Design trends: Creating a new house within an old house

If housing costs too much, there must not be enough supply. That’s Ottawa’s simple take on the affordable housing crisis in Canada. And their simple solution? Impose policy, including the housing accelerator fund, to get rid of zoning prohibitions and accelerate the building of new homes within existing urban footprints. But, asks Patrick Condon, professor of urban design at the University of British Columbia: What if the feds are wrong? If increased density delivered affordability, he counters, Vancouver would be cheap by now. And what does the current glut of unsold small condo...