Laneway House Design Project – Day 2

Welcome back, John. Looking forward to your design news from abroad!

I wanted to participate in the challenge but couldn’t on the weekend. Last night I played with a plan for a couple of hours and finally gave up at midnight. (Like someone else said, that flex space is the piece that wouldn’t quite fit–or when it did, something else had to give.)
But now that we hear you’re expecting some more posts, I’m getting motivated to try and take another stab at it… 

Matthew,
Don’t be too eager–at this point, I’m feeling rather pessimistic about my chances! (Must be Stanley Cup blues.)

Hello all:
 
I made a few changes as suggested by S.N. Here is the revised plan. Also let me mentioned that I did have a few issues with the plan just prior to sending it but sent it any ways, I am glad that S.N. was paying attention.
 
One last thing, I agree with Terri, the recycling doesn’t smell, in our area we are asked to wash all of the recycling before we put it on the bins. Bad food odors are not a problem because of that. If the trash gets smelly in the summer, I am sure that it can go in another location in the interim, but my biggest reason to keep it undercover is that I dislike going to put the trash out in the middle of a snow storm or when it is raining, or to dig it out from under the snow.
 
Oscar

Hello all:
 
I made a few changes as suggested by S.N. Here is the revised plan. Also let me mentioned that I did have a few issues with the plan just prior to sending it but sent it any ways, I am glad that S.N. was paying attention.
 
One last thing, I agree with Terri, the recycling doesn’t smell, in our area we are asked to wash all of the recycling before we put it on the bins. Bad food odors are not a problem because of that. If the trash gets smelly in the summer, I am sure that it can go in another location in the interim, but my biggest reason to keep it undercover is that I dislike going to put the trash out in the middle of a snow storm or when it is raining, or to dig it out from under the snow.
 
Oscar

Here’s my contribution to this design challenge. I wasn’t sure how much outdoor space this unit was allotted for use by the laneway home, so I didn’t extend the outdoor living area far to the west. It’s framed on the corner by a cedar hedge. A hedge also shields the lane from the home. On the west coast these  pyramid cedars are very common and grow rapidly, creating a dense green wall. A leech gate and extended exterior wall cladding help to create separation for entry.

Some notes about interior:
The island doubles as a table or buffet space with a slide-out counter at right angle to island.  I doubt that someone living in this small of a home would be having huge gatherings. Finally, the pantry storage millwork extends as low bookcase into the living area of this kitchen/living combo space.

The door to the garden from this space. is one of those accordion-style folding french
doors. I’ve seen them on reno programs but don’t know where to find an
image. :(

And here’s the image…sorry it is past midnight in my time zone!

I’m with SMALLWORKS Laneway Housing and I am loving the Laneway House Design Project.  Some very interesting and well thought through designs being submitted here.  Having built close to 20 laneway houses in the past year and change, we know the challenges of this building format inside and out.  It’s not easy to fit it all into such a small footprint and make it livable.  There is also the great chasm between what looks great on paper and what works well in real life, and a big learning curve to getting it right!  This forum is a helpful resource for designers and DIYers.  I think there should be an episode for the process of taking your design through the pre-construction phase all the way to a building permit and what that will mean practically and financially.  We’d love to help.  Any interest out there?
Michael Lyons
Smallworks Laneway Housing
michael@smallworks.ca