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Smallworks
Featured on VanPlex Plexperts — the curated directory of BC multiplex builders & trades.
Laneway & Multiplex Builder, Smallworks Studios & Laneway Housing Inc.
The builder that helped start laneway housing in Vancouver.
Jake Fry founded Smallworks in late 2005, before Vancouver allowed laneway homes citywide in 2009. The firm has built more than 400 laneway homes and now builds multiplexes up to eight units.
2005
founded
400+
laneway homes built
Up to 8
units per multiplex
~30
people on the team
Meet Smallworks
Smallworks is a Vancouver design-build firm focused on laneway homes and small multiplexes. Jake Fry started it in late 2005, a few years before Vancouver allowed laneway homes across the city in 2009. He spent those early years working with the City of Vancouver and other municipalities to shape the zoning rules that made laneway housing legal.
The firm has built more than 400 laneway homes across the Lower Mainland. Projects range from 600-square-foot laneway houses to eight-unit multiplexes. Smallworks runs the full process in-house: design, interior design, the drawings the City needs for permits, and fixed-price construction.
Jake Fry still owns the firm, now alongside partners Luke Harrison and Akua Schatz. The team is around 30 people across design, construction, and coordination. In 2012 Fry co-founded SmallHouse BC, a non-profit that pushed for smaller, more affordable housing types in the province.
For owners looking at the 2024 multiplex rules, Smallworks brings two decades of building on tight infill lots: lane access, small setbacks, and getting several units onto one property without the work stalling at permit stage.
Credentials
Recognition
EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Pacific, Manufacturing) — Jake Fry
HAVAN Leadership Award (Trailblazer)
GVHBA Georgie Award — Best Small-Scale Home (Petite Versailles)
GVHBA Georgie Award — The Mackenzie Lane House (with Abstract Homes)
Houzz Best of Houzz — Service
GVHBA Ovation Award — Best Small-Scale Home Under 1,000 sq ft
Why work with Smallworks
01
Built on lanes before it was legal
Fry started Smallworks in 2005 and worked with the City of Vancouver on the zoning that allowed laneway homes citywide in 2009. The firm has spent 20 years building on the kind of small, lane-access infill lots that multiplexes now go on.
02
Laneway scale, now multiplex scale
Projects run from 600-square-foot laneway houses to eight-unit multiplexes. The same in-house team handles design through construction, so a multiplex client is not stitching together a separate designer, drafter, and builder.
03
Permit drawings done in-house
Floor plans, interior design, and the drawings the City requires for approval are all part of the Smallworks scope. That keeps the design-to-permit handoff inside one firm.
Frequently asked questions
Does Smallworks build multiplexes, or only laneway homes?
Does Smallworks handle design and permits, or just construction?
How long has Smallworks been building?
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Naikoon Contracting
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