By Scot Meyer of SwitchYard Media
In the United States, where the typical garage measures between 400 and 600 square feet, the idea of building an entire house on a piece of property that size or smaller might seem absurd. But in Japan, where undeveloped urban land is scarce, some people are turning plots that once held parking spaces or garden sheds into home sites. This small-home movement has a name: kyosho jutaku.
Rather than try to shoehorn conventional residences into these tiny spaces, architects specializing in ultracompact homes are creating abodes that are as visually striking as they are efficient. Check out these 10 homes for inspiration for your current or future space
Lucky Drops
Typical of Japan’s microhouses, Lucky Drops was built on a sliver of land outside downtown Tokyo.
Fitting a home on the site was the hard part. At its widest point, the long and narrow property is just more than 10 feet across. Local ordinances required an additional setback, which meant the building would have to be narrow enough to fit in a standard U.S. parking space.
To keep the house from being claustrophobic, architect Yasuhiro Yamashita designed a three-story structure with a flexible, translucent outer skin that allows light to enter from above and permeate the interior.
House Shimouma
Located on a narrow, 13-foot-by-36-foot lot in a dense residential section of Tokyo, this three-story residence was designed by architect Kazuya Saito for a mother and her adult son. Living space for mom is on the first floor, while the son has two bedrooms and a bathroom on the third floor.
The second floor is shared space. It houses the kitchen, dining room and living room, as well as a small balcony. Helping define the look are two open stairways, as well as the three seismic braces needed to protect the house from earthquakes.
Reflection of Mineral
The owner's desire for a covered parking space complicated the task of squeezing a home into this 474-square-foot corner lot . Tokyo-based architecture firm Atelier Tekuto's solution was an angular, three-story house designed to resemble a white crystal. Transparent and translucent surfaces on top let in light, and reflective interior spaces also make the most of that natural illumination.
The bathroom on the third floor picks up on the "reflection" and "mineral" themes with mirror-finish stainless-steel surfaces, the architect says.
Rooftecture S
Perched on the steep slope of a retaining wall in Kobe, Japan, this dramatic, wedge-shaped house makes the most of its triangular plot of land overlooking Osaka Bay.
The design by Osaka-based architect Shuhei Endo features a roof of metal shingle board that is folded down over the front of the two-story house to create a striking façade. A section of the stone retaining wall behind the structure frames the back patio.
Home to a couple, the small residence has about 707 square feet of floor space.
Crystal Brick
Architecture firm Atelier Tekuto was contracted to turn a three-story wooden home into a building large enough to hold two households. It collaborated with structural engineers and local universities to construct an addition with outer walls made from glass blocks and supported by steel frames.
The Crystal Brick house, on a quiet residential street in the Bunkyo district of Tokyo, is home to a young couple on the upper floor and one set of in-laws on the ground floor.
Cell Brick
The "bricks" that make up the outer walls of this small house are actually steel boxes measuring roughly 35 inches by 18 inches and about a foot deep. There is a small window between each space in a row.
The interior side of each box is a storage cubby inside the house.
When those spaces are filled with the occupants' possessions, they form what architect Yasuhiro Yamashita calls a "life layer" that adds depth to the rooms.
The exterior of the walls is clad in ceramic tile to provide heat and sound insulation.
W-Window House
Making the most of its 320-square-foot lot, this three-story metal-skinned house appears boxlike from the front. But saving its appearance are two V-shaped grooves, each lined with windows on one side. The grooves bring light and air into the home and create two small triangular patios on the ground floor.
The interior of the house, designed by partners Kentaro Takeguchi and Asako Yamamoto of the Kyoto architecture firm Alphaville, has an open floor plan that uses different levels, rather than interior walls, to divide the space into separate rooms. Suspended staircases, which are made of steel but appear as light as folded paper, connect the spaces visually and physically.
Penguin House
Named for its shape, this house, designed by architecture firm Atelier Tekuto, occupies a 322-square-foot lot in Tokyo. The three-story house has a living and work space on the top floor with windows spanning the width of the building. It has a bathroom and bedroom on the second floor and a music room on the main floor.
The house has 899 square feet of interior floor space, but the glass walls and high ceilings can make the small house appear larger
New Kyoto Town House
This house is on a residential street lined with the traditional wooden townhouses, ormachiya, that are typical in Japan's historical capital of Kyoto. Regulations forced designers to construct a home that resembled nearby buildings, at least on the outside.
Architects Kentaro Takeguchi and Asako Yamamoto designed a building with a steel frame, rather than traditional wooden walls. This allowed for larger windows that let in more light.
The more dramatic departures from tradition are inside. Instead of vertical walls, the home has polyhedrons with horizontal and vertical facets made from triangular wooden panels. These partitions divide the space less formally, blurring the boundaries between rooms and, in some places, providing surfaces that can be casual tables or benches.
Parabola House
Built on a lot that is just 18 feet wide, this house, designed by architect Yasuhiro Yamashita, features a living room in the cantilevered top floor. Suspended about 30 feet above street level, the room offers a view of Mount Fuji on clear days.
On hazy days, the family living in the house can focus on the upper floor's parabolic ceiling. Splashes of color on its curved surface contrast the minimalist look and white color in the rest of the house.
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