Suburban Exaptation: Densification Without Demolition

Abstract

Wood framing, widely available and easy to assemble, has come to embody the ideal of a modular architectural system but not the image. Despite this inherent ability to enable change, its rigid implementation through the single family type has created an urban monoculture which encompasses two thirds of the Canadian population.

As zoning rules are loosened to promote the creation of “missing middle” density housing, the greatest barrier to accommodating this need has become the suburban house itself. Whether through lot splitting, infills, or property aggregation, these single family communities can be densified, but only at the expense of premature demolition. Their replacements, constructed using the same techniques as the homes they replace, call into question the misappropriation of wood framing’s flexibility.

By viewing these existing homes not as barriers to densification but as the means for its rapid implementation, this thesis approaches wood framing as a modular system in place of its current use as a disposable commodity, embedding the opportunity for density within the single family house. Leveraging the similarities between low and high density housing types in Calgary, one of Canada’s most suburban and fastest growing cities, the proposal seeks to enable the densification of the Calgarian suburbs without demolition, subverting existing zoning and visual approaches in individually subtle but exponentially impactful ways.