Spaced

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, and sweet fuck all on Craigslist.

Spaced / Strathcona

We Want This Parisian Live/Work Situation Here in Vancouver

We'd happily take this three bedroom house / workshop near the Rue des Martyrs if we could set it up here in Strathcona...

Spaced

We Want to Take Shelter in This Locally Designed ‘Great Lakes Cabin’

Vancouver firms Backcountry Hut Company and Leckie Studios collaborated on this low impact prefab, and we want it.

Spaced

Why Yes, We’d Love to Stay in This Cottage Made Entirely of Chocolate…

Chocolatier Jean-Luc Decluzeau designed and built this 200 sqft cottage constructed entirely of 1.5 tons of chocolate in France.

Spaced / The Islands

We’d Carry This One Room Cabin From New York to the Cowichan Valley

Designed by NYC firm JacobsChang, this place cost just $20,000 (USD) to build with the job being done over a weekend by the owners.

Spaced / Downtown

In a City of Shrinking Balconies, Could We Please Have Some That Bloom?

Architect Manuel Herz's 'Ballet Mécanique' apartments in Central Zurich could teach local developers a thing or two about balconies.

Spaced / False Creek

This Tiny Cabin for Beer Island, Please

With solar panels on its A-frame, the stilted construction has very little impact on its immediate environment and did not require building permits because of its diminutive size.

Spaced

The Norwegian Hideout of Our Dreams

This cool construction by TYIN Architects was built with the help of a group of students in just three weeks. Imagine the quiet within.

Spaced

Wanting This Concrete Cabin in Mexico Near a Tofino Beach

Designed by Aranza de Arino (and available on Airbnb), it's close to the big wave surfer's paradise of Puerto Escondido.

Spaced / New Westminster

A Spartan Hideaway of Wood and Window

This minimalist, perspective-compressing 2016 home in Japan would suit an out-of-the-way slice of the Lower Mainland.

Spaced / West End

We Want This Tree-Inspired House in Toyko for Vancouver’s Ramenland

This house in Tokyo rises up from the street like a concrete organism, twisting and sprouting limbs in tree-like fashion.

Spaced / North Vancouver

An Isolated Cabin in Wales for a BC Backyard

We want this beautiful Welsh hideaway - clad in local slate with an interior of birch plywood - a lot closer to home.

Spaced / Downtown East Side

We’d Totally Live in This Danish ‘Krane’ if It Overlooked Vancouver’s Crab Park

The engine room of this massive crane on the shore of Copenhagen was renovated to include a spa, a meeting room and a suite for two.

Spaced

Trading a City Shoebox For a Mountain Retreat

This small house overlooking the Austrian Alps would suit the equally isolated acreage in BC that we have in mind for it.

Spaced

A Zeppelin-Shaped Cabin for Finn Slough

The Jules Verne-like "Mr. Plocq’s Caballon" is located on the shore of the Loire estuary in France, but we want it much closer.

Spaced / East Vancouver

Imagining This Swiss Concrete Cabin Under an East Vancouver Bridge

If enterprising skateboarders can hide DIY concrete skateparks in tunnels and under bridges, why not a cabin or two?

Spaced / The Islands

Imagining this Northern Californian Retreat in Some Vancouver Island Woods

This beautiful family complex would make for an excellent place to hide from depressing housing statistics.

Spaced / Squamish

Dreaming of a Modern Swiss Mountain Fortress in The Wilds near Squamish

In the depths of winter it's natural to think of home as a fortification against the elements. This place takes it a step further...

Spaced / Kitsilano

We Want This Japanese Home with an Earthquake-Ready Bookshelf for a Kits Laneway

No ladders are necessary to explore this tall, slanted, seismic-savvy bookshelf in Japan.

Spaced / Sunshine Coast

A Swedish Solution for Solitude Somewhere Secret on the Sunshine Coast

This "72h Cabin" was named after the length of time a study took to come to conclusions about stress reduction. How very fitting!

Spaced / North Shore

This Trapezoidal Looker Would Make for a Sweet Place to Hide

As the Mayor brags about new tech jobs for people who still won't be able to find/afford housing, we want to run away -- specifically here.

Spaced / Strathcona

This Italian Architect’s ‘Pinecone’ Should Be a Laneway House in Strathcona

Given the option, we think a lot of us would choose to live in a pinecone inspired by the theories of philosopher Michael Foucault...

Spaced

Plotting to Steal Artist’s Idaho Desert Home and Plant It in the Nicola Valley

We want this cozy, picturesquely isolated Olson Kundig home / workspace in the remote wastes of Idaho.

Spaced / Tofino

We Want to Steal This Cabin and Rebuild It on a Secret Plot near Tofino

The half-underground cabin in the middle of nowhere in Sweden would make a great hideaway outside Sooke or Tofino on Vancouver Island

Spaced / The Islands

Dreaming of This Rural Washington State Retreat for a Clearing on Galiano Island

The house is wrapped in Western Red Cedar and features an office, an in/out fireplace, high ceilings and lots of windows.

Spaced / Squamish

We Want This Swedish Mountainside ‘Lofthuset’ to Overlook all of Squamish

They're making four of these beauties for a mountainside in Sweden. Surely they could make a fifth for Squamish...

Spaced / North Shore

Imagining This Awesome Treehouse Near Beijing As A Secret North Shore Hideout

The main space - floored with a tatami mat - is for living/sleeping, while the other is used as a washroom. It's tiny (all told under 100 sqft), but we reckon it's enough to provide the one or two people within (anymore would be ridiculous) with the escape they desire. We'd take ours in the quiet cool of the North Shore's Lynn Valley, permits be damned.

Spaced / The Okanagan

Feasting Hut In The Scottish Wilds Would Suit The Desolate Okanagan Highlands

All it took was one lousy 48 hour heatwave and we're already pining for the wintry windswept wilds of the middle of nowhere!

Spaced / Kitsilano

Radical House Full Of Ladders, Nets, Tunnels Would Suit Dr. Seuss Near Kits Beach

It reminds me of my crazy preschool in Kitsilano back in the 1970s, which until my late teens I was convinced was the home of Dr. Seuss.