01
Build your source list
You gather each site source, record its date, and note whether it is authoritative, advisory, observed, or unconfirmed.
Made for Architects
Pressure-Test Your Site Constraints Before Massing
Also useful for: people in Creative
60 min
Intermediate
Decisions
Get Something Done
Need to Make a Decision
Review the site conditions that can shape or block a concept, separate verified limits from assumptions, and set practical guardrails for massing studies.
We'll use them to write your prompt.
Completed ✓
Make Your Play
Give us the situation. We’ll build the prompt.
You catch access, zoning, grade, utility, easement, climate, and neighboring conflicts before they become baked into design options.
Your answers save as you type.
What you'll do
This is the plan inside your prompt. Add your details first. Then follow these steps with ChatGPT or Claude.
02
Mark the buildable boundaries
You identify the controls that directly limit the footprint, height, placement, and legal use of the site.
03
Test access, levels, and servicing
You check whether people, vehicles, emergency access, utilities, drainage, waste, loading, and plant can work with the site's geometry and levels.
04
Read the surrounding conditions
You map the outside forces that should influence orientation, openings, height distribution, and separation.
05
Classify constraints and conflicts
You sort each finding by certainty and by how strongly it controls your next design move.
06
Set the massing decision gate
You turn the review into guardrails and decide whether massing can start safely.
Make Your Play
Pressure-Test Your Site Constraints Before Massing
Tell us what the prompt needs to know
Start with the questions below. Each answer personalizes the playbook and builds the prompt you’ll use at the end.
Your situation
Describe the project, proposed uses, rough scale, key brief requirements, and any fixed client expectations.
0/10000
Provide the address, parcel reference, approximate area, orientation, ownership limits, and any location details you trust.
0/10000
List or attach your survey, title information, utility records, site photographs, reports, and other source documents, including dates when known.
0/10000
Provide known zoning, setbacks, height limits, overlays, design review requirements, prior approvals, and advice from authorities or consultants.
0/10000
Describe levels, slopes, access points, drainage, utilities, easements, vegetation, structures, and visible site restrictions.
0/10000
Describe neighboring buildings, privacy concerns, useful views, noise, sun, wind, climate exposure, hazards, and other surrounding conditions.
0/10000
List the issues already worrying you or your project team, including conflicting information and missing decisions.
0/10000
This playbook was updated. Review your inputs before copying.
What you'll do
Check a step when you finish it.
01
Build your source list
You gather each site source, record its date, and note whether it is authoritative, advisory, observed, or unconfirmed.
02
Mark the buildable boundaries
You identify the controls that directly limit the footprint, height, placement, and legal use of the site.
03
Test access, levels, and servicing
You check whether people, vehicles, emergency access, utilities, drainage, waste, loading, and plant can work with the site's geometry and levels.
04
Read the surrounding conditions
You map the outside forces that should influence orientation, openings, height distribution, and separation.
05
Classify constraints and conflicts
You sort each finding by certainty and by how strongly it controls your next design move.
06
Set the massing decision gate
You turn the review into guardrails and decide whether massing can start safely.
Fill in the fields above to generate your prompt preview.
Assembled prompt
Beginner instructions
You can start with the survey, client brief, planning summary, and your site notes. If you don’t know whether a fact is verified, label it as an assumption instead of guessing. Focus first on anything that changes the buildable footprint, height, access, or safe servicing.
Advanced instructions
You can run separate checks for planning, life safety access, utilities, environmental exposure, and neighboring impact, then combine them into one constraint register. Ask the AI to compare conflicting source dates and show how each unresolved item could change the massing envelope.
Use this when
Use this before concept massing, after receiving new survey or planning information, or when your site data feels incomplete or contradictory.
You'll need
- Project and proposed use
- Site location and parcel details
- Available source documents
- Planning and approval information
- Physical site conditions
- Context and environmental conditions
- Known questions or concerns
You'll get
- One source-linked constraint register, clear massing guardrails, a ranked list of unresolved items, and a go, conditional go, hold, or stop decision
- You can explain which facts are verified, which are assumptions, and what must be confirmed before design work continues.
By the end of this playbook
You will have:
- One source-linked constraint register, clear massing guardrails, a ranked list of unresolved items, and a go, conditional go, hold, or stop decision
- You can explain which facts are verified, which are assumptions, and what must be confirmed before design work continues.
Examples
Progress 1 of 6