.

Stage 4: Structural Grid

ARCHITEChTURES generates a structural grid that supports the building form and aligns with the floor plan partitions. The system places columns at regular intervals, routing them through party walls and corridor walls to minimize intrusion into usable space. You can specify preferred grid spacing, maximum span distances, and column-free zones.

The structural grid is not an afterthought applied to a finished floor plan. It is generated in coordination with the floor plan layout, so column positions and wall positions are compatible from the start. This avoids the common problem in manual design where a spatially efficient floor plan turns out to be structurally irrational, requiring transfer beams or awkward column offsets.

Stage 5: Review and Refinement

After the system generates a complete design, you can review it in 3D and 2D views within the browser. The platform provides metrics for each option including total gross floor area, net sellable area, unit count by type, average unit size, net-to-gross ratio, and facade-to-floor area ratio. These metrics let you compare alternatives quantitatively and communicate results to developer clients.

If the results are not satisfactory, you can adjust parameters and regenerate. Change the unit mix, modify the massing, relax a constraint, or switch to a different building typology. Each regeneration takes minutes, not days, so you can explore a wide solution space quickly.

Parameter Controls and Constraints

The quality of output from ARCHITEChTURES depends directly on how well you configure the input parameters. Here is what you can control at each stage.

Site-Level Parameters

• Site boundary - polygon defining the buildable area after setbacks
• Building height - maximum number of floors or height in meters
• FAR (Floor Area Ratio) - maximum allowable gross floor area relative to site area
• Site coverage - maximum percentage of the site that can be covered by building footprint
• Setbacks - minimum distances from each site edge
• Orientation - preferred facade directions for solar access or views
• Access points - vehicular and pedestrian entry locations

Building-Level Parameters

• Building typology - bar, L-shape, U-shape, courtyard, tower, or combinations
• Minimum courtyard width - for courtyard and U-shape configurations
• Floor-to-floor height - affects total building height within the zoning envelope
• Ground floor use - residential, retail, lobby, parking, or mixed
• Podium configuration - whether the building sits on a podium with different footprint than the tower

Unit-Level Parameters

• Unit types - define each type with name, bedroom count, and area range
• Unit mix - target count or percentage for each type
• Minimum unit depth - distance from facade to unit back wall
• Maximum unit depth - prevents overly deep units with poor daylight
• Aspect ratio limits - minimum and maximum width-to-depth ratios
• Dual aspect - whether units should have windows on more than one wall
• Accessibility - percentage of units that must be accessible or adaptable

Structural Parameters

• Grid spacing - preferred column intervals in both directions
• Maximum span - longest allowable unsupported distance
• Column placement rules - party walls only, corridors allowed, or flexible

Setting these parameters requires the same architectural judgment you would apply when briefing a design team. The AI does not replace the need to understand building codes, construction logic, or client requirements. It just executes the exploration much faster.

Residential and Mixed-Use Applications

ARCHITEChTURES is most effective for building types with repetitive residential or hospitality programs. Here are the project types where it delivers the most value.

Multi-Family Residential

This is the core use case. Apartment buildings from 20 to 500 units benefit the most from AI generation because the design problem is fundamentally about efficient unit packing within a constrained envelope. The system can test hundreds of unit mix scenarios to find the configuration that maximizes sellable area while maintaining livability standards.

For a typical 100-unit apartment project, an architect might spend two to three weeks testing four or five massing options with different unit mixes. With ARCHITEChTURES, you can test 20 or more options in a single afternoon, each with fully resolved floor plans and structural grids. This does not eliminate design time, but it shifts the effort from tedious layout iteration to informed decision-making.

Student Housing and Senior Living

These project types have specialized unit types - smaller studios for students, accessible units with specific clearance requirements for seniors. ARCHITEChTURES lets you define these specialized units with precise area and layout constraints, then generates buildings that accommodate the specific mix required by the program.

Mixed-Use with Ground Floor Retail

For projects with non-residential ground floors, you can specify that the ground level has a different use and floor plate configuration than the residential floors above. The system handles the transition between retail-depth ground floor and residential-depth upper floors, including the structural implications of different column grids at different levels.

Hotel and Hospitality

Hotel design shares the repetitive unit problem with residential design. Standard rooms, suites, and accessible rooms distributed across floors within an envelope is a problem that ARCHITEChTURES handles well. The system can optimize for total key count while maintaining corridor efficiency and structural regularity.

BIM and IFC Export

One of the most practically important features of ARCHITEChTURES is its export capability. Generated designs can be exported as IFC files, which is the open standard for BIM data exchange. This means you can take a generated design directly into Revit, ArchiCAD, or any other BIM authoring tool that supports IFC import.

The IFC export includes building geometry (walls, floors, columns), space definitions (rooms with names and areas), and the structural grid. This is not a simple 3D model export. It is structured BIM data with element classifications, so walls import as walls, columns import as columns, and spaces import as spaces with their programmatic data attached.

The platform also supports DXF export for 2D floor plans, which is useful for bringing generated layouts into AutoCAD or other 2D CAD tools for further development. Additionally, you can export PDF reports with floor plans, sections, 3D views, and area schedules for client presentations.

The practical value of the IFC export is that it eliminates the redrawing step. When you select a generated option from ARCHITEChTURES, you do not need to manually recreate it in your BIM tool. You import the IFC, clean up the geometry as needed, and start developing the design from an already-resolved starting point. For a 200-unit building, this can save days of modeling time.

How ARCHITEChTURES Compares to Other Tools

ARCHITEChTURES occupies a specific position in the growing ecosystem of AI design tools for architecture. Understanding how it differs from alternatives helps you decide which tool fits your workflow.

ARCHITEChTURES vs. Finch 3D

Finch 3D focuses specifically on floor plan layout optimization. You give it a boundary and a room program, and it generates optimized floor plans using constraint-based algorithms. Finch 3D does not generate building massing or structural systems. It works at the single floor plate level.

ARCHITEChTURES covers the full pipeline from massing to floor plans to structure. If you already have a defined building envelope and just need to optimize the internal layout of one floor, Finch 3D may be more focused and effective. If you need to explore the entire building form including massing alternatives, multi-floor unit distribution, and structural coordination, ARCHITEChTURES covers more ground.

Finch 3D also has a tighter integration with Revit through its plugin, which may be valuable if your workflow is Revit-centric. ARCHITEChTURES relies on IFC export for BIM tool integration, which works across platforms but may require more cleanup after import.

ARCHITEChTURES vs. TestFit

TestFit is a real-time building configurator focused on feasibility analysis. It generates site plans with building footprints, parking layouts, and unit counts in real time as you adjust parameters. TestFit is strongest in the pre-design feasibility phase where the question is whether a project pencils financially.

ARCHITEChTURES goes deeper into the building. While TestFit generates building configurations at the site plan level, ARCHITEChTURES resolves the internal floor plans, room layouts, and structural grids. TestFit tells you that 180 units fit on the site with adequate parking. ARCHITEChTURES tells you how those 180 units are arranged on each floor, what each unit looks like internally, and where the columns go.

For firms that do both feasibility studies and schematic design, using TestFit for initial feasibility and ARCHITEChTURES for schematic exploration is a rational workflow. TestFit answers “does it work?” and ARCHITEChTURES answers “what does it look like?”

Key Differences Summary

Feature	ARCHITEChTURES	Finch 3D	TestFit
Massing generation	Yes	No	Basic
Floor plan layouts	Yes (multi-floor)	Yes (single floor)	Unit count only
Internal unit plans	Yes	Room-level	No
Structural grid	Yes	Grid alignment	No
BIM/IFC export	Yes	DXF + Revit plugin	DXF
Feasibility metrics	Some	No	Extensive
Real-time feedback	No (batch generation)	Near real-time	Real-time
Best for	Full building design	Floor plan optimization	Feasibility studies

Pricing and Access

ARCHITEChTURES operates on a subscription pricing model. The platform offers several tiers depending on team size and project volume. Pricing is not publicly listed on a simple pricing page - you typically need to request a demo and receive a quote based on your firm’s needs.

The platform offers a free trial or demo access that lets you explore the interface and generate a limited number of designs. This is useful for evaluating whether the tool fits your project types before committing to a subscription.

For small firms, the cost needs to be weighed against the time savings. If you do multiple residential or mixed-use feasibility studies per month, the subscription cost can be recovered quickly through reduced schematic design hours. For firms that only occasionally work on unit-based building types, the cost-benefit calculation is less clear.

Academic licenses are available for university programs, which can be valuable for introducing students to AI-assisted design workflows.

Integrating ARCHITEChTURES into Traditional BIM Workflows

ARCHITEChTURES works best when positioned at the beginning of the design process, not as a replacement for your BIM workflow but as an accelerator for the schematic design phase.

Recommended Workflow

1. Project setup - gather site data, zoning requirements, and client program. Define unit types, target unit mix, and building constraints.
2. Generate options in ARCHITEChTURES - run multiple scenarios with different massing strategies and unit mixes. Compare results using the platform’s built-in metrics.
3. Select and export - choose the most promising option (or top two or three) and export as IFC.
4. Import into BIM tool - bring the IFC into Revit, ArchiCAD, or your preferred BIM authoring software.
5. Develop the design - use the imported geometry as a starting point. Adjust wall positions, refine unit layouts, add detail, develop facade design, and progress through design development.
6. Iterate as needed - if fundamental changes are required (different massing, different unit mix), go back to ARCHITEChTURES rather than manually reworking the BIM model.

What to Expect from IFC Import

The IFC import will give you walls, floors, columns, and spaces with correct geometry and basic classification. You will need to assign materials, add doors and windows, detail wet room layouts, develop the facade, and add all the design resolution that goes beyond basic space planning. The import is a skeleton, not a finished model.

Plan to spend time cleaning up the imported geometry. Wall joins may need adjustment. Column families may need to be swapped. Spaces may need to be renamed to match your project standards. Budget half a day to a day for cleanup on a typical mid-rise residential project, which is still significantly faster than modeling from scratch.

Limitations and Considerations

ARCHITEChTURES is a powerful tool within its domain, but it has clear boundaries that you should understand before committing to it.

Building Type Limitations

The platform is optimized for residential and hospitality building types with repetitive unit programs. It is not designed for commercial offices, industrial buildings, educational facilities, healthcare, or other building types where the spatial program is highly specific and non-repetitive. If your practice focuses on these project types, ARCHITEChTURES will not be useful.

Design Resolution

The generated designs are schematic-level. They resolve massing, floor plan arrangement, and structural grid, but they do not include facade design, material specification, MEP coordination, or detailed construction documentation. ARCHITEChTURES produces a resolved spatial framework that you then develop further in your BIM environment.

Local Code Compliance

While you can set constraints for height, setbacks, FAR, and other zoning parameters, ARCHITEChTURES does not have built-in knowledge of local building codes. It does not automatically check fire egress distances, maximum travel distances to exits, minimum window sizes for natural light compliance, or accessibility requirements beyond what you explicitly configure. You remain responsible for code compliance, and generated designs should be reviewed against applicable regulations.

Regeneration Cycle

Unlike TestFit, which updates in real time as you drag sliders, ARCHITEChTURES uses a batch generation approach. You set parameters, generate options, review results, adjust, and regenerate. Each cycle takes a few minutes depending on project complexity. This is perfectly fast for schematic design exploration, but it is not the instantaneous feedback loop that some architects prefer when iterating quickly.

Learning Curve

The parameter setup requires careful thought. Setting overly loose constraints produces generic results. Setting overly tight constraints may prevent the system from finding any valid solutions. Learning to calibrate your inputs takes a few projects, and the first project will likely take longer than expected as you learn the interface and develop an intuition for how parameters affect output.

Best Practices for Getting Good Results

After working through several projects, patterns emerge for what produces the most useful output from ARCHITEChTURES.

Start with realistic constraints. Do not set ideal unit sizes and then wonder why the system cannot fit your unit mix into the site. Start with the site capacity and work backward to a unit mix that fits. Use the first generation as a reality check, not a final answer.

Define unit types carefully. The system is only as good as your unit type definitions. Spend time getting the area ranges, aspect ratios, and room programs right before generating. A well-defined unit type produces dramatically better results than a loosely specified one.

Use massing exploration before floor plan generation. Do not lock into the first massing option. Generate multiple massing alternatives and evaluate them for daylight, views, site utilization, and structural efficiency before committing to floor plan generation. The massing decision has the largest impact on everything downstream.

Generate more options than you think you need. The computational cost of generating additional options is low. Generate 10 or 15 massing options and 5 or more floor plan variants for each shortlisted massing. You will often find that the best option is not the one you expected.

Export early and test in your BIM tool. Before spending hours refining parameters in ARCHITEChTURES, export an early option to your BIM environment and see how the IFC import works. This will reveal any geometry cleanup issues early and set realistic expectations for the downstream effort.

Keep the client in the loop with metrics. The area schedules and efficiency metrics from ARCHITEChTURES are excellent for client presentations. Use them to demonstrate that you have explored a wide range of options and selected the most efficient solution. Developer clients in particular respond well to quantified comparisons.

Getting Started

If you work on residential, student housing, senior living, or hotel projects and want to accelerate your schematic design phase, ARCHITEChTURES is worth evaluating. Request a demo through their website to get access to the platform and test it with a real project.

The tool works best for firms that regularly produce unit-based building designs and want to explore more options in less time. It does not replace the architect’s judgment, design sensibility, or technical knowledge. It replaces the tedious hours of manual layout iteration that consume schematic design budgets.

For architects looking to build deeper skills in computational design, BIM workflows, and the evolving landscape of AI tools in architecture, explore the courses available at Archgyan Academy. Understanding how these tools work under the hood, and how they connect to your BIM environment, is becoming an essential skill for practice.