# What rules should we be breaking?

**Published by:** [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/)
**Published on:** 2024-07-31
**Categories:** about-here, architecture, decoding-density, development, planning, single-stair-buildings, small-scale-apartments, urbanarium, vancouver, wood-frame-apartments
**URL:** https://brandondonnelly.com/what-rules-should-we-be-breaking

## Content

https://youtu.be/011TOfugais?si=85OchFBtjZAVp0Ez Here is another great video from About Here talking about how breaking certain rules could make for better apartment buildings. The basis for the video is a design competition put on by Urbanarium, called Decoding Density, which asked participants to propose creative solutions for "six-story plus apartment forms in Metro Vancouver." More specifically, the competition asked: How might Vancouver intensify its single-family neighborhoods with small-scale wood-frame apartments? The About Here video covers some of the common themes from the submissions and, not surprisingly, the first is single-stair buildings. Requiring only a single point of egress can really unlock small sites. Some of the other ideas are, perhaps, a bit more adventurous; but these are valuable exercises. Many rules are dumb. So it's important that we continually question them and search for better ways.

## Publication Information

- [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/): Publication homepage
- [All Posts](https://brandondonnelly.com/): More posts from this publication
- [RSS Feed](https://api.paragraph.com/blogs/rss/@brandondonnelly): Subscribe to updates
- [Twitter](https://twitter.com/donnelly_b): Follow on Twitter

## Optional

- [Collect as NFT](https://brandondonnelly.com/what-rules-should-we-be-breaking): Support the author by collecting this post
- [View Collectors](https://brandondonnelly.com/what-rules-should-we-be-breaking/collectors): See who has collected this post