Conrad Speckert

YouTube video by About Here Did these designs crack the code to wood towers?

Excited to share a new video I produced with Urbanarium on their Decoding Timber Towers competition, which challenged teams to design 8–20+ storey buildings out of wood!

Check it out here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ42...

They are single exit stair configurations as permitted for sprinklered buildings of up to 25m in height by the National Construction Codes of Australia.

The Mid-rise Pattern Designs endorsed by the Government Architect of New South Wales (Australia) provides a catalogue of small lot and corner lot apartment building designs of 4 to 7 storeys in height. Take a look at the floor plans and renderings.

www.planning.nsw.gov.au/government-a...

Somebody in the audience pointed out something that I didn’t know, which is that Queensbridge Houses, the largest NYCHA project in the city (and thereby largest public housing complex in North America), is single-stair. platform-affordable-dwelling.bk.tudelft.nl/database/201...

"...more than a quarter-century after amalgamation meant a city-wide solution couldn’t be found in the corner store debate."

"...with buildings up to six storeys, and local shops, while also studying the possibility of allowing “discreet opportunities for retail” along residential streets.

A similar patchwork of rules is emerging in Toronto, where divisions that linger..."

"Toronto is not the only city to make halting progress changing that. Vancouver approved this year a plan to allow small stores as part of development around a pair of transit stations. The city is now looking at how to create areas that mix moderate housing density,..."

Globe editorial: Toronto shuts the door on the corner store City council’s wrongheaded limits on convenience stores go against what makes cities great, not to mention the free market

"Although corner stores may seem a trivial issue, allowing them near where people live can make a neighbourhood more pleasant and, well, convenient. But antiquated zoning laws make them illegal in most neighbourhoods of Canada..."

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...

For more examples and drawings, look at the “Prototypes” and “Pilot Projects” here www.singlestair.ca

...the connecting public corridor must reach both access to exit doors into each end of the scissor stairs - even when accounting for a door in the middle of the corridor to divide the floor areas served and be exempt from the typical 9.0m separation distance requirement.

Reading through the comments is fascinating, but one person claims that a scissor stair design would have been more efficient... That's incorrect, a scissor stair version actually uses more area than two separate switchback stairs for this particular scenario, because...

The era of the shoebox condo is over. Here’s how Canada can build livable apartments Canada needs livable apartments to help fix the housing crisis. To do that, it must change the rulebook for both condos and rentals

“The era of shoebox condos is over” in the Globe and Mail today - a feature on single stair: ”Yet with features such as sprinklers, smoke-sealed doors and more reliable fire alarm systems, mid-size apartment buildings can be just as safe...”

www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/pe...

Single Stair Alternative Solutions: CMHC Housing Supply Challenge Single Stair Alternative Solutions: Design Innovation for Middle Housing

Clear comparison of scissor and single stair plans here under prototypes - www.singlestair.ca

Fascinating article. This really stood out to me: smaller cars are more popular in Canada than in the U.S., but due to Transport Canada tying its safety standards to the U.S., Canada gets stuck with our huge cars instead of smaller European models. I wonder if the same is true of U.S. cities 🤔

I’m at the launch of Oregon’s design competition for sunlight suite buildings - neighborhood-scale mulifamily buildings designed around one central staircase.

“This is one of those innovations whose time has come,” says Gil Kelley of @1000oregon.bsky.social.

Single-stair buildings up to 6 stories are legal in Baltimore City! Headed to Mayor Scott's desk for signature.

There are healthy limits to free advice, suggest you contact a company like Savaria to discuss.

This building has a LULA small elevator, the report you screenshotted is referring to stretcher-size requirements that are not applicable when the code exception for “limited-use/limited-application” elevators is used.

This pilot project for SES building design is also featured here. Others of similar configuration have been accepted in Vancouver, Edmonton and Hamilton. singlestair.ca/Office-Ou

Office Ou — Single Stair Alternative Solutions: CMHC Housing Supply Challenge Office Ou Pilot Project (Toronto) Typology 3-Storey Apartment Building Occupancy Group C, 6 Dwelling Units Classification 2024 Ontario Building Code,...

The project is described in more detail here - singlestair.ca/Office-Ou

Winner of Billings Architectural Association's 2025 Single-Stair Housing Competition by Trae Schwenneker. The competition focused on urban infill in Downtown Billings, MT.

The winning project honors the historic brick architect of Montana Avenue w/ ground-floor retail & four upper levels of condos.

A few more renderings, diagrams and the typical floor plan!

Decoding Timber Towers | Urbanarium

To see all the drawings and other submissions, check out - urbanarium.org/decoding-tim...

Our team placed 2nd in the Urbanarium "Decoding Timber Towers" architectural ideas competition (1st place to @moriyamateshima.bsky.social) with our 20-storey mass timber tower featuring a compact elevator and exit stair core, exposed ceilings, prefab balconies and a balanced mix of 1 to 4 bed homes!

Pew finds something that everybody in codes and standards knows but few will say out loud: we apply far stricter fire safety standards to apartments than to houses. www.pew.org/en/research-...

Why Building Modern Apartments Can Solve the Housing Shortage and Improve Fire Safety State and local policymakers across the country are exploring ways to expand housing options as communities face a persistent shortage that has driven costs to record highs. One way to close the gap i...

“Modern apartments have a fire death rate … six times lower than older apartments… (or) single-family homes…”

Aka why new single stair flats would be among the safest buildings in your city.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-bu...

Modular, mass timber, and single-stair

This workforce housing project in Montana maxes out the current IBC code limitations on single housing with a 10,000 sf floor plate and 8-bed units that each feature shared living, kitchen, and laundry.

www.idcubedmodular.com/blank

Floor plans available anywhere?

This comparison shows the price of putting an internal garage on a rowhouse

Both of these rowhomes are ~16' wide

Left: 2BR+Den/3BA
Right: 4BR/3.5BA

So the cost is losing TWO bedroom.

E3, Kaden Klingbeil Architekten (2008)
Esmarchstrasse 3, Prenzlauerberg

Height: 7 storeys (22m)
Use: 6 dwellings, 1 commercial
GFA: 987m2
Sprinklered: No

This early example of mass timber used alternative code compliance to exceed the height limit for timber construction and has an exterior stair.