Laneway housing: Communal backyard at Queen and Manning

EDITOR: This is a post in our series looking at the laneway housing projects created in a University of Toronto Architecture Faculty’s Laneway Housing studio led by Brigitte Shim & Don Chong. This work and text is by  Sophia Radev a graduate of the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in 2009 and  currently completing her Master in Architecture at University of Toronto. She has lived and studied in Rome and lived and worked in New York and Toronto.

The site location for this project is at Queen Street West and Manning Avenue with commercial and residential street frontages, and backyards that form one large space accessed from three laneways all around the site.

 

Toronto is a very parcel oriented city, therefore I chose a site that was specific in addressing this form that Toronto uses to divide up land and property. The challenge is to address the businesses that face on Queen Street West, the renters that possibly live above the commercial street frontage and the residents in the neighbourhood of that block. The idea is to begin sharing the backyard space among all residents of the block.  Everyone gives up a bit of land to create a larger parcel that everyone can benefit and share. Therefore, even renters who might not have a backyard at all, are now entitled to a piece of sharing and caretaking the larger parcel of land that has been designed to house various activities on a monthly schedule and perhaps rented out to other locals within in the neighbourhood.

There are similar site conditions such as the one at Queen and Manning Avenue with similar commercial and residential street frontage.

Infrastructure, architecture and the garden are the three goals I tried to achieve on the site.  With infrastructure I implemented district heating to be located on the site. Therefore it becomes a single source of heating for the site as well as for the residents and commercial owners on the street block.

As each owner gives up a bit of their backyard parcel they in return get a structure to house a larger space that is shared by everyone living on the block.  This becomes a gathering place for residents and locals of the neighbourhood.

A green roof is created, doubling the garden area in space. The ground floor is equipped with a kitchen, a fire pit and guest rooms where relatives or friends visiting residents living on the street block can stay.