# A festival of doors

**Published by:** [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/)
**Published on:** 2026-05-04
**Categories:** multiplex, housing, infill-housing, missing-middle, craig-race, gabriel-fain, globe-and-mail
**URL:** https://brandondonnelly.com/a-festival-of-doors

## Content

Multiplexes, as they are called around here, are one of the few housing types that kind of work in Toronto today. According to a recent Globe and Mail article by John Lorinc, the city has issued 2,629 building permits for multiplexes since 2023, representing 4,880 net new homes. This is not very much for a city of our size, but this is a new type, and I would bet you two things: that this number will increase and that the city will continue to make it easier to build fine-grained, urban infill housing. The great opportunity right now is exactly what architect Craig Race says in the article: “You can’t find 1,500-square-foot, three-bedroom units anywhere other than in multiplexes. The smaller units are the most affordable in the city because the typology costs so much less than mid-rise or high-rise buildings.” However, the article also talks about the "festival of doors" that comes with this housing type. This is because each home typically has its own dedicated entry door from grade. Meaning, if you're building a sixplex, you're going to have at least six doors sprinkled across the various elevations. In some ways, this is a desirable design outcome. Each home is now 100% efficient (rentable area divided by gross construction area), as there are no common areas. I think many residents also appreciate having their own dedicated entrances. But on the flip side, an entry door generally equals another staircase. So, from an overall building efficiency standpoint, there are more effective ways to unlock more housing on every infill lot — namely through the adoption of single-egress stair buildings. As soon as this becomes a feasible as-of-right option, expect to see an increase in both the quantity and quality of new small-scale infill housing in Toronto.Cover photo by White.Rainforest ™︎ ∙ 易雨白林. on Unsplash

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