The University of British Columbia
Robson Square
- This event has passed.
Unlocking Housing Potential:
How the New Single-Egress Code
Can Help Us Build Better Communities
October 25, 2024
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
at UBC Robson Square, HSBC Hall (C680) (map)
About the Event
How does building design affect community planning? In the case of the recent BC legislation allowing single stair (single egress) apartments, it could transform how we live. In the first-of-its-kind legislation in Canada, the BC government recently allowed small apartment buildings to have a single exit staircase. This policy shift creates new opportunities for more family-sized housing, more housing on smaller plots of land, and better living spaces.
Unlocking Housing Potential will imagine the ways new design codes like this could foster more vibrant communities through social connection and wellbeing, and explain how modernizing our building codes could make our buildings better, safer, and more livable.
Join Conrad Speckert and Associate Professors Inge Roecker and Nathanael Lauster for this illuminating presentation and panel, with time for Q&A at the end.
Event Speakers
Inge Roecker | Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Land Architecture, University of British Columbia
Inge Roecker is a professor in UBC’s Master of Architecture program and a member of the UBC Housing and Wellbeing Research Group. Her work focuses on inclusion in architecture, blending lived experience with design. She co-founded Design for Inclusion (D4i), which advocates for equitable, innovative housing models. Inge also leads AIR studio, an internationally recognized firm centered on sustainability, collaboration, and justice. Her research addresses social issues related to housing and space, and she frequently consults with cities and organizations. Inge is deeply involved in the revitalization of Vancouver’s Chinatown and serves on several related boards.
Nathan Lauster | Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia
Nathan is a sociologist and occasional demographer who focuses on housing, home, households, and urban life. He is the author of the award-winning book The Death and Life of the Single Family House: Lessons from Vancouver on Building a Livable City, which explores how cities can become more livable. In collaboration with Jens von Bergmann, he co-led the CMHC-funded Metro Vancouver Zoning Project, investigating how zoning impacts urban development. He also runs the blog Home: Free Sociology, where he shares insights and reflections on these themes.
Conrad Speckert | Intern Architect at LGA Architectural Partners
Conrad is an intern architect at LGA Architectural Partners in Toronto with degrees from McGill and Waterloo. As part of the CMHC Housing Supply Challenge, LGA is collaborating with 10 other architects across Canada to develop alternative solutions to the building code requirement for two staircases in small multi-unit residential buildings and has proposed a corresponding change to the National Building Code of Canada. Conrad was also previously a project manager for ‘ReHousing’ – a collaboration with the University of Toronto to visualize gentle density and zoning reform for “missing middle” housing.
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