Little-used alleys could help ease housing crunch

Vanessa Farquharson, Green goods, National Post

Most sustainable urban planners agree it’s better to build up than out, which increases density and prevents sprawl. But perhaps we should be building inwards, too — erecting small houses in a pre-existing network of laneways and back alleys.

If this brings to mind images of shabby garage conversions, Brigitte Shim and Howard Sutcliffe’s award-winning laneway house in Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood may change this — they built the place in 1993, navigating the fine print of the Ontario Municipal Board as well as a few concerns from locals. Now, it’s seen as a prime example of the architectural beauty that can arise from a space previously reserved for nothing more than wrecked cars and weeds.

“The design of it really protects everyone’s privacy,” says Ms. Shim. “It’s unobtrusive, tucked away and uses already existing infrastructure.”

In 2003, she began leading University of Toronto students in a design course that focused on this unique type of housing and has recently co-edited a book called Site Unseen: Laneway Architecture & Urbanism in Toronto to further generate interest.

According to one source, Toronto has some 2,433 laneways — if all of these were opened up to residential development, more than 6,000 housing units could be added to the city without creating any sprawl.

Caroline Lock, for one, thinks this is a great idea. The editor at a local alternative newspaper has been living in a laneway house for more than four years and loves it.

“I hate those enormous apartment blocks that make you feel like an ant or something,” she says, adding that her hidden abode has more of a cottage feel and is incredibly quiet, being removed from all street noise and traffic.

“The only downside is explaining the address to people,” Ms. Lock says. “Everybody complains that it’s impossible to find.”

She’s pretty much given up on all pizza deliveries, and once, when the mailman went on vacation, she didn’t receive any letters or packages for two weeks. That said, cab drivers don’t seem to have any problem finding the place.

“But none of them will enter laneways at night,” Ms. Lock says. “It’s a policy they all have. If I’m in the car, they’ll drop me off, but otherwise I have to wait at the end of the street.”

Aside from this — and the fact that she gets the occasional pot smoker or garbage picker lingering outside her front door — Ms. Lock is content with her home and thinks there should be more like it.

“There’s no better use for the space,” she says. “I’d definitely seek out another laneway house in the future.”

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Contact Laurin Jeffrey for more information  –  416-388-1960

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