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The Vancouver Special is reviled by many as awkward and unsightly - the architectural equivalent of the ugly duckling. But one specimen of the boxy dwelling - in the upscale Dunbar neighbourhood - recently re-emerged, swan-like, having shaken off its traditional stucco shell to display a transcendent design.

While many city architects have had a go at breathing new life into the style - noted for a low-pitched roof and balcony across the front - the recent project by Vancouver-based Iconstrux Architecture Ltd. is, well, rather special.

"We basically blew up the house," Iconstrux principal Arno Matis explains, "folded out the roof and gutted the interior, so now you can see from one end of the house to the other."

"We sculpt out a space," adds his partner, Chris Doray. "We're never just decorators."

The result - smooth, polished perfection via a striking but simple design, coaxed out of the banal local vernacular - bodes well for the future of Iconstrux, a firm whose principals met while working for celebrated architect Bing Thom. They struck out on their own in 2006.

Mr. Doray and Mr. Matis were approached in 2007 by developer Allan Askew, whom they'd met while working on a Thom residence. He'd been searching for just the right Vancouver Special - namely one on the West Side, where real estate values are higher, but also where heritage laws and a proliferation of arts-and-crafts homes can limit new-building options.

Mr. Askew saw a contemporary design opportunity in the unremarkable house in the Dunbar area, even with its exterior of stucco and brown wood siding.

While many Vancouver Specials, built for the most part from the 1960s to the 1980s, are classified as "existing non-conforming" - zoning lingo for an older house that breaks current bylaws - renovation makes economic sense.

In this case, it was a more attractive proposition to preserve the property at 4070 18th Ave. West, with its 2,500 square feet of space above grade, than to demolish it and rebuild. That's because zoning laws would have limited a new building to 1,800 square feet above ground and 700 square feet below.

Furthermore, zoning guidelines aimed at preserving the historic character of neighbourhoods would have prevented a contemporary design at the same square footage. And so, the Vancouver Special became an unlikely modernist hero.

The facade has gone from frumpy to fabulous. A massive stained oak door and large anodized aluminum-framed windows offer a stylish commer-

cial aesthetic. On the upper floor, the original balcony has been elongated, opened up, and given a dramatic tilt. It also features large aluminum-framed windows, as well as a cedar-clad railing.

The original stucco has been painted concrete grey - as much an effort to keep intact some of the "original architectural DNA," as Mr. Matis puts it, as it was a sly wink and nod to the 1960s ugly duckling.

Inside, the simple palette of stained oak flooring and concrete continues. The original space has been "deprogrammed and then reprogrammed," says Mr. Matis, transforming the ground floor from a utility room and spare bedrooms into an open living/dining space, and the upstairs - the traditional kitchen/living area in most specials - into bedrooms.

The objective, he says, was to "untie the knot" and free the spaces within but not jeopardize the structural integrity of the existing wood-frame construction.

The effect of the relatively low ceilings on the first floor is mitigated by a horizontal grain - large rectangular windows on the sides and in the "backsplash" that overlooks the yard - and echoed in the long concrete hearth, and even in the elongated oak flooring.

The horizontal uniformity and uninterrupted flow between front and back is calming to the eye. The windows effectively bounce the greenery of the landscaping back into the house, creating a whole new indoor/outdoor aesthetic.

A wall separates the living area from a small TV room that flows into the dining area, which looks out on a yard planted with bamboo and bordered by a cedar fence.

A small stone fountain and bench complete the Zen-like effect.

A journey up the stained oak stairs cantilevered off a concrete spine reveals a light-filled upper floor. A single skylight punched through the folds of the roof maximizes the southern light. The northwest-facing bedroom benefits from a newly angled roof as the increased slope allows for 13-foot ceilings.

The play of light is such that the same colour of ice mist paint on the walls can appear cool grey in the northern light and mint green with the southern exposure.

The adjacent master bedroom features another fireplace and elongated concrete mantel and flows into a south-facing ensuite. The delineation is articulated by the shift from oak to porcelain tile flooring. A tiny balcony opens up the space to the backyard.

In another south-facing room, a tilted wall that plays with one's sense of gravity accommodates the new roof. But this oddly angled wall responds to the tilted window of the front balcony in a way that suggests a meta-Vancouver Special - a house as civic metaphor, liberated from its boxy confines and bylaw strictures, embracing light, greenery and a very modern sensibility.