Living with Less: 229 square foot lofts have everything you need to live
Richard Lam
Burns Block tenant, Andrea Wong, relaxes on her pull-down Murphy bed in her 291-square-foot apartment.
Need to declutter your home and silence that inner voice egging you on to buy more stuff? Don’t risk the producers of Hoarders showing up on your doorstep. Down-size to a 226-square-foot apartment in Vancouver.
Martin Knowles
This clean-lined apartment at Burns Block is just 247 square feet. The architect for the project was Glen Stokes with Bruce Carscadden ARCHITECT Inc.
The city known for expensive real estate has unveiled the smallest self-contained rental suites in the country — just 226 to 291 square feet — renting for about $850 per month, including cable and Internet. Location comes with a price tag, of course. These 30 “micro-lofts” are the result of a heritage project to renovate the century-old Burns Block building in Gastown, a trendy area for shops and restaurants. The contrasting backdrop to Gastown is the poverty, substance addiction and homelessness of the Downtown Eastside where Burns Block recently operated as a rundown hotel.
Richard Lam
When the bed is up and away, the table comes out. Handy! All in 237 square feet.
Critics of the project and protesters at the building’s official opening on Monday say that taking potential housing away from the poor and gentrifying the ailing Downtown Eastside is not the answer.
The tenants, most 25- to 35-year-old working professionals, say they appreciate the chance to live in the historical downtown core, even if it means sacrificing on space. “It doesn’t feel that small,” Lia Cosco says of her top-floor corner suite with three large windows, “a ton of exposed brick, and a beautiful view of the North Shore Mountains.”
Martin Knowles
Unit bathrooms are compact. There’s a drain in the floor in case water from the shower sprays beyond the stall.
All suites in the five-floor building have space-efficient design, including flat screen TVs, compact appliances — a dishwasher, but no oven — and built-in pull-down wall beds with integrated folding tables. Put up the bed in the morning and fold out the table. Each unit comes furnished with a sofa, chairs and coffee table.
Cosco calls it a “cosy nook.” She walks five minutes to work, and says she would have paid the same price or more for 400 square feet in a neighbourhood much further from work. This is the first time she’s been able to afford her own apartment. “It’s the price for space allocation in the neighbourhood. When people say Vancouver is too bloody expensive, well it is.”
The downside? There’s a microwave and stove-top elements but no oven, no bathtub and the windows are not double-paned, so noise can be a problem with buses going by and people getting loud during the night, Cosco says. “It’s not forever, but it’s great for right now.”
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Living with Less: 229 square foot lofts have everything you need to live