FLEXIBLE ‘FULL HOUSE’ DESIGNS
Creative configurations fit needs for multi-generational living
With real estate prices being what they are in Vancouver, there is an increasing demand for detached family homes that can accommodate more than a single family, says architect Michael Leckie.
Coming up with new forms of “familial co-housing ” is what’s required of architects and designers here, he says. His firm is currently working on a design for a home in Kitsilano that will be shared by three generations of one family, calling it “full house.”
“Land in Vancouver is extremely expensive,” notes the principal of Leckie Studio Architecture + Design. “So many families are buying property and it’s taking all their resources to buy the real estate, so they’re combining resources to really solve the problem communally.”
The “full house” design can also address another social and economic issue in Vancouver: child care.
“Not only is real estate really expensive in Vancouver,” he says, “but viable and affordable options for child care are also very scarce, so there’s a win-win opportunity when grandparents are able to spend increased time with their grandchildren.”
The home in question is a fivebedroom home, and has a garden suite that offers differing living scenarios that the occupants — grandparents, their son and his young family — can choose and change as their needs evolve.
“The various household members actually occupy different parts of the house throughout their lives because there are parts of the house that are specifically suited to their respective needs,” he says. “The house is reconfigurable using this device that we — just for the sake of communicating it — have termed Duchamp’s door, which essentially is a movable partition which allows the separation of the house to be flexible and actually changed fairly easily without tearing down walls or costly renovation work.”
Leckie says, for example, that the garden suite, with its separate entrance, can initially be used by the grandparents while they have mobility and want independence, with their son and his family occupying the top two floors. As the grandparents age and perhaps require greater assistance or are more limited in terms of mobility, they can occupy the master bedroom, designed to be on the main floor, to allow for easy engagement with family life, freeing up the garden suite for a grandchild who reaches college age.
The key is fluidity and flexibility in the design, he says, and the way the spaces can be “recombined in multiple ways.”
Duchamp’s door, says Leckie, is more than just a door, but more of a “pivoting partition” that exists in three possible positions, with each determining a different relationship between the dwelling units in the house.
Another factor that has to be considered when designing for multiple generations, says Leckie, is the landscaping.
“We’ve manipulated the ground plane in the front yard, as well as the back yard to maximize the accessibility to the main floor of the house,” he says.
Leckie says that if architecture is to last 50 or 100 years or more, it has to be functional and viable and support the lifestyle of the occupants, both in the short and the long term.
“In Vancouver, we suffer very acutely from the idea of housing as a commodity, and part of what this project is doing is trying to reclaim the notion of the family home. That there are memories attached to place, that housing is more than a commodity, it’s more than just a financial investment, it’s an investment in place-making, and community building and legacy for families.”