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Jake Fry and Aaron Rosensweet have discovered an affordable housing gold mine in the most unlikely of places -- Vancouver's gritty back alleys.

Together the two Vancouver designers have formed Smallworks, a design/build company, to push their vision for laneway housing, boasting that they can build quality yet affordable homes quickly, while at the same time reducing the impact of urban sprawl.

"We are able to build a home at half the cost in half the time," says Mr. Fry. "We can put up a living house within 2 months."

While laneway housing has generated civic optimism in Vancouver, the maze-like bureaucratic process one must navigate to achieve a permit has left few with the time, strength and resources for laneway construction. The initial excitement over the potential for densification as presented by laneway housing in urban centres like Toronto has given way to concerns over the cost of and access to services for these sites and a reluctance of civic authorities to permit construction.

Mr. Fry and Mr. Rosensweet feel that unlike Toronto, Vancouver has a more open dialogue between public clients, politicians, city planners, architects and developers. There seems to be a push from all directions for the livable densification process that laneway housing can provide. In addition, Vancouver, as a newer city, has an infrastructure which lends itself to laneway housing.

"In Vancouver physical services run in the alley," says Mr. Rosensweet. "We pull power and sewer from the back alley so there is no intrusion into the streets here," he says.

With their commitment to laneway housing Smallworks believes that while this form of development is not yet main-stream, it soon will be.

"I have sat in with city planners who say there is a 95 per cent positive response to the idea of constructing additional small residences on existing properties," says Mr. Fry.

"To move forward, all we need is political will, and I think it's there. The only thing missing right now is that we need someone to say, 'we are going to do this," he says.

Despite the bureaucratic headaches, laneway houses are popping up in such neighbourhoods as Mt. Pleasant, Strathcona and Kitsilano. The city has also introduced a new zoning designation -- RT-10 -- that allows for small-lot infill and laneway housing in Kensington-Cedar Cottage.

Smallworks will demonstrate their ability to utilize the spaces now occupied by decaying carports at next month's dv-Interior Design and Urban Living Expo, where they will feature a studio suite, with green space, with the dimensions of a single-car garage.

"With the dv outdoor feature, we have always looked to challenge traditional thoughts on architecture and space design," says Jason Heard, the show's director.

This attraction to design concepts from 'outside the box' led Mr. Heard to Smallworks. "Smallworks struck me as a company looking to change the world -- one laneway home at a time," he says.

Following the expo's theme, 'stories,' Smallworks aims to weave the tale of how we might live while increasing densification. "We are going to tell the story about the way that this city and our lifestyles can change based on the buildings we choose to live in," says Mr. Fry.

Smallworks hopes its proposals, coinciding with the city's eco-density initiative, will stoke interest in laneway housing.

"Laneway housing is really an ideal solution for Vancouver," says Aaron Rosensweet.

As a city surrounded by growth boundaries like mountains, water and the American Border, laneway housing is a very viable solution.

"The only place the city is growing is out into the valley but, the appetite is to live in the city," says Mr. Rosensweet.

On a more ecological level, "Not only do people not want to live there (the lower mainland valley) but it is some of the most fertile land in Canada," says Mr. Fry. "It is just nutty to be developing tract housing over some of the best land we have left," he says.

Vancouver may have been named the most liveable city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit, but civic leaders, including Mayor Sam Sullivan, have recognized a need for densification. The eco-density push is Mayor Sullivan's response, advocating for growth with the smallest possible ecological footprint.

Urban density has long been a lightning rod for controversy. Some see densification as a problem which will magnify the city's parking shortage, crime, noise, poverty and the construction of poorly built low-income apartments.

Those in support say that density, created with livable accommodations like laneway houses, creates a neighbourhood based community with affordable housing, which promotes foot transportation, reduces water and energy use and also reduces the amount of carbon emissions.

"Our buildings incorporate green spaces and parking space, so really, you have this small home," says Mr. Fry.

"Whether you are renting it or have shared ownership with the people in the main house, you have this really nice flow where you better utilize space," he adds.

"The idea is, that if we can make the city more dense but also more liveable, then it would be just that much better," says Mr. Rosensweet.

For Mr. Fry, sustainability and over-consumption were key players in the origin of Smallworks.

In the winter before its creation, Mr. Fry was employed by a local builder. "I worked on two homes, one that was probably 12,000 sq. ft and the other was about 9,000 or 10,000 sq. ft.

It made me more resolved then ever because you had these houses with Italian marble, built in swimming pools, exotic wood floors, and I could see that these homes were literally consuming the world, to accommodate two people," he says.

By constructing partially prefabricated homes from their workshop, Mr. Fry and Mr. Rosensweet say that they are able to reduce the impact on site lots as well as the amount of material waste consumed in construction.

"Inherently, when you build on site you create a lot more garbage and waste," says Mr. Rosensweet. Off site pre-manufacturing means fewer trucks delivering various materials across clients' yards. Furthermore, "Here in the shop we can take off-cuts and use them in other spots or they end up in the cabinet shop side," he says.

Smallworks is happy to help clients push the envelope of sustainability with off the grid elements like composting toilets.

"Anything that we can do to take these buildings off of the grid makes them more affordable," says Mr. Fry.

In efforts to help develop a city wide plan, Mr. Fry and Mr. Rosensweet are studying the laneway housing proposals put forth by the city of Santa Cruz.

The extensive planning there includes brochures with free prototype plans available to the public, which show what sort of housing can be easily constructed on various shaped lots and how to convert your own garage.

The idea is to develop a prototype for laneway housing in Vancouver that will address problems before the concept is put into practice.

"There will be a backlash between the idea and the practice," says Mr Rosensweet. "There are people who don't want to see changes, of any kind."