OUR RESEARCH
The BC Tiny House Collective is coordinating research with local universities, educators, non-profits and innovation hubs and is gathering information from diverse sources on the role, benefits, limitations, and opportunities of tiny houses in our housing system.
Join our research team
Tiny Homes – An Alternative to Conventional Housing
Released spring 2021
BC Housing, in partnership with the BC Tiny House Collective and Light House, produced a technical report on tiny houses, outlining the opportunities and challenges around the form.
Tiny houses and health
Ongoing
Bachelor of science nursing students at Vancouver Community College are reviewing the literature on housing and its health impacts. Fields of review include size, mobility, ownership, ecological sustainability and social inclusion.
This ongoing partnership is supervised by Dr. Shari Laliberte.
Assessing Demand and Support for Tiny Houses in British Columbia: Results from the BC Tiny House Collective 2016/17 Survey
In progress
Analyzing data from our tiny house survey with UBC master student over the summer of 2017.
Designing Tiny
Completed in July 2018
Designing Tiny is a think tank for designers to create tiny house renderings to various typologies/design components to share with local municipalities. Our goal is to showcase how tiny can be used as an entry-level laneways or as part of a community development.
Legal Barriers to Greywater Management Practices in Metro Vancouver
Completed in June 2017
The report gives the background of the project, explains the research methods, discusses the results of the investigation and provides some recommendations for the British Columbia Tiny House Collective as they continue their work into the future.
The team conducted email and phone interviews with a variety of stakeholders to understand the greywater topic, and to investigate the current legal barriers to greywater reuse in Vancouver, as well as learn about other greywater reuse projects that have been successful.
This report provides recommendations for the BC Tiny House Collective, as well as for the municipal government to encourage greywater reuse and allow more accessible implementation.
Tiny houses and salvaged building materials
Completed in June 2017
Industrial designer Callahan Tufts explored our waste systems through a four-part design series, the last piece being a 26-foot mobile tiny house which was built by the tiny house community at our Go Go Tiny event in May 2017. He salvaged new building materials and lumber from construction sites and is gave them repurpose.
Learn more about the Rescued Homes project
Ethnography and tiny homes
Completed in April 2017
UBC bachelor of anthropology student Caitlin Stonham is conducting an ethnographic study on the legal dimensions of Vancouver’s tiny house movement and what tiny means according to available literature.
The feasibility of tiny houses in Metro Vancouver
Completed in March 2017
UBC civil engineering 300-level course students explored tiny houses through several feasibility studies using a construction management lens. They looked at the use of deconstructed building materials in tiny construction, as well as off-grid/net-zero options, and tiny homes as single units and well as community developments. Research was informed by a stakeholder event held in January where students, architects, and city staff and councillors from New West, Vancouver, Langley, Township of Langley and Richmond were present.
In partnership with UBC’s Centre for Community Engaged Learning.
Read report on sustainable tiny homes
How to prepare a tiny house for full-time use
Tiny house pocket village
Solar power and tiny houses
Built form and green targets
Completed in January 2017
UBC master of engineering student Sadaf Farzanehfar conducted a built-form comparison between tiny houses and other housing stock and how they met the requirements of the City of Vancouver’s Greenest City 2020 Action Plan and affordability targets.
Supervised by Dr. Thomas Froese.
Tiny houses in the Vancouver context
Completed in December 2016
UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture master student Natradee Quek studied how the tiny house model could fit in Vancouver. She explored how it has worked in other places, housing attitudes and issues in the Vancouver region, and opportunities to situate tiny houses in the Vancouver context.
Tiny houses and greywater systems
Completed in December 2016
UBC bachelor of engineering students Sadaf, Ben, Adam, Santiago, Lindsey and David studied best practices for the use of greywater in tiny houses from an ecosystem services perspective.
Supervised by Dr. Susan Nesbit. In partnership with CityStudio.