With our city now so laughably unaffordable, thousands of Vancouverites are stuck imagining wonderful homes instead of living in them. Spaced is a record of our minds wandering the world of architecture and design, up and away from the unrewarding realities of shoebox condos, dark basement suites, sweet f~ck all on Craigslist and three levels of government that couldn’t give a damn.

(via) When you work from home it takes discipline to get a full day’s work done. There are just far too many distractions, especially if there are children and/or pets involved.

Frequent walks do well to clear heads, but what’s really required is time and space alone in a corner or cloister — a place that one can call one’s own, even if only for thirty minutes at a time.

When I close my eyes and dream of such a place, I picture something strikingly similar to this Slate Cabin in Wales.

Designed as a writer’s retreat by Australian studio TRIAS, the wee thing is tucked away in an isolated pastoral setting. Clad in locally quarried slate with an interior dressed in birch ply, the Spartanly-appointed structure (built-in cabinetry, storage, etc.) is exactly the sort of thing I’d like to run away to for a reset.

If I could transplant it from its foundations on the Welsh countryside to anywhere I wanted in close to home (but not too close) in Vancouver, I’d sneak it into the back of an artist friend’s huge, mountain-backed yard in North Vancouver on the understanding that we’d take turns making good use of its peace and quiet.