Vancouver, BC

This project is a true love story. Our client had lived in a 1919 vintage house Vancouver’s  Queen Elizabeth Park neighbourhood since 1974. Sadly eight years before embarking on this project  his wife had a stroke and they were forced to move into a nearby apartment where their living conditions were suitable for a person confined to a wheelchair and day bed. Their home had been lovingly cared for and my client had constructed a beautiful garden, an oasis for him and his wife in the 70’s.

With the advent of laneway home zoning he reimagined the family home as a rental property in the front and a small accessible cottage and modern garden in the back; truly a gift to his wife – a homecoming present. He explained that cottaging on the coast or the Islands was just too far away to be a proposition so this small garden and home would be an urban oasis and family cottage for them just five minutes away from their primary home.

The project saw the main house be renovated to a long term rental with cedar screens limiting any windows which may view into the newly designed garden. The laneway house is designed to open into the garden and as a place of rest and contemplation and also a galley to show case the client’s love of abstract art.

Wood in general, and cedar in specific, became the central design theme. Wood was used for its warmth, and as well its historical context in the garden that we replaced. Cedar became the predominant material in the garden, including the trellis, shade structures, fencing, recycling sheds, decking and even for a feature green wall facing the rental home. Cedar was used to fame the garden, screen the neighbours and the rental home and to provide a softness and warmth to the project. It is said cedar has many healing properties so it was brought into the laneway house bringing the feeling of the calm and serene outdoors inside. It clads both the high ceilings (in a white wash) and the lower bulkhead (left natural).

Remarkable when in the garden one truly is transported out of the city and into a west coast oasis.