Digital Home-Building Platform “Nesting” Completes Its First House About Six Months After the Concept Was Unveiled

VUILD Inc. (hereafter VUILD), an architecture-tech startup, announced in May this year the concept for its new business, the digital home-building platform “Nesting,” in collaboration with BIOTOPE Co., Ltd., a co-creative strategic design firm. It is currently running pilot tests ahead of the service launch next spring.

Web: https://nesting.me/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/bjbOKG_Wdy0

We are pleased to announce that the first house, located in Teshikaga, Hokkaido, has now been completed, and that we have also released a beta version of the home-building app we have been developing in parallel.

• The first house built with Nesting

The first house, a prototype, was built in Teshikaga, Hokkaido. Located in eastern Hokkaido, Teshikaga is a town rich in nature: about two-thirds of its area lies within Akan-Mashu National Park, and it is home to Lake Mashu and Lake Kussharo. The climate is cool, with an average annual temperature of 5.4°C, and temperatures sometimes drop to -20°C.
To suit this climate, the house achieves HEAT20 G2, a benchmark for insulation performance. By using hot-spring heat as its heat source, it stays comfortable with little energy consumption, and with solar panels and storage batteries installed, all of its electricity can be supplied off-grid.
The house was also designed by the owner himself, under the supervision of VUILD architects. Going forward, the home-building app will make it possible to handle design, planning and cost estimates even more smoothly.

• Home-building app (beta)

Today we released the beta version of the home-building app, one of Nesting’s key features.
Draw the floor plan you need, and the shape of the house appears instantly. As you choose fittings, equipment, furniture and finishes, the 3D image and the cost estimate are updated instantly, so you can see the price in real time. In the future, we aim to make it possible to order a custom-built house within the app.

• The digital home-building platform “Nesting”

Using digital technology, Nesting offers people the experience of designing and building comfortable, low-impact homes for themselves.

[Nesting’s points of innovation]
(1) Innovation in UX: build your own original home in every detail while keeping track of the cost
When building a custom home, it often takes six months to a year to go from design to a cost estimate, and until then the owner runs the risk of not knowing the price. With Nesting’s proprietary app, you can instantly see how much the price changes when you change something, down to small units such as one tsubo (about 3.3 m²) or a single panel. This lets owners experiment while staying aware of the cost and build their own “nest” in every detail with their own hands.

(2) Innovation in construction method: buildable in any region, with any local timber, by any local builder
Some special construction methods cannot be built without special equipment or qualifications. Nesting has developed a construction method that creates large spaces using commonly available local timber and commonly available fabrication equipment, so it can be built in any region. In addition, by delivering the structural members to the site as a kit, it shortens the construction period and simplifies the process; because no special skills are required, any builder can construct it.

(3) Innovation in performance: taking on the challenge of off-grid, carbon-negative housing
Conventional houses have emitted large amounts of CO2 by running mechanical air conditioning despite poor insulation. With Nesting, performance can be customized according to your budget. By improving performance we lower energy consumption, and by installing generators and storage batteries we aim to realize off-grid homes. Furthermore, by building with local timber processed on nearby digital fabrication machines, we minimize carbon emissions from transport, and by using wood extensively we maximize carbon storage, contributing to a decarbonized society.

[Features of Nesting]
Template: ecological, luxurious space
You can choose from housing templates with high environmental performance, designed for a decarbonized society. Natural energy and cutting-edge home equipment minimize energy consumption, and the use of local timber fixes CO2. Modules made through a digital manufacturing process create large spaces without a single column, making extensions, renovations and conversions easy.

Application: the joy of creating your home
Intuitive controls let you build your ideal home in every detail. The overall form of the building can be changed in units of one tsubo, and even when you change detailed specifications, from window positions to wall finishes, the estimate is calculated automatically and instantly. You can design it yourself with the app as if playing a game, or get support from professional architects in a workshop format.

Process: the fun of building together
You can build an original house simply by assembling parts, like a plastic model kit. By making the members small enough for amateurs to carry, we make it possible to enjoy building with family and friends. Of course, you can also ask one of our partner builders to handle construction.

Community: learning together by creating
Home-building creates a community, and together with that community you can learn not only the home-building process but also how to create your own way of living. Projects aimed at creating real communities are already underway, including not only individual homes but also several dual-residence households coming together to build a settlement cooperatively.

• Online-only open house video and design workshop

For those interested in building a home with Nesting, we plan to stream online, on a limited basis, a video recording of the open house to be held at the Teshikaga house.
We also plan to hold a workshop within the year where participants design their ideal home using the home-building app.
Details will be sent to registered customers once they are decided, so please register your name, email address, phone number and other details using the form below.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1yY5sYhalc85jOX2-mDkmudkVpyOFmPjtmw6o7OZsca4/edit

• What’s next for VUILD

Our roadmap at VUILD, as we take on the social transformation of “democratizing architecture,” has progressed steadily from building operating systems and platforms (ShopBot and EMARF), and we have finally reached the stage of releasing content in the form of housing (Nesting).
Next spring, development of several templates now being prototyped will be completed, and Nesting is scheduled to launch in full. Please stay tuned.

[VUILD Inc.]
Representative: Koki Akiyoshi (CEO)
Founded: November 21, 2017
Head office: unico 1F-A, 3-4 Nisshincho, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Business: Architectural design; development and manufacture of wood products; sales of CNC routers; digital talent development; business development support; IT service development
https://vuild.co.jp/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vuildinc
note: https://note.com/vuild
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VUILD.co.jp/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vuild_official/

[BIOTOPE Co., Ltd.]
Representative: Kunitake Saso
Head office: 2B, 1-7-4 Ohashi, Meguro-ku, Tokyo
https://biotope.co.jp/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/biotope.strategicdesignfirm
Mail: info@biotope.co.jp