Western Living Magazine
Off-the-Grid Living: Exploring the Island Cabin near Desolation Sound, B.C.
It’s Always Happy Hour at These 7 Homes with Built-in Bars
Great Spaces: Vancouver’s Wildlight Kitchen and Bar Is a Natural Beauty
3 Parisian Bistro-Inspired Comfort Food Recipes to Bring a Taste of Paris Home
Recipe: Confit Lamb With Roasted Eggplant and Baby Potatoes
Recipe: Sausage With Aligot
The Maui Resort That’s Banking on Your Thoughtfulness
Your Ultimate Travel Itinerary: Brooklyn Like a Local
The 2024 Spring Road Trip Destination You Won’t Want To Miss
Trending for 2024: Top 10 Stylish Furniture and Home Design Picks to Revitalize Your Space
How to achieve kitchen perfection: luxury appliance brand Fisher & Paykel shares all
Editors’ Picks: The Best Books We Read in 2023
How Do I Enter the WL Designers of the Year People’s Choice Awards?
Introducing the Winners of Our First Annual WL Design 25 Awards
WL Design 25 Winners 2024: White Out
A Vancouver-based design team creates laneway homes that demonstrate bigger isn't always better.
The Lanefab legend in a nutshell: Young designer and skilled carpenter sideswiped by recession spot opportunity when City of Vancouver legalizes laneway housing in a bid to deal with high housing costs. Pair design and build the city’s first laneway home, which is subsequently traipsed through by more than 1,000 curious onlookers at an open house. Fame, acclaim and lots of alley-side dwellings result.And the legend is true, as far as it goes. But it’s much less than the whole story behind this year’s recipients of the Arthur Erickson Memorial Award for an emerging designer, as a walkabout in the vicinity of Vancouver’s Douglas Park neighbourhood illustrates. There, on two adjacent blocks, sit four projects by (designer) Bryn Davidson and (carpenter) Mat Turner. Two are indeed laneway houses, but the other two are equally smart-looking but definitely full-sized homes, one of which does not even sport a laneway addendum.So let’s update that legend. In fact, Lanefab’s scope is broad enough that it could have called itself just plain Housefab. Among the roughly 30 projects Lanefab has completed, several sport solar panels and are net zero in terms of energy use, while plans are afoot for homes that will in fact be net positive—contributing energy rather than using it. Where once there sat two-car garages, people now live in great comfort and at virtually no cost to the environment. Meanwhile, how many design/build firms really do design the house, then build it, right down to the last screw? As Bruce Haden points out, Lanefab’s pioneering work extends well beyond their early mastery of the laneway form. “This ambition is unusual for a young organization and exhibits a desire to take on a higher level of risk and responsibility.” wl
Are you over 18 years of age?