Toronto Star

Astra Burka knows all about living with architecture, she does it every day. In 1998, the Toronto architect and documentary filmmaker designed and built her house in the College and Bathurst area; as she explains it, the idea was to create a place to call home but also to prove to a doubting city that infill housing, in this case, laneway housing, is a viable option. Burka isn't the first one to make the point, but as she says, city hall has been very slow off the mark. Some laneway residences do get built: architect Jeff Stinson managed a house in Kensington Market and Brigitte Shim pulled off a similar feat in the city's east end.