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.

A tiny home for the North 

What sets this tiny home apart from many others is that it was built to withstand a frigid climate. The tiny home movement has seen a rise in popularity worldwide, most notably in the United States. In recent years, Canada has witnessed an increase of interest in tiny homes, and groups like the Tiny Town Association have been created.

For the team to build a tiny home in a place like Canada (let alone a net-zero energy tiny home), specific measures need to be put in place to ensure it can perform optimally. Weather is an especially important factor when trying to design a net-zero energy home since much energy is spent to fight against the local climate and condition the interior space.

A distinguishing design feature of the Northern Nomad is the use of vacuum insulated panels (VIPs). While not typically used in traditional architecture, the team wanted to incorporate VIPs to research the correlation between their lifespan and common issues with this material, such as fluctuation in moisture levels. Commonly used for industrial refrigerator lining, VIPs are not a conventional insulation type. However, a single inch of vacuum insulated panel can provide an R-value of R-25 or more-- much higher than traditional insulations. With the combination of VIPs and spray foam insulation, the team was able to achieve an R-value of R-37 in just a 2x4 wall.

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.