This is a little project I started to teach myself Sketchup. I've never really been interested in architecture until I started going through Sketchup tutorials. The inspiration for the design was a show I saw on the Travel Channel. An architect was trying to come up with creative designs for tiny homes in cramped, urban Tokyo. His idea was to make homes with court yards in the center to bring in natural light and create a false sense of larger space. I thought I'd give it a shot.

I tried to make room for everything, even a utility area. I started by downloading all the furniture, furnace and water heater from Google's free component collection. Then I used them to see how big my rooms would need to be and modeled around it all. Some of the rooms are pretty cramped. I would have liked to make the bathroom larger but it's better than some of the places I've lived.

This is all just a work in progress right now. When I find time I want to finish it off in Mental Ray.

A test render in Mental Ray. Still working out the shadows. I cheated on the small sq footage concept. I just couldn't get any good camera angles so I increased the size of the rooms.