What is Being Subverted?
1 Roads as public space
2 Open air parks
3 Residential/commercial zoning cliffs
4 Urban neighbour relationships
5 Light from the sky
6 Visible density
7 Mixed-use buildings
8 Day/night urban life
9 Urban visual perception
Fictional Case Study Questions
Can mixed-use infill happen in single-family neighbourhoods in a more subtle way?
Can recreation centres happen without lawns, arenas, or large gyms?
Are streets an untapped resource?
Can architecture respond more directly to a city’s daily, weekly, and annual rhythms?
How can underground architecture have natural light and air?
Is living beside new infill typologies possible without seeing them?
Dictation
The site was chosen because it is in the neighbourhood near our studio’s homes and offices. We know the area well because most of our studio’s projects are nearby. The ideas came directly from Urbanarium’s Mixing Middle design competition in 2022. The competition’s name riffs on missing middle housing, which is medium-density housing in Canada and the USA.
As the population grows, every corner of some cities is being reconsidered for infill. In Vancouver, new concepts were being sought through competitions for ideas. These ideas and competitions have never been taken that seriously, though. Recently, single-family zoning rules have been reformed to allow much larger multi-suite buildings to be embedded in established neighbourhoods. The big question everyone affected always has is how much larger new developments will be and what they will look like. We did not have a chance to enter this competition, so we used it as one of our case studies.
We chose a competition site one block away from Main Street, the local high street with shopping and restaurants. Two corner-lot houses back onto the commercial lane behind commercial buildings. This is a very common urban condition in any city, where one typology turns into another. It feels like a slightly defined “gate.”
The design competition sought creative ways to insert new residential or commercial buildings with 1.2-1.8 FSR into older single-family areas. The proposed densities are almost like small apartment buildings. These types of densities are well-known and much-loved in other older cities. Brownstone rowhouses in Brooklyn or Manhattan’s Upper West Side are 1.2-1.8 FSR. Edwardian terrace houses in London are also similar. When density is spread out evenly, it is less noticeable than when new density is introduced in a polka-dotted way between smaller single-family houses –which are typically 0.6 to 0.7 FSR.
This case study has two goals. First, it proposes to try harder, adding more density to existing single-family neighbourhoods than the Mixing Middle competition requested. Second, it counters the idea that new infill density will inevitably appear larger than other buildings around it.
If you live in a single-family neighbourhood in Vancouver (or any Canadian city), significant density increases and bold changes to the visual urban form are underway. New regulations in Vancouver allow multiplexes of up to five or six units, and the federal government is now promoting significantly larger buildings in any single-family zone in Canada without requiring a rezoning process.
Rooting for the underdog, this case study acknowledges that people live in single-family neighbourhoods because they choose and like them. Many houses have rental suites or separate laneway houses. People already accept what could be called triplex density under the current zoning. The issue is not intolerance towards more people moving in; it is the associated visual changes to the built environment. Infill gets extra contentious when residents are advised that the single-family house as a typology is dead, so they should get used to it and get on board with the change. This case study comes from a place of respect for people’s property and preferences.
A common small apartment building in Vancouver is 2.0-2.5 FSR. As a challenge, this case study proposes a way to insert the same residential or non-residential density into existing neighbourhoods invisibly in a way that brings welcome amenities. Our concept is simple. Our case study does not propose any more above-ground building bulk on either of the two corner sites than current RS-1 zoning allows.
Part of the added density will be underground. We have experience with double basements from a client’s house. We made a small house have a more functional area by putting one basement under the other one. This idea is not new. This strategy has been derogatorily called iceberg housing, specific to some private houses in London, England. The criticisms are illogical. If someone wants more space than someone else has, concealing the new space underground is the neighbourly thing to do. It is classy, understated, and should be encouraged.
Mirror Sky Windows
At grade, our case study has buildings with the same footprint as the houses next door to meet the current zoning outright. We knew the tricky thing was getting some natural light and air into sunken areas that are deeper than conventional basements.
The sky is an untapped resource. Vancouver often has soft gray light due to its frequently overcast sky. The light is even and welcome in any interior. We are proposing huge mirrors between the two building volumes in the courtyard area. The mirrors can be moved to suit occupant needs or aimed to reflect different parts of the sky into the interior. Moveable mirror arrays are commonplace in overhead projectors, so our idea scales up current technology. The innovation is the view anyone could get by looking straight up, which would be created with mirrors, projecting the view and natural light laterally into interior spaces. Long vistas are an impossible luxury in the city. But from any location in the city, there is a free and open view if you look straight up. The “view” from any sunken space would be like lying on your back and looking up at the sky. This idea was successfully tested with a scale model and real mirrors as a proof of concept.
A “Train” is Coming
Some locals’ frustration with Vancouver is it’s very mild, but there’s nowhere to go when it rains. You can go to recreational centres, gymnasiums, pools, or arenas, but these amenities are crowded because there are too few. They are hard to drop into casually, and they are indoors. Outdoor playgrounds or sports fields are unpleasant for young parents and teens because you get wet outside. Local amenities must scale up as the population increases. It is unfair for existing residents if they have access to fewer parks and services per capita as their city grows. Our proposal proposes new small-scale amenities built by the private sector at a granular and realistic scale.
The space between this case study’s two opposing corner sites would be filled above the road as a solution. This creates a physical gateway from the commercial to single-family zones. The space under the “bridge” would have the same height clearance as a highway overpass, allowing trucks to drive underneath safely. This covered space could be used for many different functions. Streets are often closed for festivals, film crews, or construction. Vancouverites are used to it. Each gateway bridge could be closed off, but traffic could still flow into the commercial lane, minimizing disruptions. If the space under the bridge were in use after school or during the weekend, it would still be less disruptive to traffic flow than the small pocket parks sprinkled throughout the city on commercial streets. To keep things light, the street under our bridge would get closed off with railroad crossing arms. Kids think they’re a lot of fun, and the flashing lights would tell everyone around that the park was open for play. The space under the bridge suits basketball, road hockey, or gymnastics. Ropes come down from the soffit above, and perhaps basketball hoops could drop down like in school gyms. Beer gardens for older kids could happen year-round after dark, where patrons are outside but dry. The space could host folk bands, farmer’s markets, wedding rentals, jugglers, and children’s birthday parties. The options are endless. Because the bridge’s soffit is 15’ high, users are protected from the rain, but there is still a lot of natural light.
Neighbours
As we designed this multi-use space, we focused on making it palatable for the neighbours surrounding it. The building’s shape would contain any noise generated under the bridge. But we also wanted the flanking neighbours not to see this new building once they passed it, as they come or go from their houses, or are out in their yards. This is solved by using large louvres on the front façade, like rotating tri-blade billboards. This is nothing new. The idea was also inspired by Venetian window blinds, where the angle of a blade controls who sees in or out of a space. Locals in front of or moving away from the new bridge infill could only see a single-family residential façade printed onto the blades. Neighbours will only be able to see what is going on inside the above-ground floors of the bridge infill if they are walking towards the bridge infill or at the intersection.
We propose sinking the front yard outdoor spaces to maximize the amenity space of our bridge infill’s entire site. It can be used for a coffee shop, restaurant seating, or a play space. A sound berm would keep the noise contained to respect adjacent neighbours.
As seen from the neighbours on each side, this bridge infill would appear to have the same house and garage massing as any other non-infill building in the area, allowed within the current zoning. Unlike many new infill projects, living next to the case study is not a negative since the added density is not visible or is below grade.
Roof
The operable roof of the bridge infill is the most dynamic element. We designed an apparatus that would open on sunny days so kids from the childcare inside the infill or from the local area can play on the roof, with few chances of losing stray balls because the roof’s edges are turned up to deflect stray balls inward. If it rains, the roof will close to make another play space, possibly for younger kids who don’t want to play on the covered street below.
The added benefit is that the covered area under the bridge will double when the roof is open, making it well-suited to larger markets, barbeques, or less frequent festivals. We tested this idea with a short movie and new types of visualizations that mimicked the distinctly non-architectural tones and colours of graphic novels from Japan. This infill is repeatable at any similar site. The operable roof does not add any floor area, so the infill’s feasibility works with or without the operable roof option.
This case study was considered with commercial, childcare, or community service occupancies in mind. This case study infill suits residential uses, too. We chose to test residential infill ideas in another case study at 4411 Main Street.
Experimental Text
This case study was described through the eyes of a preteen who lives across the street. Imagining actors with realistic biases and opinions made it easier to imagine the value of this infill.
Process Note
We produced an animated Blender movie in-house. In the style of a Japanese graphic novel, we explored how an operable roof device could catch flyaway balls while children play, make a rooftop space to play outside when it rains or double the street-level outdoor space for larger gatherings.
Super Short Sentences
D’Arcy
Vancouver doesn’t have enough places to play and socialize outdoors, out of the rain. Streets cover much of the city, but they are under-utilized. If typical answers to the Missing Middle problem usually mean someone loses, why not locate all new density where no one sees it? Win-win is possible.
Kelsey
Public space above a roadway with an operable roof referencing the playfulness of railroad crossing arms.
Jonny
Background: An under-used street and two under-utilized residential lots.
29th crossing literally bridges two residential lots with “Raincouver” friendly outdoor public space in addition to livable homes for several families.
Jesse
How dense (in living space and community programming) can a project be in a single-family residential area but still be contextually sensitive?
Alex
Children’s play space above an active roadway.
Mary
“Tell me without telling me you are building more.”
*Mixing Middle toys with the idea of making FSR-2.5 the new FSR-1.
*#TheTellMe Challenge on TikTok
Shane
The Mixing Middle is a project that asks a simple question: Why should we as terrestrial beings reach for the sky and the stars with such hubris when we can humbly burrow into the earth like the noble mole?
Breana
A bridge not meant for bridging, but instead for shelter and inhabitation.
This exploration is part of an ongoing speculative project that began as doctoral research. The collaborative case studies test ideas that will inform future built work. A new design methodology using unconventional techniques explores how to delay aesthetics and form in a search for utility-driven, human-focused projects. Architecture’s status quo is questioned through an optimistic but contrarian lens.
