Week In Review Single Family Homes In Vancouver

Posted on: July 23rd, 2010 | 34 Comments


This is Day 185 of the Slow Home Project and we need you to join us in our quest to evaluate the design quality of houses in nine North American cities in nine months.

Happy Friday everyone – it has been a busy week – our last in Vancouver! Thanks to everyone for your continued efforts on the “Slow Home Project” – if you have not visited our “Google Map”, please take a moment to check it out and see the quality of new home design in Vancouver and the other six cities we have analyzed to date.

For the Design Project review this week, we have selected 5 exceptional designs to discuss in more detail.


1. This plan is from Nicole. We think this is a fantastic design and the best for the week! Two really good ideas emerged – the first is the larger mudroom/ guest bath are that connects both the garage and front entry and the second is the alcove style study opposite the living area. This is a great plan – good work!


2. This plan is from Molly K and it is such a refreshing idea to see the side yard window being used for light in the mudroom. This really makes use of that existing window in a great way – the rest of the plan is very simple in layout, but well proportioned. The living room furniture grouping is the best of the week.


3. Brad W opened our eyes this week and made us think of all the additional floor plan possibilities that open up when you convert a double car garage to a single car garage. It is a bit of a shock when it is drawn out and you realize what you can actually do with that space!


4. It’s the return of the “floating object” and this concept really makes efficient use of the storage potential and circulation in this plan. Terri also has given us a really well thought out kitchen layout.


5. Mid America Mom has gone beyond the project brief to give us a very flexible layout where the inclusion of a full bath allows the study to also act as a guest room or in-law suite if required. Very thoughtful idea!

We are also posting four other plans that show great potential and with a few “tweaks” they would become exceptional Slow Homes. Click on the links below to see these schemes.

To see who the Slow Homer of the Week is for July 23, 2010, click on the link below.

Also, we need your vote for who you think should be given the Slow Home Award for Best Single Family House in Vancouver! Study the floor plans of the projects that we have nominated and cast your vote. Leave a comment on the site telling us who you voted for and why!

Loading ... Loading ...

The Shore House
Smallworks – Laneway Loft House
Garrison Crossing – Lot 8

We look forward to starting our next city on Monday – we are off to Atlanta to look at apartment/ loft projects!

  • Kyle B

    This week, my vote was for Spruceland – Lot 8.

    After Thursdays daily design exercise, I felt that the dining room interrupted transit between the family room and living room. However, I may be wrong on this point!
    The Laneway Loft House is very nice. In fact, I wouldn’t mind living there! But I was so taken aback when I could find no entry after looking so hard, I had to choose not to give it my vote.
    In the Spruceland home I could really find no major flaws.

  • Dan M

    I’m not to partial to the dining local on the shore house, so I didn’t vote for it. The other two houses are quite nice, well laid out and both deserve recognition. I settled on the laneway house as I really feel that housing like this is needed in our cities. We have a habit of not building dense enough, even though we have ample room and can do it without making things seem cramped. This design is a perfect example of that. I also feel that utilizing the space a laneway garage wastes is beneficial and more in line with what we have been looking at with previous winners and slow homes. I will admit the entry could be stronger, but overall I choose the laneway house.

  • Dan M

    BTW thanks for making me slow homer of the week, I was surprised!

  • Frances GF

    Hello all,

    I really missed working on the design project this week! Great floor plans from everyone this week, I was especially drawn to Nicole’s and Frazer’s plans.
    It is something about the feeling I get when I look at the plans. I “look” around as I enter the front and then the back doors, checkout the kitchen. Can I see myself there ideally behind an island, preparing food for family and friends? Does the living room draw me in to sit and look at the fire, millwork, view?
    Again thanks everyone for the walk throughs this week.

    Hope to get back later in the day to vote, got to go to work now.

  • Franco

    This week my vote was also for the Spruceland-Lot 8.

    This plan is simply organized and very functional. What immediately stood out to me, was the proximity of the dinning area to the kitchen and a well organized kitchen. The rest of the plan follows this same model of simple, eloquent design.

    Similar to Kyle B’s post, in the Shore House I found that the location of the dining room interrupting traffic flow, as well the dining room was farther than I’d like to see from the kitchen.

    Finally, I thought the Laneway loft was a novel concept, but I felt they tried to cram too much into too small of a space.

  • BradW

    Kudos to John, Nicole and MollyK on your design work. I especially liked the kitchen and sliding glass wall featured in Nicole’s plan.

  • Mid America Mom

    HI- Eric /John/ Matthew can we have the links outside voting as well?

    For those who want them:
    The Shore House
    http://www.vancouver-real-estate-direct.com/buzz/2010/04/north-van-shore-house/

    Smallworks – Laneway Loft House (you have to go through the images for it)
    http://www.smallworks.ca/products_services/index.html

    Garrison Crossing – Lot 8
    http://www.sprucelandhomes.com/Home_Plans/Lot_8.pdf

  • Mid America Mom

    Terri I do like that kitchen! Nicole Wow a wall of glass in the Den. BradW thanks for the out of the box thinking. MollyK I noticed the offset fireplace and millwork that works so well with the TV.

    ****
    As for this weeks vote.

    The laneway loft house. The entry is into the living space (I would move it to the bottom of the stair). The dining/living space feels so cramped to me. I would get rid of the island and make that one space. And a single wall kitchen while I dislike them I think this is an appropriate place for it. The upstairs bedroom is a great plan in my eyes.

    The Shore house.
    The kitchen triangle is fine. The dining space I think would be wasted space as I see a dining table in the family room. Like the living space. No back entry – it would be the island :) . I cannot believe in 2000 sq feet the w/d is in a small bathroom. The 4th bedroom is way too small at 8 wide. This should be a laundry/craft room. Is that two closets in the master? That would be one too much.

    Garrison:
    The third bedroom is a little small at 9 by 9-10. I do like how they placed the toilet in the master bath so if at the bed (not under the window) you would not see it. The kitchen needs a redesign. It is asking too much I think for island stools, eating, and traffic. I would not include them but make it a solid piece. The refrigerator and stove need to swap places and move a bit. I like the back entry and front. Laundry in basement does not bother me in this home.

    GARRISON LOT 8 gets my vote.
    Mid America Mom

  • nicole

    The Garrison Crossing has a great plan (with the exception of the bath on the 2nd level- I’m not too sure the doorway is large enough and to widen it would interfere with the stairs or the bedroom. And the landing space at the top of the stairs is a bit tight)

    The north shore home looks very applealing, “LEED Platinum’ and all, but 7 bedrooms is a bit excessive.

    My vote is for SMALLWORKS. This is obviously not intended to be a family home, but can be a great granny flat or apartment rental (generate income). One of the first single family ‘houses’ I have seen (outside of condos). Good way to increase density in developed city locations without changing the atmosphere from the front street.

  • Terri

    Kudos to all the great design ideas presented by you Slow Homers this week. The quality of design thought just keeps getting better, it seems. We’re learning a lot from one another.

    I voted for The Shore Home, not just because I found it and it’s located in my birthplace, but because I feel that it’s on the right track for getting sustainability into the mainstream. It has some flaws, I agree, especially the laundry. And the dining is borderline, but not completely wrong. The seven bedrooms includes the two for the second suite downstairs. If a home is going to spend so much to be energy efficient, then it ought to house more than one family, I believe.

    I applaud the Laneway House concept as well and was excited to see this idea take hold about a year ago. The Loft plan, however, irritated me with all that wasted space between the bathroom and stairs and the entry right into the living area. I agree with M.A.M. that the door would be better by the stairs, then that blocked corner could be bathroom and the kitchen/living could still stretch across the rest.

    The Garrison Crossing home is a nicely designed small space (though as M.A.M. points out above, that kitchen is too tight). Its location, on the other hand, can’t reasonably be considered being in Vancouver. Chilliwack is pretty much a two-hour drive from the city proper.

  • Grace Coulter

    smallworks is my vote this week. It is a little space but really we live in such excessive spaces at present this is refereshing. All three designs had great merits and I really liked the site plan in Lot 8. Still smallworks takes it.

    Nice work in the plans this week everyone!

  • MollyK

    Terri,
    Your point about the commute from Chilliwack to Vancouver has merit. I brought up the same issue of “distance” when we were voting on single-family homes in Denver. Nobody wants to put constraints on how far out we can search for homes, but it doesn’t make sense not to. What exactly is the defined parameters of Vancouver and “the surrounding area”? Is it a 30-minute commute…a 60-minute commute?

  • Terri

    MollyK,
    Vancouver is limited for sprawl because of water, mountains and the US border. The mountains became more populated on the North Shore, from West Vancouver across–twenty years ago this unsightly mountainside sprawl became known as “Hiroshima Heights” by some locals. The eastern side extending into the Fraser Valley has the most room, but this is also prime farm land.

    Forty years ago Maple Ridge was considered way out. A family member of mine commuted from there early to beat the traffic–it was about 40 minutes; an hour if he left later.

    Thirty years ago the sprawl hit Surrey (south and east) in a big way. At first it was huge homes on little lots, and then gradually more townhomes and row homes have been built in that area. This put a little less pressure on the eastern communities and “bought” them a decade maybe. At that time, Abbotsford was still considered an outer reach for commuting, but more and more have been moving out there during the last couple of decades.

    So now, maybe Chilliwack is considered fair game for commuting; afterall, the government is right now in the process of twinning the span of the Fraser River for the Number 1 highway, which will ease the pressure of all those valley commuters.

    As for the Slow Home guide, it says that 30 minutes in your car should be the limit (I’m guessing this is altogether); but I’d say an hour should be maximum. In many urban centers though, people drive for over an hour in each direction. What seems to be the “acceptable” limit in your community?

  • Manolo

    My choice was The Shore Home as well. Although both the Laneway house and the Garrison Crossing houses are interesting on the topic of density and infill, I thought that The Shore Home addressed these issues and was more complete as a family home (and located in Vancouver proper). The lower suite is a traditional Vancouver house type (the so-called Vancouver Special) that can be fit onto a standard lot. Laundry spaces can be changed, especially if you spoke in a discerning way to the developer – maybe the change can even be worked into the contract???

    And just to echo many comments so far, I was also impressed with the plans submitted this week. I unfortunately was to busy to contribute my own.

  • Mid America Mom

    Just a word on commutes. Used to live outside Chicago and now downtown Toronto. Commutes of an hour or more are not uncommon. I used to have a 1 /1.5 commute for years in the car.

    Mid America Mom

  • MollyK

    Terri,
    I am glad to say Wilmington is no where near the size of Vancouver. I used to commute to a tiny little town outside Wilmington to go to work…yes, I commuted out of the city (funny). It was 40 minutes one-way on a nice interstate. I can’t imagine more time on the road than that…seems sad to spend so much time in the car.
    Our biggest problem is not the distance but the congestion which makes driving time in the Wilmington area so bad. Everyone wants to live in this beach county and so the powers-that-be allow more residential properties to be built.

    MAM,
    I wouldn’t envy your commute at all…

    Overall, it seems to me that if you have to commute an hour one-way wouldn’t it be better to live closer in? It certainly would cut down on green-house emissions from cars (and time away from family).

  • Amanda

    It was nice to read about a little background on Vancouver as Terri posted. But after reading all these comments about location and what is an acceptable commuting distance I have come to the conclusion that the Location question on the slow home test needs some rethinking. Just because a location has a low walk score doesn’t mean it should lose the points on the test. I think location comes down to preference. Some people don’t want to be near the busy city life and traffic. I think that as long as these separate communities have their own grocery store and essentials that they should be given the location points. What does everyone else think?

  • Amanda

    As for the Slow home vote, I chose Garrison Lot 8. I liked the layout the best, however, I think that the kitchen and dining need some attention. Once the table is placed in the dining area I think that it will either cut off circulation or leave wasted space in front or behind the table. I also don’t like the island in the kitchen. The dishwasher and sinks should swap locations. Also, out of preference, I don’t like detached garages.

    I don’t like Small works because I think that it is too cramped of an area. The kitchen, dining, and living all become one space and need some separation. There is also only one bathroom and it is not on the same level as the bedroom which I find inconvenient.

    I don’t like the Shore House because of the main floor layout. The long narrow plan makes for an awkward layout. I don’t like the kitchen/dining/living relationship. I think there is too much circulation.

  • JPod

    It was a tough one between Lot 8, and Smallworks. I feel that smallworks is a slower home, but based on my own preferences I prefer lot 8. I think I’ll have to give in and go with Smallworks even though I would have difficulty living in that space, mostly because it isn’t what I’m used to.

  • Manolo

    I agree that walkability is not the only measure of location. Some neighborhoods are supremely walkable, but are troubled due to other city issues like proximity to heavy industry, urban decay, higher crime, etc. etc. An example of this is the Fishtown neighborhood in Philadelphia. Alternatively, there are other highly walkable neighborhoods that simply price 90% of prospective home buyers out of the market. Vancouver’s Coal Harbour or False Creek comes to mind.

    Further, what the walkscore fails to take into account is the proximity to places of work. So a community can have all kinds of retail stores, parks, transit stops, schools, etc etc and get a very high walkscore, but you might still have to commute 1 hr to go to work everyday. This is more complicated too because in all likelihood, although the grocery store is a quick 5 minute walk, you’ll likely stop by on the way home from work in your car! Not to mention the influence inclement weather can have on your walk-interest.

    That said, I have to disagree that Location is just about preference. I think that choice is very connected to income! Those of us privileged enough to “choose for ourselves” still seem snap up as much green space or luxury fittings as possible. But to me it’s the Tragedy of the Commons: there is only so much green pasture. So living closer together and dealing with the bumpy parts of city life is the reality of the modern predicament and we have to make better decisions for everyone, not just for ourselves. How did we come to have the privilege of choice anyways? ;)

  • Steve

    Hey Slowhomers’

    Here’s a couple of links you might want to check out before you vote:

    The Shore House official website:

    http://www.theshorehouse.ca

    A profile of the Shore House in the North Shore News:

    http://www.nsnews.com/entertainment/house+targets+LEED+platinum+rating/3141680/story.html

    A photo gallery of the nominees on our Facebook Fan Page:

    http://www.facebook.com/slowhome?v=photos#!/album.php?aid=187518&id=372903779475&ref=mf

    Enjoy!

  • BradW

    My comments on the Shore House:

    - nice project done in signature Housebrand colours – points for that! :)
    - appreciate the effort and hard work to achieve LEED
    - I did not like the main floor layout with family, dining and living completely open to each other
    - also calling this a 5 bedroom house (not including finished 2 bedroom suite) is a real big stretch…bedroom 4 and bedroom 5 are extremely small…bedroom4 should be dedicated to laundry (which is currently laughable) and a larger family bath and bedroom 5 should be storage …maybe in Van the families are bigger, don’t need storage and do laundry sparingly

  • ReneP

    My vote is for Smallworks. No laundry, no defined entrance, no dining, and yes, wasted space under the stairs and in front of the bathroom. But in my opinion, smaller is better and trumps the bigger footprints. Less energy, less space, less maintenance, less cleaning, less materials, etc…I agree with Dan M that this is what we need in urban environments – denser areas. I would love to live there :)

  • bstone52

    Small works takes my vote – I like the compact design, especially in the name of today’s urban sprawl issues.

  • Joshua

    Lot 8 gets my vote. I feel as though the design is very compact and does not waste space. The upstairs is simple but good, other than the rooms being a bit small there is no wasted space, no weird angles and a good sized master bedroom and master bath. The laundry down stairs is even easily accessible from the stairs. The entries have ample room as well as storage closets. The one thing that may be a set back is the size of the lot, despite the good compact design of the house. Perhaps with a smaller lot size the house would receive a Slow home score in around 17.

  • BradW

    Smallworks gets my vote – great concept!

    Garrison Crossing was a nice project as well – just not as innovative as Smallworks.

  • Mid America Mom

    Thank you Steve for the links.

    Mid America Mom

  • Mid America Mom

    Oh.

    One thing …it is nice to find nominees this week. We do not always get the pleasure to vote in the single family category.

    Mid America Mom

  • GlenP

    Hello, I have been following the project for some time now but this is my first post. What programs are people using to do the re-design for the challenges each week?

    Thanks,
    GlenP

  • John Brown

    GlenP,
    Thank you for the post. Welcome to the site.

    I believe that most people use Microsoft Paint to complete the exercises. It is a free program that comes with the Microsoft operating system and allows you to erase, draw, copy and paste in the provided jpegs. For Mac users there is Paintbrush. Both are easy to use but take a bit of practice.

    If you have a more sophisticated graphics program like Photoshop I would recommend using it. At this point we aren’t providing the files in a vector based format for CAD programs. That is something we are looking at for the future.

    Let me know if you have any other questions.

  • Mid America Mom

    Hi GlenP.

    I use paint. A week or so ago the question came up in this thread – http://theslowhome.com/slow-home-project/remodelling-aptlofts-in-vancouver/#comments

    I have not tried the other programs people spoke of.

    Mid America Mom

  • Andrew

    Some really great submissions this week. Nichole, I thought your alcove at the side of the house was a very clever way of using that space. And Brad W, very nice work in dividing up the garage and also in detailing the outdoor living space at the front of the house. This really makes you reconsider the usefulness of a double-car garage. Excellent floor plans and I look forward to next (this) week!

  • Frances GF

    On the topic of work commutes. Home offices are an excellent alternative where possible.
    Personally, my husband and I have been able to mostly avoid rush hour. We are lucky enough to be able to work from home some days and if we have to make the commute to the city core the times are mostly flexible enough to avoid traffic.
    This home office alternative and getting the work done on your time schedule as long as the work gets done is hopefully a growing trend.

  • GlenP

    Thanks for the help. I thought most drawings looked fairly clean. You must be pretty proficient with paint!