Decoding Density

Sharing the release of the latest competition put on by the Urbanarium - DeCoding Density.

This is the third competition hosted by this policy-poking group, on the tails of the “Missing Middle” and the “Mixing Middle” each proposing alternate views of our suburban single family landscape, with infill housing as well as small scale commercial enterprise fully integrated with our residential zoning.

This competition returns to an investigation of residential density at the higher scale of infill - the 6 storey multi-residential unit and challenges citizens to cast a critical eye on the regulations that drive this specific typology’s form and the layout of double loaded, narrow units, with limited daylight and low/no cross ventilation.

Marketing for the competition has really latched on to the recent initiative of the City of Vancouver to explore alternatives to the 2-exit requirements for multi-unit dwelling which create the 90m long “barbell” shoeboxes we see throughout the City. As the cost of construction escalates we see less and less variation in these boxes, accompanied by insane measures by BC Housing and the City of Vancouver to mandate cooling in a climate that offers so much potential for free-cooling through cross ventilation.

We can’t wait to see what comes out of this one. The competition is open to all citizens, not just designers. Expect to see the results April 13 at the award presentation and the after party in June.

Check out Utaye Lee’s “About Here” episode that breaks down potential of the single-egress stair and how it offers variation in building form, and better home units while making development viable for smaller lots and smaller developers.

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Urbanarium is a collective of design oriented folks - who have created a catalyst for the creation of events and projects, competitions, debates, studios, talks, maps and tours that help us discover more about ourselves and our cities.