Jim Toy, False Creek Design Group: Planning for High Density Urban Housing

Planning for High Density Urban Housing

In response to the affordable housing crisis, higher construction costs, DCCs, energy and building code updates, and the densification of neighborhoods in the city of Vancouver and beyond, homes have become increasingly smaller and smaller.

Are micro suites and tiny homes the answer? The benefits of minimal living should be a choice, not a necessity, but more people than ever are having to move into such places just to make ends meet.

A tug of war is being waged over the size of the average urban apartment in the most expensive city in Canada. On the one hand, guidelines such as the City of Vancouver’s High Density Housing for Families With Children are prescriptive and not conducive to flexible alternative solutions. On the other side, the power of compression has influenced market housing, from entry level micro suites to luxury homes aimed at high-net buyers.

This presentation looks at the ‘missing middle’, examples of completed and in progress high density multi-residential projects that offer impactful solutions to maximizing living space for everyone; with a thoughtful and responsible approach to planning and design.

Jim Toy BArch RID LEED AP is the founder and principal of False Creek Design Group Ltd., a building and interior design firm specializing in high function spatial design with offices in Vancouver and Halifax. Jim has over 30 years’ experience designing projects in North America and Asia, including the residential conversion of the BC Hydro and West Coast Transmission buildings in Vancouver, and Dockside Green, the first LEED gold certified real estate development in Canada. Current projects include Plaza of Nations Phase 1, the Landmark on Robson, and McCormick Village North, a master plan community in Port Orchard Washington.

Jim is the President and a Fellow of the Interior Designers Institute of British
Columbia (IDIBC), past chair of the Architecture Foundation of British Columbia (AFBC) and chair of the IDIBC Government Relations Task Force, working towards designation under the Professional Governance Act (PGA) for RIDs and the interior design profession in BC.