More and more often, our clients tell stories of multi-generational living. In a city with our housing climate, money is a motivator, but here, a forging of community and of respite was present in both design and construction. In respite, the mentality of ‘return on investment’ is abandoned, and a sense of settling in to the property, the houses and the neighbourhood is embraced. There are no ‘units’ on this property, merely homes.
Details are important; the minutia catches one’s eye. This home is not burdened with tradition, but in its making and its materials is a definite dialogue with the principal dwelling. While these two homes speak in concert, they do so in differing dialects. Like materials avoids the tired juxtaposition often found when introducing a new structure behind an older one. Zoom in on one component of the laneway house, and you’ll find familiar cladding, or solid wood doors and windows, both of which hearken back to dwellings from the past. However, to a passerby this lane home’s posture is modern.
Its humble stature (600 square feet) is embellished by our clients adoption of the ever important maxim of ‘less is more’ – one bathroom, one bedroom, both of which are situated above the living area, which opens onto the backyard’s shared outdoor space. Soon to house a daughter, this laneway house ensures that the lot can sustain this family’s housing needs for generations to come.
**Edit – In reference to the final photo in the series: friendships were forged in the building of this home. Congratulations are in order for our Site Supervisor Claudio. This laneway home is finely crafted.
