TORONTO LANEWAY HOUSING
DESIGN II | fall 2024Professors: Nima Javidi, Nader Tehrani, Elizabeth O’Donnell, Ryan Brooks Thomas
How can the typology of the row house be subverted to allow for additional units along the laneway?
The city of Toronto faces the “missing middle” problem, a lack of medium-density housing in urban areas.
Working with an existing row house and aggregating units by ‘notching’ them into one another linearly rather than side-to-side (along a shared party wall) allows for the houses on the block to face a minimal imposition, losing only 13ft of their backyards due to the thinness of the row house typology.
This thinness allows for increased natural light to permeate the units with windows on the east and west, no longer bound by the depth condition of the standard row house.
The ground level is made up of a series of sheds, garages, private and shared courtyards and openings that allow for entry to individual units, existing backyards, and the shared rooftop terrace. The sheds and garages below supplement the pre-existing spaces that were lost by the original block residents.
Original and new block residents gain the shared rooftop terrace, a series of interconnected terraces and gardens.
The 2nd floor is the main living space, with 1,2, and 3 bedroom units.