EY Laneway House

A laneway house offers the ideal mix of privacy and closeness to family
creating space for privacy and family connection
The client for this project lived with their family in a single-family home but they wanted to have their own space: a place separated enough so that they can have privacy, but close enough to be with family when desired. A laneway house was the perfect solution.
Overcoming Challenges of a Vancouver Special
We started with a site visit to analyze the existing condition. It was a Vancouver Special in South Cambie, with a deck at the back which severely limited the space available for a laneway house. A 16’ setback is required between the main house and the laneway house, meaning that we had to cut down the deck by a few feet to be able to build the maximum allowable square footage of the laneway house. This is not uncommon, and we’ve had to do this on several laneway house projects.
Integrating Family Needs into the Design
We had an in-depth discussion about the family’s needs. They wanted two bedrooms and two full bathrooms, which was a difficult ask, but we managed to squeeze them in. We proposed several options and presented them with drawings and models. The family believed in Fengshui, so we couldn’t have the stair leading out the door because that would lead the energy to rush out of the house. We also couldn’t make the roof too pointy.
Maximizing Buildable Square Footage
We took a conventional pitched roof and strategically rotated it to allocate more headroom where needed, such as at the top of the stairs, bathroom entry, and main living space, and less where it is not needed, such as the closet, one end of the bed, and a corner of the bathroom. We were able to create a spacious 100 sq ft bedroom with a nook for art creation with windows at two corners for optimal lighting and an ensuite that has a freestanding bathtub and a skylight. We took advantage of all of the floor area exemption to maximize the buildable square footage. The allowable area was 16% of the lot area, which was 644 sq ft, but we had the gross square footage of the building was 778 sq ft with a total exempted area of 153 sq ft.
Getting Creative With Bylaw Restrictions
This was designed before the major bylaw overhaul, so they still had a requirement for the 2nd floor to be set back. To circumvent that requirement, we lowered the whole building so that the ground floor is a half basement, and the upper floor was considered as the first floor. This way, the upper floor (or first floor from the zoning perspective) did not have to have setbacks.The 2nd floor was bigger than needed, so we cut down the floor plate and created a double-height space over the living room topped with a skylight. This gave the rather tight living room a sense of openness.