Like many student tiny home projects, the Northern Nomad is the brainchild of the students themselves. A group of five engineering students designed a mobile, net-zero energy tiny home for their senior capstone project. Under the direction of Professor Scott Bucking, Northern Nomad’s project supervisor, they were able to create a genuinely buildable design.

Stemming from a desire to study building performance and incentivize learning, Professor Bucking and one of the original students decided to make the design a reality. Through assembling a construction crew with an interdisciplinary team of engineering students, and fundraising and partnerships with over 30 industry sponsors, they were able to create the tiny home deemed the Northern Nomad.

Why a tiny home? 

Before jumping into the design details of the Northern Nomad, it is imperative to share the goal of the project: to collect data on home performance. The team wanted to examine various building technologies, such as building-integrated photovoltaics, and gather data on how they perform. In short, they wanted a testbed for building research.

A tiny home was a viable option because it could be built within a relatively short amount of time, be mobile, and did not require a permit to build. In addition, tiny home design is a trending concept, so it was appealing to the students and various stakeholders of the project.

Another unique feature is the unconventional incorporation of solar panels. Typically, homes will have a roof with solar panels attached to the outside. The Northern Nomad incorporates solar panels into the roof itself, allowing seamless integration between the two and a sleek, glass-like finish. Even neater, the team is planning to take advantage of the cooling process of the panels to generate heat for the interior space. The tiny home only consumes as much energy as the solar panels generate in a year; the team has even run computer simulations to ensure this, estimating a net-zero energy performance. The tiny home functions off-grid; however, in the depth of winter, the duration of off-grid operation may be limited by the amount of sun exposure and how the occupants use the space.

A Digital Twin 

One fascinating element of the Northern Nomad project was the ability to create a ‘digital twin’ of the tiny home-- in other words, a digital replica of the real house. Using the BIM software Revit, the team was able to compile one single document that included every single building element. According to Seungyeon, this was a powerful collaborative tool that allowed students from various disciplines to work together.

The home’s digital twin will help to resolve potential maintenance conflicts down the road. To illustrate, if a pipe needs replacement, the digital twin can tell the team exactly where to cut so that other building components such as electrical wiring are not damaged.

The Northern Nomad team came up with a fantastic way to share their designs with others through the use of digital tours. At the bottom of this page, anyone can take a digital tour of the tiny home and learn about the specific design features. This fun, easy interactive tool is powerful for those who want to experience the home without physically visiting in person. The team produced an amazing promotional video using Twinmotion software that provides a compelling overview of the project and its features.