Fab Rehab: Vancouver Home

Contractors could barely keep pace with housing demand in Vancouver, the costal Canadian city that saw rapid growth from 1965 to 1985. Builders met the market with scads of cheap, easy to build homes known as “Vancouver Specials” — a term now disparagingly used to denote tacky design and relatively poor construction. Chris Doray and Arno Matis from Iconstrux have turned the phrase around with their rehab of this 1960s home, situated in Vancouver’s Dunbar neighborhood. Using the home’s existing square footage, Doray and Matis renovated the home, adding anodized aluminum windows, grey stucco, cedar railings and an enhanced upper floor balcony. The result preserves the historic charm of the neighborhood while adding dramatic, contemporary touches that redefine special in Vancouver. [via contemporist]