How an East Van custom home became a multi-generational sanctuary
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Sometimes a home’s design begins with a form, and sometimes the form flows from pure function.
The latter was true when residential designer Hitesh Neb designed his Stack project, a four-bedroom family home in Vancouver’s Cedar Cottage neighbourhood. Nicknamed for its boxy shape, the structure ended up as a feat of modern minimalism — by meeting every need of the owners.
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“I like to make big, bold moves with my work,” says Neb, owner and principal of Vancouver’s Regeneration Design Studio. “I tend to think holistically, and that’s what resonates in the design. It’s very simple forms that have come together to encompass the functionality that the clients require.”
The new home replaced a circa 1930s house on the site. Gordon and Danielle Goldsmith had bought the original place in 2001 and raised two children there. But by 2015, they were cramped. The kids, Ben and Simone, were teenagers, and Gordon’s mother, June, 87, was near ready to move closer.
While exploring their options, the couple met Neb through a local builder and came away impressed. “I recognized pretty early on that Hitesh was really good at what he did, and he was going to be a big deal in his field,” says Gordon. “It didn’t take long to recognize what he was going to bring to this project, and so we were just like, yeah.”
With that settled, they shared their budget and must-haves. Topping their list was privacy, after living in close quarters for so long — and a bathroom for every family member. Also: wide windows, plenty of natural light and ample storage space. A laneway home for June, and a basement suite for rental.
“[Neb] asked us a lot of questions, like, tell me how breakfast works for you guys, and what do you spend your evenings doing? He really thought about how we were going to live here as a family,” recalls Gordon.
From there, the 3,000 square-foot main house took shape. Starting with two affordable-to-build box forms, Neb offset the home’s second storey to create an overhang above the front porch while also making way for skylights over the kitchen and a covered back patio. The resulting geometric shape edges on futuristic, but cement-shingle siding adds a texture that feels familiar among postwar-era neighbours.
The flat roofline isn’t just for show, either. Early on, Neb planned a large rooftop deck to replace yard space taken up by the laneway home. With no neighbouring balconies or windows, the 840 square-foot deck is surprisingly private, bordered by a seasonally morphing canopy of maple trees on the street side. To the northwest, views stretch all the way to Bowen Island; to the east, Coquitlam.
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Inside, Neb and project interior designer Michelle Lee Jin went with a compartmentalized layout to give the family the privacy they were craving. “There are sightlines into the different spaces, but there are also places for people to just retreat if they want to,” says Neb. “It’s not like your typical modern house where you walk in the door and can see everything . . . . There’s a bit more mystery, and there are nooks and corners that can be enjoyed in private.” One of these is the “adult parlour,” at the front of the home, where Gordon and Danielle have carved out a grown-up retreat, complete with a vintage vinyl collection, record player and bar cart.
Throughout the rooms, wood accents and spots of colour soften an otherwise unadorned white palette. The family was uncertain about the minimalist esthetic at first, says Gordon, but now they wouldn’t trade the tranquillity.
“The minimalist thing just allows us to feel really chill at home,” says Gordon. “We’ve consciously not put too much artwork on the walls because it just takes away from the beauty of the house.”
Also happily ensconced is June, in her laneway home, where Neb designed the single-storey structure around one main element: her baby grand piano. A musician and career music educator, June had been living on her own in a large downtown condo for decades. During design, Neb and his team visited her there to see how they could translate her current lifestyle to the new home.
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“She had this beautiful setup, with her baby grand and a bookshelf behind it that was curated with all her music books, sculptures and other pieces of art,” he says. By replicating this layout in the laneway, they made room for both piano and treasures, along with other personalized touches, such as green-lacquered kitchen cabinetry. “She calls [the house] her jewel box. She said we were able to get everything she cherished into this space, which she was really happy about,” says Neb.
Over the course of the project, Neb and the Goldsmiths forged a close friendship. So close, that he and his partner were the first tenants to rent the family’s basement suite once construction (by Saint Group) wrapped up in late 2019.
“I wanted the learning experience of living in one of the houses I designed,” says Neb. And one thing he learned? June’s piano-playing makes a stellar soundtrack for daily life. “It was an absolute joy to listen to every day,” he says.
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