How the Iconic Vancouver Special Became a Symbol of the City's Lack of Affordable Housing
A 'Vancouver Special' house. Photo: Ouno Design
Vancouver is the 2nd least affordable city in the world next to Hong Kong and is at risk of becoming a vacation home for the wealthy. The 'Vancouver Special' house design was once a symbol of working class immigrants dreaming of a prosperous life in Canada. Now, it represents the ridiculous nature of its over-priced real estate market, populated by foreign investment.
Great cities are known for designing architectural styles that are celebrated and replicated in buildings around the world. Prague has its gothic structures, Barcelona has Gaudi, New York has its Art Deco towers, Paris has neoclassical monuments and Vancouver - one of the most expensive cities in the world - has the Vancouver Special.
Popular in the 1960s and 1970s, the first Vancouver Specials went up in the post-war years to accommodate an influx of immigrants coming to Canada. They were designed to maximize square footage on relatively small lots.
Growing up in Vancouver, I spent my youth in a few of these homes (of friends, not my own). The odd design created an even more odd interior. The main floor was always dark, because of the useless, overhanging front balcony. And even though most had an entryway that led upstairs to the main part of the house, it always felt weird to initially walk into someone's dark rec room on the bottom floor upon entering the home.
Both loved and reviled, Vancouver Specials are still scattered through the city's Eastside as well as some of the suburbs. Some people have even managed to convert them into more beautiful modern homes like this one.
Recently, well-known Vancouver artist Ken Lum has turned the Vancouver Special into a commentary on our city's inflated real estate market and our lack of architectural prowess (Vancouver does love its cookie cutter glass condo towers). Lum's exhibit, called Vancouver Especially, is a replica of a Vancouver Special built at $45,000, the same price it would have cost in 1970, but at a scale that would be relative to its cost today.
According to the CBC, Lum discovered that if he had stuck to his original budget, the result would be so small that it wouldn't be noticeable to most passers-by. Instead, he built a larger one and placed the tiny replica on a nearby pedestal.
Photo: Pricetags
"Today, affordable housing, it's a crisis category," said Lum. "I think there's may be lessons to be drawn in terms of the culture that spawned the Vancouver Special."
The exhibit is open until February 2016 and is located at 271 Union Street in Vancouver.
