Tile system — small, medium, large, and special

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---
schema: foundry-doc-v1
title: "Tile system — small, medium, large, and special"
slug: bim-tile-system
short_description: "Tiles are the composable HVAC-climate-zone units of the floor plate: three regular families at 2,700 SF, 5,400 SF, and 8,100 SF plus Special Tiles that handle building cores and ancillary areas, assembling to fill Net Leasable Area without remainder."
category: building-design
type: topic
content_type: topic
quality: complete
status: pre-build
audience: operator
bcsc_class: vendor-internal
language_protocol: PROSE-TOPIC
last_edited: 2026-05-17
editor: pointsav-engineering
paired_with: building-design/bim-tile-system.es.md
---

A Tile is a rectangular composable unit of the [[bim-floor-plate-methodology|floor plate]]. Each Tile is exactly one HVAC climate zone. Tiles compose to fill the Net Leasable Area without remainder. The system is defined alongside the catalogue of [[bim-key-plans-index|Key Plans]] and the per-use-type [[bim-zone-depths-per-use-type|zone depths]] that determine each Tile's interior geometry.

There are three regular tile families (Small, Medium, Large) and one residual family (Special Tiles). Sample assemblies appear in [[bim-floor-plate-tile-combinations|floor-plate tile combinations]].

## The three regular families

### Small Tiles — 2,700 SF (250.84 m²)

| Code | Name | Composition | Climate zones | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tile A | Corporate Office | Single 2,700 SF unit | 1 | Mid-plate Corporate anchor |
| Tile B-1 | [[bim-private-office-key-plans|Private Office]] | 5 PO (300 + 500 + 450 + 300 + 300) + Professional Small 800 ≈ 2,700 SF | 6 | Private-office heavy interior |
| Tile C-1 | [[bim-professional-office-key-plans|Professional Office]] (Med + Med + Small) | PO-M 2,000 + PO-M 450 + PO-S 300 = 2,750 | 3 | Professional anchor ([[bim-medical-key-plans|Medical]], [[bim-business-key-plans|Business]]) |
| Tile C-2 | Professional Office (Large + Small) | PO-L 2,400 + PO-S 300 = 2,700 | 2 | Larger-anchor professional |
| Tile C-3 | (Alternatives) | Variant composition | 2 | See Alternatives PDF |
| Tile C-4 | (Alternatives) | Variant composition | 1 | Civic / Academic anchor |
| Tile E-1 | Mixed End Cap (Left) | Mixed PO + Professional Small + corridor | 3 | Left short side |
| Tile E-2 | Mixed End Cap (Right) | Mirror of E-1 | 3 | Right short side |

**Note.** The V12 Methodology (p. 2) also documents a Small "Tile B" with composition 300 + 500 + 300 + 450 + 450 + 300 = 2,300 SF of PO + 400 SF residual. The Alternatives PDF expands Tile B into Tile B-1 with a Professional Small unit added. Tile B-1 is the live token; Tile B is the methodology shorthand for the same role.

### Medium Tiles — 3,500 SF (325.16 m²)

This family is documented in the V12 Methodology but is currently absent from `tile-system.dtcg.json` — flagged for backfill.

| Code | Name | Composition | Climate zones |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tile D | Corporate Office Medium | Single 3,500 SF Corporate unit | 1 |
| Tile E | Private Office Medium | 8 PO (≈ 2,900) + corridor | 8 |
| Tile F (Medium) | Professional Office Medium | PO Small 800 + PO Small 800 + PO Medium 1,100 + PO Small 800 = 3,500 | 4 |
| Tile E-1 (Medium) | Left End Cap (Private) | Mixed PO with end-cap corridor; ≈3,500–5,500 SF | 8 |
| Tile E-2 (Medium) | Right End Cap (Professional) | Mirror of Medium E-1 with Professional Office Key Plans | 4–6 |

**Naming collision.** "Tile F" appears at both 3,500 SF (Medium Professional) and 4,900 SF (Large Corporate) in the V12 Methodology. The disambiguator is the family label. Tooling should normalise to `tile-f-medium` and `tile-f-large` to avoid ambiguity in the token store.

### Large Tiles — 4,900 SF (455.22 m²)

| Code | Name | Composition | Climate zones |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tile F | Large Corporate Office | Single 4,900 SF Corporate unit | 1 |
| Tile G | Large Private Office Mix | 10 PO (300–500 SF each) + corridor | 10 |
| Tile H | Large Professional Office | 5 PO units (800 + 800 + 1,100 + 800 + 1,400 = 4,900) | 5 |

Large tiles approach the 1/4 floor tile (5,000 SF) in scale. They are useful for Corporate anchors, high-density Private-Office floors, and Professional Centres that need contiguous Professional Office sub-types.

### 6,000 SF Paired End Caps

A second End Cap series exists for buildings where the short side spans two paired Small tiles plus an Emergency Stairwell:

| Code | Name | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Tile A-1 | Corporate Office End Cap | Pair of Corporate Office units + Emergency Stairwell + Internal Corridor |
| Tile B-2 | Private Office End Cap | Pair of Private Office groups + Emergency Stairwell |
| Tile C-3 | Professional Office Medium End Cap | Two PO-Medium units + Emergency Stairwell |
| Tile C-4 | Professional Office Large End Cap | PO-Large 2,400 + PO mix + Emergency Stairwell |

Source: Alternatives PDF p. 2 (May 2025 and January 2026 variants).

## Special Tiles

Special Tiles fill the residual area around the Building Core and the Elevator Lobby. Their sizes are variable and snap to the nearest Professional Office Key Plan width.

| Code | Approximate sizes | Role |
|---|---|---|
| SP-A | 400 / 1,350 / 2,000 / 2,100 SF | Core-adjacent filler (left and right of Core) |
| SP-B | 300 / 800 / 900 SF | Secondary core-adjacent filler |
| SP-C | 4,700 SF | Elevator Lobby front; constraint: no direct door-to-elevator alignment |

Source: V12 Methodology pp. 3–5.

The Tile algebra (from V1 Combinations PDF) treats Special Tiles as a distinct composition class:

```
T_Basic     = n × P_Private_Small + p × P_Private_Medium + q × P_Private_Large
T_Compound  = T_Basic + r × P_(Academic | Laboratory | Medical | Business | Civic)
T_Special   = n × PO_Small + p × PO_Medium + q × PO_Large
              + r × P_(Academic | Laboratory | Medical | Business | Civic)
Floor Plate = T_Basic + T_Compound + T_Special + Building Core
```

## Key Plan dimensions

From Tear Sheet "Key Plans and Tiles" (January 2026 V12):

| Class | Small | Medium | Large |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private Office | 300 SF (PO-1) | 450 SF (PO-2) | 500 SF (PO-3) |
| Professional Office — Medical | 1,100 SF (M-1) | 1,400 SF (M-2) | 800 SF (M-3) |
| Professional Office — Business | 1,100 SF (B-1) | 1,400 SF (B-2) | 800 SF (B-3) |
| Professional Office — Laboratory | 1,100 SF (L-1) | 1,400 SF (L-2) | 800 SF (L-3) |
| Professional Office — Academic | 1,100 SF (A-1) | 1,400 SF (A-2) | 800 SF (A-3) |
| Professional Office — Civic | 1,100 SF (C-1) | 1,400 SF (C-2) | 800 SF (C-3) |

**Availability distribution** (Tear Sheet January 2026):

- Private Office: Small 80% / Medium 10% / Large 10%
- Professional Office sub-types: Small 40% / Medium 30% / Large 20% (10% other / mixed)

## Open research

- **Q1.** The Tear Sheet "% of availability" for Medical/Business/Laboratory/Academic/Civic sums to 90%, not 100%. Confirm the missing 10% category.
- **Q2.** Medical / Business sub-types have 1,100/1,100/1,400/800/800 mix totalling 5,200 SF, not 5,000. Reconcile with the 1/4 floor tile reference of exactly 5,000 SF.
- **Q3.** Tile B-1 in the token file records "5 private offices + 900 SF corridor" but the Alternatives PDF shows 5 PO + a Professional Office Small (800 SF). Pick the canonical version.
- **Q4.** Are the 6,000 SF End Caps (A-1, B-2, C-3, C-4) used only when the floor-plate length crosses a specific threshold? No source document states the trigger condition.

## See also

- [[bim-floor-plate-methodology]]
- [[bim-floor-plate-tile-combinations]]
- [[bim-key-plans-index]]
- [[bim-zone-depths-per-use-type]]