Laneway houses, like this one on 19th and Slocan, seem to flourish in Vancouver. This is another contemporary, small home by Lanefab, which is the firm behind the Mendoza and Net-Zero Solar laneway houses. The 800 square-foot home (including a 200 square-foot flex-garage) shelters a young couple that built the property on their parent’s property — an intergenerational phenomenon made possible with flexible laneway zoning.
When I first mentioned the Mendoza Laneway House, it was one of the first laneway homes in Vancouver under the city’s EcoDensity program. The company behind that efficient SIPs home, Lanefab, and its partners, designer Bryn Davidson and builder Mat Turner, have been busy and recently completed the first Net-Zero Solar Laneway House on a corner lot at 57th and Vivian. It’s beautiful inside and out.
When you build one of the first laneway houses in Vancouver – and a modern, green one at that – you tend to attract a crowd. The open house of this home gathered more than a 1,000 visitors with a one-hour backlog at times. It’s the first in Vancouver’s EcoDensity program, which allows for a small, alley-access structure on existing single-family property.
