What is a multiplex?
As the demand for housing has grown in cities across the country, residents have become familiar with slow densification to single family neighborhoods. Secondary suites and laneway homes are familiar methods of introducing “gentle density” in a context of mostly single-family homes. Although the response to the province’s Bill 44 will certainly see more of this kind of housing allowed on more properties, building types with even more units will also become a common sight. The province is referring to these buildings by the catchy acronym SSMUH: Small Scale Multi-Unit Housing, but that’s not the only name for them.
Duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and so on are a building type also referred to as “plexes” and these are the focus of this exhibition. This kind of housing is labeled by some urbanists and architects as the “missing middle” because of its relative scarcity in North American urban settings, compared to the more common single-family homes, and high-rise apartment buildings.
Plexes are the Goldilocks of the housing options. They provide more homes than a single family house while occupying about the same footprint; are good neighbours in zones with a mix of housing types; and are small enough to offer their occupants great access to shared outdoor spaces where valuable connections to neighbours can take root and flower.
Metro Vancouver Cheat Sheet
Municipalities across the province have adopted a range of responses to Bill 44. Cities like Vancouver and Burnaby were ahead of the Province in studying how to densify single family neighborhoods to meet the demand for housing. Vancouver has already received hundreds of applications for SSMUH developments and has detailed design guidelines with specific responses to various site sizes and configurations. In the City of Burnaby, almost every form of medium-scale residential development is now possible; including up to four-storey buildings and fee simple row houses. Not only that, the City has removed floor area ratio maximums and currently has no plans to implement design guidelines, leaving the playing field wide open for creativity and experimentation. Meanwhile, many other municipalities in the province haven’t been able to meet the province’s quick deadlines or are actively resisting them.
This information was generously provided by Laidler Academy and is a guide only. The SSMUH zoning bylaws landscape is changing rapidly. For up-to-date information, it is recommended that you contact your municipal Planning department or hire an architect to work through the zoning requirements with you.