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According to the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, Vancouver Specials are “front-gabled, two-storey boxy built on grade with very shallow-pitched roofs.”

Technically below-grade: The Vancouver Special originated as a hack in zoning bylaws, whereby any floor 18" below grade was as a "basement" and didn't count towards the floor area limit, allowing larger houses than were otherwise permitted.

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The wierd thing is that while Vancouver specials aren't small they are not huge either. I find it hard to picture how small the average Vancouver home would be if people had to live on half the area that most houses had.

I imagine a lot of people will be very happy with whatever they can get, so long as it's affordable. Lots of places have very compact apartments (Tokyo, NYC, London) and people adapt.

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