In today’s business world, the idea of technology start-ups often conjures images of computer science geeks plugging away to create the latest must-have app. Though computer science and engineering degrees are common in Waterloo’s Velocity Garage, there is something else going on here as well. Beth Nenniger and Laura Austin, recent Waterloo Architecture Graduates, are developing an online bathroom planner. And not just any bathroom planner – this one designs your bathroom for you!
The public launch of their bathroom planner happened on January 31st, and is available to use, free of charge, at DraftingSPACE.com. After completing your design, you can purchase your toilet, floor tiles, and all other products and materials through the website.
Beth Nenniger and Laura Austin with their core DraftingSPACE team, Tom Kelly and Veronique Roussel.
Nenniger and Austin first started working together during their 3B studio, when they were inspired to design a pop‐up park for Maya Pryzbylski’s System Stalker Lab. Excited by the possibilities that computation and coding provide for architecture, both designers knew that they wanted to work in the computational world following graduation.
Frustrated by the amount of time and energy spent on the menial tasks of planning parking lots, bathrooms and kitchen layouts while on co‐op terms, coupled with the reasoning that most homeowners cannot afford an architect or designer when renovating their homes, Nenniger and Austin set out to create a design tool that would enable all homeowners to create functional and beautiful designs. When the majority of the homeowners who came to them for design help were working specifically on bathroom renovations, Nenniger and Austin knew that bathrooms were the right place to start.
Along the way, DraftingSpace has been awarded the Velocity Venture Fund, the OCE Entrepreneurial Fellowship, SmartStart, Engineer of the Future Trust Fund, and most recently, placed 2nd at the Google for Entrepreneur’s Women’s Bootcamp. DraftingSPACE has also been featured on several local media outlets including 570 News and Communitech.
With over 1200 bathrooms already designed on their website, DraftingSPACE, is well on it’s way to putting the power of custom design into the hands of millions of homeowners.
The initial step allows the user to select the basic room shape, input dimensions, as well as position doors and windows.
Once the initial inputs are made, the user then selects the type and size of fixtures for their renovation.
The planner then generates all possible layouts with the fixtures selected.
Finally, a 3D model is generated complete with rendered textures that the homeowner is able to select from a fixture library.
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