In case you missed the email, here is our e-card this year. Enjoy!

CNN recently featured a story highlighting a growing trend for homeowners in Tokyo: building ultra small homes. Although the practice itself is not new, it has becoming increasingly popular during these tough economic times. The video focuses on one homeowner and the house that he built on a plot of land which used to be a parking space and is only 30 square meters.

The interesting part of the story is not only the design itself, which incorporates techniques to save space and give the illusion of having more room, but also the mindset of the homeowner and others like him. His goal was to own property, regardless of the downsides this tiny house demands, such as little privacy and ultra tight accommodations.

While this story relates to the housing industry in Tokyo, another recent story on NPR focused on “Tiny Houses” in the US. These houses also demonstrate good design and quality building on a miniscule scale. And while the reason for building a tiny home in the US is more apt to be a mobile living style or an in-law apartment or home office, the concept remains the same: good design, quality materials and efficient building = good home no matter the size.

On November 30th the Chief Construction Adviser in the UK, Paul Morrell, published an Innovation & Growth Team report which documents the British government’s recommendations for the construction industry with regards to reducing carbon footprint, reducing waste and improving economy and efficiency. The report stresses the use of BIM and we are honored that Mr. Morrell quoted our CEO, John Tocci, on page 67:

“When we have the means of modeling a building in three dimensions digitally, it is perverse to attempt to do so for the first time for real, under site conditions. As John Tocci, an American contractor who makes invariable use of BIM (whether or not the design comes to him in that form) puts it, “Every good building deserves to get built twice”.”

Here are a few of Morrell’s important BIM related recommendations:

“Recommendation 3.11
That the industry should work, through a collaborative forum, to identify when the use of BIM is appropriate (in terms of the type or scale of project), what the barriers to its more widespread take-up are, and how those barriers might be surpassed, leading to an outline protocol for future ways of working.”

“Recommendation 6.14
To mandate Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology for central Government projects with a value greater than £50 million.”

To see the full report, click here.

The Tocci VDC team has been sharing and discussing the video below on Bjarke Ingels’ 8-House, as well as his TED talk. Not only is the technology behind the video cool, but the systemic methodology that Ingels uses to explain the progression of design intent is amazing.

Tocci Building Companies

To see the full issue, click here!