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March 16, 2012

Making less seem like more

L41 proves that high quality can reside in a small space.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY

If the prospect of living in a 240-square-foot space doesn’t excite you, then you haven’t been in an L41home.

Michael Katz and Janet Corne, co-creators of the compact house, took the Jewish Independent on a tour of the 220-square-foot prototype they created for display at the 2010 Olympics. Situated near the entrance of the Centre for Digital Media on Great Northern Way, visitors can peek through any one of the many windows and see for themselves just how pleasant – and spacious – a small home can be.

“Welcome to L41,” said Katz, as he, Corne, JI editor Basya Laye and I stood comfortably in the kitchen/front hall. “L41 is a play on the words ‘all for one, one for all,’ a home for all,” he explained. “The objective of the house is that it’s a ‘world house,’ it’s a Smart car of housing. So, the idea is, can you mass-produce a house, use the miracle of the assembly line [to] create a product which is cheap enough to house the world?”

Originally from South Africa, Katz did his bachelor of architecture there and a master’s in urban design at the University of Toronto. In 1971, he established Katz Architecture Ltd. here in Vancouver. He is an inventor – the author of numerous published patents – is known for his work on high-density, affordable housing and has extensive experience in development planning. His partner, in life and work, Corne is an artist – painter, sculptor and photographer – and designer. Her website describes her as “an artist who sees through the eyes of an architect and whose works focus on transforming complexity of thinking into simplicity of presentation,” and her contribution to L41 is evident. It is a bright, clean, welcoming space in which it would be very easy to live comfortably. The white walls and cabinets, the many windows and the high ceiling make the home seem larger than the measurements would indicate that it should.

L41 has been featured in numerous publications, such as Natural Home and Garden, Urbanland Magazine, Domus (Israel) and the book Nano House: Innovations for Small Dwellings by Phyllis Richardson (2011), as well as being featured in various newspaper articles and at IDS West (Interior Design Show West), which took place at the Vancouver Convention Centre, Sept. 29-Oct. 2, 2011.

“The idea,” said Katz, “was based on the mathematical principle which states that, all other things being equal, the smaller the house, the less materials, less labor, less energy, less land, less city services it needs.... The question then is, how small can you make a house? And we soon realized that that’s a wrong question because the answer is you can make it so small that it’s not livable. So, the next question is, how small can a house be and be delightful? That was the real question.”

Katz and Corne initially thought to build a one-bedroom unit for the Olympics but were concerned that people would think that was the smallest possible livable space, so they made the prototype smaller.

Originally, the single unit was 198 square feet, said Katz, “and we added bits to make it more delightful, and we came to 220. As a matter of fact, now we’re even going to 240, but that’s actually more of a mass-production aspect to do with sizes of containers for shipping worldwide.”

Among its many features, the L41home has energy-efficient appliances – a combination washer/dryer, mini dishwasher, sub-zero fridge and freezer, two-element magnetic-induction stove and  oven/microwave – a stainless-steel sink, reconstituted-quartz counters, laser-welded plastic laminate cabinets (which means they look like lacquer and won’t scratch), a dining bar with bar stools, sofa bed, a window blind that doubles as a projector screen, oak hardwood floors, LED lighting, a green roof and a zinc-paneled exterior.

As we stood admiring the cupboard space and modern appliances, Katz explained, “All small houses that we have seen [around the world] have one thing in common, they all sacrifice the kitchen.... We did the exact opposite. We started with a really perfect, fully functional kitchen.”

He said, “This is basically a teaching experience, to show people what is able [to happen] in the future. Nobody can afford that fridge, obviously, but that was the only pullout fridge that was available at the time – we built this for the Olympics. But, in the last two years, there are now two more, KitchenAid and GE, and they cost one-third of this,” he said, adding that the situation is similar for the other appliances.

“This is a teaching model, and we wanted to show high design, high quality and sustainability,” confirmed Corne. That meant “putting in good, quality appliances, finished fixtures that’ll last a long time and won’t end up in a landfill in 10 years.”

Also in the front section of the home is a small, but beautiful bathroom akin to one found on a cruise ship in terms of design. There is a dual-flush toilet, and there will be a vanity and storage cabinet on the right, above and beside the toilet, the sink is in the middle and the shower to the left. A linen cabinet will be placed in the outer bathroom wall.

“Because, I think, we’re very familiar with the laneways of Vancouver, we think this was built as a laneway [house],” said Corne, “but we just kind of fell into the laneway thing. We were building this as a module for stacking.”

An L41home can be built in different configurations, from single units to multifamily dwellings. Corne showed us a sample of the wood with which the L41 is built. “Our floor and our ceiling are this thick, five and a half inches thick of a solid panel,” she said. “Our walls are also solid panels ... and they’re three and a half inches thick. And this is what we call ‘the latest and greatest new building product.’... It’s just come to North America and its beauty is not for a single unit, but its strength, so it’s a replacement for concrete in mid-rise buildings, from about six storeys to 12.”

Why that’s good, explained Katz, is because, “Concrete is quite a toxic material.” And, added, Corne, wood is a renewable resource. In addition, said Corne, pointing to the part of the wood block that has a grey-blue hue: “This is pine beetle-killed lumber.” Katz explained that there is more than a billion cubic feet of dead lumber lying in the forests of British Columbia alone: from that, some 100 million L41homes could be made. Stressing its structural soundness, Corne and Katz expressed concern that the trees lying on the forest floor will eventually rot, in 10-15 years. “Our job is to use all that lumber,” said Katz.

About the use of wood for building, Katz explained, “The idea is that you can stack this [type of wood] 12 floors. Normal buildings are built out of two-by-four frames and you can build that to four to six floors. In B.C., you can now build six floors in wood frame. After six floors, it has to be concrete or steel. This [wood product] expands that gap and allows you, from six to 12, or six to 15, to carry on building out of wood, which is an important aspect. But remember, that’s not to do with us. We didn’t invent CLT [cross-laminated timber]. We’re just using it, and we’re promoting some of the technology. For example, this is the first CLT building in North America using local-produced panels. There have been quite a few that have used imported panels ... this stuff has been made in Austria and Germany for 30 years. This is not a new technology. We’re just very slow to catch on [in North America].”

CLT is earthquake- and fireproof, notes the L41 website and, “Because concrete is responsible for eight percent of the world’s carbon emissions, replacing it with a sustainable material such as wood is a major step towards a cleaner environment.”

The Independent toured the studio unit, but Katz and Corne also have designed a one- and a two-bedroom unit. The one-bedroom adds 120 square feet to the studio unit, behind the kitchen sink area, and has a queen-size fold-down bed, two side tables and a seven-foot closet, said Corne. The next bedroom, she continued, could be the same, or have two single beds that fold down and, when the beds are up, a desk that pulls down. “During the day, it could be your office, your playroom, your studio,” she offered by way of examples. For the studio unit, the bed – designed by Niels Bendtsen, whose creations can be bought locally at Inform Interiors on Water Street – doubles as a stylish couch.

There is ample storage room in the living room, floor to ceiling, with deep drawers and shelves. Behind the computer station, the wall opens – which you’d never guess by looking at it – and, hidden inside, is the “beating heart” of the unit. “This is the very high level of sustainable energy system,” said Katz, noting, “It has heat exchangers. It has sprinklers. It has electric instant hot water on demand. It is solar thermal and photovoltaic ready. It has hot water heating in the ceiling, which is superior to the floor. And then it has what we call a Control 4 system, which, you can see these little lights, and everything here you can control from your iPhone – you can turn on your heat and your lights when you’re on your way home, and turn them off when you’ve forgotten.”

“Your music, your alarm system, just about everything, your TV,” added Corne.

There’s even a balcony, with storage for a bike, skis, gardening implements, tools, a solar battery or other such items. All of L41’s windows are triple-glazed, the glass doors double, said Corne and, when Katz shut the three-panel balcony door, a quiet came over the room, the traffic noise almost completely muffled.

“We have prefabricators ready to build them and ship them,” said Corne of the fact that the units are now available commercially.

“We are building 150 in Alaska,” shared Katz. “For seniors, for veterans and for homeless,” added Corne. They’ve been hired by a nonprofit to build the units, which will be located in Juneau.

Katz said that they are doing some work in Victoria and Vancouver, that they are talking with people about L41 homes in Africa and that they’ve been to Israel.

Regarding Vancouver specifically, if someone already had land on which to place an L41 unit, either as a primary home or a laneway, Katz explained, “Vancouver has very expensive infrastructural requirements ... so, by the time you finish with your sewers and your foundations and new hook-ups and so on, you can run up a bill of $60,000. But this unit would cost about 90,000 [dollars] at the factory, to pick it up. So, if you add your transportation and everything, by the time it lands in your laneway and it’s ready for your first meal, it’s about 160 [thousand dollars]. But the one-bedroom is not much more; it’s only one-seventy-five and the two-bedroom is one-ninety. So, you get the extra space quite cheaply because your major cost is in your base unit: your kitchen, your hook-ups, your bathroom, your heating systems, all of that stuff you’re paying for in your first piece here.”

The affordability of L41 will depend on the ability to mass-produce the units, as their high quality is crucial, it is what makes them “delightful,” to use a word that comes up repeatedly when discussing the home – even its sewage system. The couple mentioned the possibility of incorporating other technologies into the units in the future, giving the example of the award-winning work of Dr. John Todd, who has developed waste treatment systems that use plants and other natural means instead of chemicals. For the L41, the system would be about the size of a fish tank, and look (almost) as nice.

The L41 prototype was made in time for the 2010 Olympics, but Katz has been involved in ultra-compact housing for his whole career. Based on his experience, he said, “I think I have a good understanding of what we need, as opposed to what we want.” And Corne, too, has been working in the area for decades and incorporates that interest into her art. “I’ve had an ongoing series and study with habitat and how we live and what we live in and what we need as opposed to what we want, and what it’s like to be close to your neighbors and,” she said, pointing to a painting in the unit, “that’s a study that I did of what it’s like to live in a box.... I’ve been working with Michael for over 15 years.... But Michael built his first 12-foot house in [1963/64] and then he brought that innovation, really, because no one was really doing that in North America, he brought that to Canada and [he] built hundreds of those for the government.”

While the couple dreams of an 18-storey L41 complex, they are working on the more tangible goal of a 12-storey, which would be the highest in the world made of wood. “Right now, there’s nine storeys built out of wood in London,” said Corne. “We’re trying to do 12, the Norwegians are working on 17, the Italians are working on 15. We tried for 18, for chai, but we’re working with a phenomenal team of engineers and one of them, who is world-renowned for earthquake, he said, we probably could do it ... but it’s so new, he felt it would just turn out to be a PhD study – but 12 is doable.”

For more information about the L41home, which is now available for purchase as a laneway, in various sizes, from the 240-square-foot unit to the 750-square-foot unit, visit L41homes.com.

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