As children, the homeowners grew up on this corner, once living as siblings with parents in the original house that stood here. Fast forward several decades, now adults, the siblings enjoy their childhood neighbourhood with their own families in a beautiful new duplex. This new build (also considered a townhouse build, as the awards below recognize) captured the heritage look of the original home and surrounding neighbourhood while also providing two families their own space in new, energy-efficient, beautifully functional homes. Their parents, too, are close by, in the new custom designed laneway house in the back.

The City of Vancouver is now encouraging homeowners to densify their single-family lots, allowing secondary suites to be built starting in 2003, and laneway houses since 2009.

Watch the videos lower on this page to see the demolition and construction phases as Vancouver homeowners turn single family home into duplex and carriage house.