Housing is chronically undersupplied. All time high housing formation combined with slowing housing starts has resulted in 9MM+ supply gap (North America).

So why aren’t more homes being built? Rigid single family zoning is the biggest culprit, combined with a shortage of skilled construction labour, inefficient time to market (including both permitting and traditional construction) and dominance of the housing stock for the rental market.

The ‘Missing Middle’ refers to a spectrum of building types that are compatible in form and scale with detached single-family homes - including duplexes, multiplexes, bungalow courts, townhomes and live-work spaces. Ground-orientated and located in walkable neighbourhoods, these house-scale building types exist between single-detached houses and apartment buildings. Since the 1940’s, many have gone ‘Missing’ from cities. ‘Middle’ because they can be situated on empty parcels in between a range of housing types.

Solving for the “Missing Middle” is critical to solving housing attainability in urban and suburban environments. These middle housing typologies provide the opportunity for cities to broaden housing choices while creating walkable communities that enhance liveability and economic opportunity.

Missing Middle homes are:

• Located within walkable neighbourhoods and close to amenities

• Efficient, thoughtfully designed dwellings with floor plans and programming that are similar to single-family home

• Can be a mixed of owned and/or rental units

• Can support progressive ownership models such as multi-generational and stratified single family lot ownership

• Integrate well with other building types

• Provide a platform to open up social capital and economic opportunity within communities

The social interactions and personal networks that inspire trust and reciprocity in a community are its social capital. People with higher levels of social capital are more active in their community, are more politically involved - they live longer, healthier lives with a higher propensity to volunteer and contribute. Communities with higher social capital have less crime and higher economic potential.

The built environment materially impacts social capital. The way we design and build our neighbourhoods either encourages or discourages social ties. Walkable neighbourhoods with ground-oriented homes enhance social capital and the quality of life and opportunity in those communities.

The fundamental key to sustainability is to create high-performance buildings with adaptable permanence while avoiding costly and wasteful demolition.

Homes should be able to adapt to changing needs over time. A single family home that can be easily reconfigured into four modern dwelling units (and back again) optimizes urban land yield, future-proofing equity for owners while being responsive to housing supply.