All architecture is public. Whether or not a house is a gorgeous addition to a neighborhood or an awful eyesore, housing exists as part of interconnected, communal systems. Janna Levitt and Dean Goodman, cofounders of lga_ap, had that in mind when they designed one of their most recent projects. The unconventional condominium addresses housing as part of these larger systems that, for the most part, have restricted density, damaged the environment, and disconnected residents from the landscape. Unlike much of the postwar development in Toronto—which Levitt characterizes as “tall or sprawl”—the fourplex is what she calls “a proof of concept” for the way that design can create modest-size units, rebalancing the city’s single-family buildings that have helped to create the current housing pressures across the city. And the couple has high hopes for its impact. LGA has gone on to contribute its multifamily designs to Canada’s Housing Design Catalogue—a recently released book of standardize...