Can you really live comfortably in 35 square meters ?

Two teams of students from the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) in Montreal participated in a scientific challenge to solve a societal issue, in collaboration with the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) in Lyon, France, from June 13 to June 16, 2016. This collaborative France – Quebec project began in December 2015 following a meeting between the Science and Society Service of the University of Lyon and the Office of Community Relations at ÉTS.

From left to right, ÉTS students Guillaume Bernard, Francis Poulin, Martin Goudreault, Samuel Croft-Tremblay, Stéphanie Lacerte, Carl Grégoire, Francine Verrier (director of the Bureau des relations avec les diplômés et la collectivité), Marc-André Mathieu, Samuel Rispal (ÉIC consultant and project manager), Nicolas Nadeau, Quentin Rayer, and Jean-Mathieu Viger.

A space to live comfortably

This competition had participants creating an innovative living space with a maximum of 35m² (377 ft²) for a single-parent adult and child. The event began with a course in design thinking, followed by two days of solution development. The solution was then presented as a model before a jury on the last day.

Model designed by ÉTS students Stéphanie Lacerte and Nicolas De Oliveira Nadeau, and 8 other students from INSA.

In total, ten teams of about 10 students from different disciplines and from several institutions participated in this event.

The first team consisted of ÉTS students Jean-Mathieu Viger, Samuel Croft Tremblay, Carl Grégoire and Quentin Rayer and six other students from INSA. Their solution consisted of a home automation system to reduce energy consumption by managing the temperature and humidity.

The second team consisted of ÉTS students Stephanie Lacerte and Nicolas De Oliveira Nadeau, and 8 other students from INSA. They designed a space to live comfortably with furniture with multiple functions providing the users with the comfortable warmth of a home.

Inside view plans of the model designed by ÉTS students Stéphanie Lacerte and Nicolas De Oliveira Nadeau, and 8 other students from INSA.

Among the distinctive aspects of this collaborative work, the students noticed that the importance is given to various rooms of a house varied from one culture to another. For example, while we North Americans like to have roomy bathrooms, the French students prefer to keep bathroom space to a minimum in order to optimize the rest of the home.

What students enjoyed most about this experience was being immersed in other cultures.