Canadian studio Batay-Csorba Architects has designed a low-rise apartment building that challenges Toronto's planning policies, which preference single-family homes and fail to address population growth.
The Triple Duplex is meant to offer an alternative to the single-family homes that typically occupy the long, narrow lots that are ubiquitous in the Canadian city. The slender parcels generally measure 18 feet wide by 100 feet deep (5.5 by 30 metres).
The design was conceived in response to a charge by Toronto architecture critic Alex Bozikovic, who invited four firms to submit housing models that would generate discourse about shortcomings in the city's planning policies. Bozikovic writes for The Globe and Mail newspaper.

"The impetus for the Triple Duplex is derived from a fundamental disjoint in the current planning strategy," said Batay-Csorba, a local studio established in 2010. "Current planning policy concentrates growth of new housing units primarily in the small part of the city zoned for high-rise condo development, while greatly restricting change within the low-rise residential neighbourhoods, which constitute the majority of the city's land area."
In its effort to protect the character of low-rise neighbourhoods, the city tends to favour single-family homes over multi-unit buildings, resulting in a lack of affordable housing. This approach is particularly problematic given the city's population growth. The Toronto metropolitan area has six...