The Passive Narrow

Project Description

Designed by Nick Bray Architecture, this house is built as a case study über-environmentally-friendly ‘home for the future’, designed to last forever by European standards (i.e. at least 100 years), while making an architectural statement on a narrow East Van lot considered by many to be unbuildable. Besides becoming a certified PassiveHouse (challenging considering the small/long/narrow massing), the house required an innovative foundation/shoring system because it is built in a peat bog with a high water-table [with no ground water pumping].

Construction challenges aside, the house provides a commodious, durable, and thoroughly modern living space for a growing family, with a surprisingly airy garden suite below. It’s designed to be flexible to handle everyone’s growing needs: while currently configured as a 3-bedroom house over a 2-bed suite, it can also be set up as a 4-bed house over a 1-bed legal suite.