STYLE FINDS A HOME
Tracing the GTA’s housing designs from the 1930s to the 2000s
Toronto’s attention to laneway houses may be all the rage at the moment, but it’s by no means new. By the turn of the millennium, just over 20 years ago, laneway housing was top of mind for architects and urban planners, as it presented a unique solution for the city’s increasing population and limited space.
In the last 100 years, the city has seen an array of architectural styles come and go – and, in some cases, return – all adapted for culture, demographics and topography.
In the 1930s, new homes were built small – even smaller than those built before the First World War, and designed in the bungalow style, preferred for its square construction and minimal ornamentation.
Although the bungalow traces its roots to the British colonial period in India, where expats lived in Bengali-style onestory homes with wide porches, the ones in Toronto arrived via California as early as 1910. Distinguished for their comfortable interior proportions, sloped roofs, and wide porches, there were several variations of the style.
Bungalow examples abound in the city today, throughout the Beaches – a few still overlooking the lake – as well as Riverdale, North Toronto (especially Leaside), along the Danforth, throughout High Park, and later examples in Scarborough and East York. A big part of their appeal was the fact that they were inexpensive to build, and some homeowners could even build their own using a mail-order kit that came with plans and materials.
During and after the Second World War, of course, Toronto saw the rise of the now infamous Victory Houses. Modest, unassuming and practical, Victory Houses embodied the sensibility of the time and city in which they were built, and can still be seen across the Greater Toronto Area to this day. Constructed on what were once the city’s fringes, the typically one-and-a-half story homes are synonymous with 1940s Toronto, where their charmingly simple design overturned the way houses had been constructed and how people lived.
By the 1960s, people who’d grown up in the suburbs were coming back to the city for work and play, and needed inexpensive housing in the form of apartments. At the time, most apartments were either large luxury blocks, or flats above retail stores on major corridors. This period marked highrise construction, particularly in the style of French architect Le Corbusier. His concept of Towers in the Park – apartment towers set back from the street and surrounded by parkland – can be seen throughout the city and smaller suburban centres.
Newly introduced tax laws in the 1970s, and later rent control measures, led to investors getting rid of their apartment holdings, which led to people considering condo ownership instead of renting. The condo boom of the mid-1980s was shortlived, though, with the recession of the late 1980s. By the mid-1990s, the economy had bounced back and condos took off and have never really tapered off.
Many factors contributed to the population growth of the city – the rise of the tech sector, infrastructure investment, and simply that the GTA is a great place to live. But all these people needed places to live, and fueled a condo boom that has created the greatest alteration to the city’s architecture. It’s also given rise to a select group of renowned architects who not only changed the skyline but also demonstrated how possible it is to live in smaller, more efficiently designed spaces.
By the end of the decade, the city was largely comprised of single-family neighbourhoods next to towers clustered around transit (major transit stations) and retail hubs. A later study (2017) by the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis found that 45 per cent of GTHA residents live in detached homes and 35 per cent in apartment buildings, with very little in between.
This led to coining the phrase “missing middle” – mid-rise housing of six to ten stories, either multi-family/apartments or stacked towns. These are effective for increasing densities without building high-rises.
Approximately 30,000 detached units were being built annually in the late 1990s and early 2000s in the GTA. And in the mid-2000s the province introduced legislation and policy – notably the Growth Plan – that prompted higher densities, namely building up rather than building out.
By the 2000s, downsizing became a buzzword – especially with the aging demographic – and small containable spaces were the norm, especially with Gen Y and Z, who grew accustomed to small condo spaces – and the maintenance-free lifestyle.
Also during this period, to accommodate the density requirements under the Growth Plan, there has been a resurgence of the venerable townhouse and the introduction of newer built forms such as stacked towns. The word townhouse goes back to early England, where the term referred to a dwelling a family (usually gentry) kept “in town” (meaning London) while their primary residence was in the country. Today, it more modestly refers to a single-family dwelling with at least two floors that share a wall with another house. Use of these built forms makes new communities (even those in the suburbs) far more compact and efficient compared to the development of previous decades.
But humans are ever resourceful and creative, and by the new century, two housing styles emerged from this land shortage. One is the wee house – also known as the tiny house – built on wheels for easy transport. Though not allowed within city limits for zoning reasons, it has become a noted trend.
And there’s the ubiquitous laneway house. Built on odd little tracts of land – triangles or small sections carved out of a larger lot – these have helped maintain Toronto’s idiosyncratic style. They’ve also added to the healthy mix of styles the city is known for and which reflects our diverse heritage.