Vancouver Sun

'How much does your house weigh, madam?' Buckminister Fuller, the famous architect who invented the geodesic dome, used to delight in asking this question at parties. Of course, no one knew the answer, although people always knew how many storeys their homes had. I was reminded of this by the EcoDensity debate taking place in our city. This time, the issue is not weight, but rather density. Most of us do not know the density of our home or neighbourhood. However, we generally assume that higher densities result in higher buildings. This is not necessarily the case. Density, as a planning term, has a number of different meanings. It can be an expression of a building's size in relation to its lot, or the number of housing units or people in a particular area. It is not a measure of height.In most Metro Vancouver municipalities, density is measured as the floor space ratio (FSR). To understand how it is calculated, let us look at an older home with 1,200 square feet on the upper floors, and an 800-square-foot, partly submerged basement.