Great Spaces: four extremely cool laneway houses
Great Spaces: four extremely cool laneway houses
Some of Toronto’s most spectacular homes are tucked out of view, nestled in narrow alleyways that run between city streets. Laneway housing is deeply urban, relatively cheap, environmentally smart and seriously stylish. Here, four families that have it all figured out.
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[caption id="attachment_298378" align="aligncenter" width="656"] Peter Tan and Christine Ho Ping Kong’s laneway house near St. Clair and Old Weston Road (Image: Juliana Sohn)[/caption]
Some of Toronto's most spectacular homes are tucked out of view, nestled in narrow alleyways that run between city streets. Laneway housing is deeply urban, relatively cheap, environmentally smart and seriously stylish. Here, four families that have it all figured out.
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A courtyard house in Carleton Village, near St. Clair and Old Weston Road
Tall Order
A 2,000-square-foot tower with two home offices in Corktown.
Steel Beauty
A mod, 1,300-square-foot house near Dupont and Shaw.
This Old Coach House
A contemporary coach house in the Annex.
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The irony of Toronto Life doing this compilation of recent posts on laneway houses is that only one of these posts has any photographs of the houses themselves. Want to know what that interesting-sounding “2,000-square-foot tower” in Corktown looks like? Sorry, no photos. What about the exterior of that “steel-clad box” near Dupont and Shaw? Sorry, no images. Want to see that “century-old converted coach house’ in the Annex? Sorry, no photos. We got one photo of the exterior laneway house in Carleton Village, which doesn’t really show us how it fits into its laneway context.
None of these four posts really tell us anything about laneway housing. Even the accompanying text doesn’t tell us anything about how these houses were successfully integrated into the existing laneways. The intro to this compilation tells us that such housing is “deeply urban, relatively cheap, environmentally smart and seriously stylish”, yet we need to take Toronto Life’s word for it since the posts don’t really show us what these laneway houses look like.
There are some lovely, and very interesting, interior shots, but they could have been taken in houses anywhere in the city. I love the furnishings shots, but pictures of Barcelona chairs and floor lamps made from moth cocoons give us zero insight on how these people made laneway housing work.
These are some nice posts about interior design and furnishing in small houses, but they really have little to do with laneway houses.
I suspect one reason there are no exterior shots showing the house is to respect the privacy of the owners. Don’t want to show all their nice furnishings, and then show a photo of the house itself, allowing any robber to find the place with Google streetview.
If that’s the case, though, you still can’t pretend you’re doing a piece on laneway housing.
You might find that my lane houses may fit your criteria, not furniture, integrated and newly built. http://www.16egertonlane.com