The house and adjacent laneway house sit on a 40-by-86-foot corn…
The house and adjacent laneway house sit on a 40-by-86-foot corner lot just off of a busy commercial corridor in downtown Vancouver.
Courtesy James Tuer
The house is just one block from the city's Broadway corridor wh…
The house is just one block from the city's Broadway corridor which is served by high-capacity electric trolley buses.
Courtesy James Tuer
The laneway house (right) is tucked up to a 2-foot rear yard set…
The laneway house (right) is tucked up to a 2-foot rear yard setback and creates a private courtyard with the main house.
Courtesy James Tuer
A small patio in the front yard is accessed directly off a serie…
A small patio in the front yard is accessed directly off a series of stone slabs that lead to the front door.
Courtesy James Tuer
The concrete floors in the entryway and living area act as a the…
The concrete floors in the entryway and living area act as a thermal mass to cool the house in the summer and warm it in winter.
Courtesy James Tuer
The living room is small but light-filled and bright.
Courtesy James Tuer
In the kitchen, architect James Tuer placed windows up high to m…
In the kitchen, architect James Tuer placed windows up high to maximize natural daylight.
Courtesy James Tuer
Built-in shelves and nooks maximize storage options.
Courtesy James Tuer
The clients wanted a home office that was tucked away from publi…
The clients wanted a home office that was tucked away from public spaces but open.
Courtesy James Tuer
A freestanding concrete wall helps to cool the house in the summ…
A freestanding concrete wall helps to cool the house in the summer.
Courtesy James Tuer
The dining area is adjacent to the kitchen and looks out onto th…
The dining area is adjacent to the kitchen and looks out onto the courtyard and laneway house beyond.
Courtesy James Tuer
Courtesy James Tuer
A gabion basket rock wall provides privacy in the busy urban nei…
A gabion basket rock wall provides privacy in the busy urban neighborhood. It is softened by a variety of ornamental grasses.
The lawn-free landscaping encompasses native plants and water-sm…
The lawn-free landscaping encompasses native plants and water-smart perennials, ornamental grasses, and permeable paving materials for driveways and walkways.
Courtesy James Tuer
Despite its high-density location, the laneway house is sited fo…
Despite its high-density location, the laneway house is sited for plentiful natural light.
For the House and Laneway House project, architect James Tuer of jwt Architecture sited the 425-square-foot laneway structure behind the 1,610-square-foot main house to create a private inner courtyard. His clients use the one-and-a-half-story accessory building as a small apartment for their grown son. The approach helps to increase density in pricy communities while retaining a single-family feeling, Tuer says.
“You can nearly double the population of a standard residential block and the new construction can only be seen from the street from the flanking lots,” he says. Plus, he adds, most laneway home residents are young renters and seniors who tend not to own cars, helping to fuel demand from public transit.
The city charges about $7,000 in development cost charges for a laneway house permit, which funds utility upgrades. “It is a win-win situation although some residents still complain about the ill effects of density, which have yet to be proven,” he says.
The trend is slowly growing, Tuer says, held back by cost (about $200,000 for an average-sized 550-square-foot laneway house) and jittery homeowners unsure of taking a risk. “Not that many people have this kind of appetite for risk so making every home owner in the city a developer is not actually going to happen.”
— Jennifer Goodman
Home building pros in Vancouver, British Columbia, which as been dubbed the most expensive city in North America, are keenly aware of the high price of housing in their city. Cost is almost always an issue for new home and remodeling projects in the city on the southwest coast of Canada, which is also routinely ranked high for livability in the categories of healthcare, culture, environment, education, and infrastructure.
So it was no surprise to architect James Tuer that going over budget was not an option when designing the House and Laneway House infill project located near a busy commercial corridor in downtown Vancouver. His empty nester clients had a respectable budget of $275 a square foot (U.S.) but were adamant about not spending a penny more; they had fired their original architect for not adhering to that amount. They also had a preference for modern design and a long list of requirements for the tiny dwelling, including a home office, studio space, a guest room that could be repurposed when vacant, and a kitchen that would lend itself to family gatherings.
The owners were also committed to sustainable principles, so Tuer turned to passive environmental control systems that wouldn’t break the bank. His approach focused on simple roof shapes for harvesting rainwater and a focus on energy efficiency through highly insulated walls. To provide extra living space, Tuer added a “laneway house” to the backyard just steps from the main house (see Urban Outbuildings story at left).
The high-performance building shell includes exposed concrete exteriors and a second wood frame wall on the interior, creating a double wall that holds 14 inches of open-cell foam insulation. The walls on the second floor are built from 2×10 plates and staggered 2×4 studs. Standing-seam siding creates a durable exterior cladding system that contrasts with colorful fiber cement panels that align with the vertical window patterns, Tuer says.
Rainwater from both structures is directed to a 600-gallon, below-grade cistern that provides drip irrigation to the lawn-free yard. In designing this catchment system Tuer and team successfully lobbied city officials to re-write a bylaw that discouraged rainwater harvesting and required a commercial-grade back-flow preventer at the property line.
To save money, project planners went through a detailed cost analysis of the building footprint, Tuer says. “It’s a rectangle with only one small push-out when we detailed the large box window. The roof is also very simple being a shed roof aligning with a center load bearing wall upstairs.” The house was framed in about four weeks.
At the heart of the two-bedroom home is a 12-foot staircase that wraps around a freestanding concrete fin wall and acts as natural air conditioner in the summer. Its thermal mass absorbs cool air when the windows are open in the evening and then radiates it back during the day, Tuer says.
