In a city where more than 80 per cent of residential land is zoned for single-family houses, a UBC sociology professor says we have to let go of the idea that a house is where a home is.
Nathan Lauster will be at the Museum of Vancouver tonight to talk about his new book, Death of the Single-Family House in Vancouver.
He thinks that one of the things that make Vancouver such a liveable city is its density. Detached houses “tend to deaden city life,” he says in an interview with UBC’s faculty of arts. “Houses are generally surrounded by more houses, with lots of private space and very little public space…. Urban vitality thrives when the private and public are more balanced: when people have places to go and things to do near where they live and they can walk or bike or take transit to get there.”
He doesn’t suggest that condos are the only alternative, but he does stress that there are people who enjoy condo life and don’t see it as a lesser alternative to owning a house.
“For those opposed to densification, I’d agree that we don’t need high-rises everywhere,” he said in the UBC story. “We want to keep Vancouver both liveable and diverse in urban form. But we still have way too many houses to encourage that diversity… At this point, we’ve still got the power of the city, through those old zoning bylaws, keeping anyone but multi-millionaires from settling down in these places. I don’t think the city should be doing that.”
His public talk tonight (Feb. 22) is free. It is being hosted by the Vancouver Historical Society at the Museum of Vancouver from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
