How to Shrink Your Footprint: 10 Little Examples of Tiny Houses

By Delana in Architecture & Design, History & Factoids, Urban Images
Tiny houses have never truly gone out of style. From the very early days of home building,
when the construction was done by hand and usually by the people who would be occupying the home, small homes have been built out of necessity. But today many people continue the trend for the sake of simplicity or the environment. Living in a minuscule home definitely encourages you to rid your life of all types of clutter and get back to what is really important. These truly tiny homes – some modern, some classic – exemplify the best of space-saving architecture.

(images via: Little Digs)

Dorm rooms are how most of us are introduced to small-space living. This French design is jump-starting that experience for one lucky kid. The cottage-like structure, built in a back yard, was intended for a teenager who is getting older and growing closer to the day when he will live away from his family. The tiny home features four levels with smart space-saving features at every turn. With a lounge, a washroom, a work area and a bedroom, no space is wasted and the teenage occupant can have his own personal, private living area.

(images via: Tiny Texas Houses)

Is everything really bigger in Texas? Not according to the people behind Tiny Texas Houses. They believe that there are enough building materials in landfills currently to provide for most, if not all, of the next generation of housing needs. They build tiny homes from salvaged materials and ship them to customers complete with salvaged fixtures, low-voltage wiring and waste water reclamation systems. The small houses only go up to 12′ X 28′, so moving into one will require some de-cluttering for the average person.

(image via: Ballard News-Tribune)

Some U.S. cities have taken to the small housing lifestyle in a big way. Seattle, a city known for its sky-high rental prices, recently changed zoning laws to allow small cottages to be built on the same properties as larger, conventional houses. Denver has a similar plan. Building a cottage can give homeowners a way to keep family nearby, provide affordable housing in a crowded urban area, and add some regular rental income to their bank accounts – it’s a win all around.

(images via: front architects)

There are many creative ways for dealing with overcrowded areas, and the Single Hauz concept incorporates two of them: build in otherwise inaccessible places, and build up rather than out. The design, from Polish firm Front Architects, is rather like a billboard that you can live in. The tiny home is held aloft by a central pole, allowing it to rise high above the surrounding landscape. The home is clearly meant for a single person, not a family, and due to its unique orientation it would allow a higher degree of privacy than just about any other home design.

(images via: Arvesund)

For some people, small-space living is about simplifying all parts of life, including personal relationships. The Hermit’s Cabin from Swedish company Arvesund embraces that concept. The cabin is only big enough for one person and a small handful of furnishings. It can be placed just about anywhere – from a backyard to a secluded woodlands retreat – and offers the ultimate in simplicity and shutting the rest of the world out.

(images via: Dornob)

Adding a guest room to your house can be a lengthy and expensive proposition. This egg-shaped dwelling from DMVA is a simple (albeit slightly eccentric) way to add additional space to an existing house. It can also be a stand-alone mini-home with the addition of a bathroom and kitchen, though it would almost certainly make the neighbors scratch their heads in confusion to see you lock yourself inside a giant plastic egg every evening.

(images via: Carre D’Etoiles)

This marvelous cube is a French design meant to be used as a vacation getaway accommodation. Believe it or not, the tiny box sleeps a grand total of four people and includes everything you need on your vacation…other than breathing room, of course. Each cube comes with a skylight dome in the top meant to be used for stargazing. The Carre D’Etoiles can be rented currently in many locations throughout France, but this design seems perfect for using as a tiny home in some secluded location.

(images via: Arch Daily)

Tiny house living isn’t always about living alone. The Rolling Huts designed by OSKA Architects are meant to be grouped together in a “herd” or community. They are made of simple, natural materials: cork, plywood, steel. The emphasis in the design is on nature and making the smallest impact possible. Large wheels lift the huts up off of the ground, while a spacious exterior deck actually takes up more than half of each hut’s entire footprint. Inside, occupants are left with 200 square feet of living space.

(images via: Dornob)

Finding space to build anything in the densely populated city of Tokyo, Japan is nearly impossible. But architect Takafumi Matsunaga managed to do just that. He found an alley between two existing houses that was no more than 10 feet wide – and built a house on the unlikely site. The extremely narrow abode is almost tiny enough for occupants to lie down on the floor and touch both walls at once. The interior is very impressive, managing to look airy and spacious even though it is an absolutely miniature space.

(image via: NEN Gallery)

This incredibly small house is only three feet wide at its narrowest point, and was widely believed to be the smallest house in London. Located near the Marble Arch, the home was actually built to block alleyway access to St. George’s graveyard, where grave robbers were becoming a nuisance. The house is now a part of the Tyburn Convent building.

House on the Rock: Manic Mishmash of Mechanical Mayhem

By Angie in Architecture & Design, Furniture & Interiors, Travel & Places

Get ready for sensory overload. Check your sanity at the door. House on the Rock is a manic
mishmash of mechanical mayhem. Much like stepping into Oz, only in Wisconsin, a tour through House on the Rock is like something from a drug-induced haze. Some visitors love the bizarreness and some hate it, but here are 48 images of the schizophrenic blend in this freaky destination.

House on the Rock

image credits: (Dave Lyons,tripadvisor)

House on the Rock opened in 1959 in Spring Green, Wisconsin. It is a “complex of architecturally unique rooms, streets, gardens and shops designed by Alex Jordan, Jr.” The House sits atop Deer Shelter Rock with a forest nearby. The above Infinity Room was added in 1985, hanging out 218 feet from the House without supports underneath. The end section has a glass floor and the room has over 3,000 windows. This is neither an endorsement to visit, nor a slam, but instead it is a weird trip in complex design that screams, “Bizarro land!”

Odd but not too far out . . . yet:

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

At first glance, it may not seem as if you are about to step off into Oz in Wisconsin. Both of Alex Jordon’s biographers relate a story by a man who was officially proclaimed as the 1976 World Champion Liar. Furthermore, according to Wikipedia, reporter Marv Balousek published a book about House on the Rock and reported: ‘Jordan Sr. hired “drunks and bums” from the Madison street to help blast the rock. Balousek says that according to Sid Boyum these workers were sometimes paid with whiskey and sometimes by check, but that Alex Jordan Jr. destroyed the cancelled checks later to further a myth that he had personally built the house himself.’

Seems normal enough at first

The Gate House is an entryway to the main house. Paying visitors take self-guided tours. The “ultimate 1970s bachelor pad” switches to a Victorian Steampunkish flavor after descending the library steps. Alex Jordan believed that sights and sounds were the most effective means of stimulating the senses. Well get ready for sensory overload and a real life version of a Tim Burton movie.

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

The eclectic maze of rooms include the Mill House, Streets of Yesterday, The Heritage of the Sea, Tribute to Nostalgia, Atrium Restaurant, Music of Yesterday, Spirit of Aviation, and the Carousel. Of course that’s not all. More seriously strange structures include the Organ Room, Inspiration Point, the Doll House Room, the Circus Room, the Galleries, and the Doll Carousel Room.

Let the bizarre tour begin:

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

Is there LSD in those bottles? No, but there seems to be about everything else you might imagine. A tour through House on the Rock is like something from a drug-induced haze.

Sheriff keeps a head in a jar?

The Sheriff’s Office features a head in a jar. There are also hundreds of guns in all shapes and sizes. This is not even close to as wacky or wonderful as this place gets. Depending upon your perspective, it might seem like a manic mishmash of musty mechanical mayhem. “It’s creepy, beautiful, dreary, overwhelming, and inspiring.” You can check your sanity at the door.

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

Some tourists seem to love it. Others post trip comments such as, “I came away wondering what was that? It is so totally weird I can not even express it.” Yet other  visitors seem to hate it. Could the controversial opinions be due to that overwhelming WTF feeling it produced?

Puppet Master to Heritage of the Sea Building:

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

There is a puppet master and his many peculiar marionettes. The Heritage of the Sea building is one of the most popular destinations. A giant sea-monster type whale is centered in the building. It stands 200 feet high, as tall as the Statue of Liberty, in the nautical themed room. Additionally, there is a Titanic display and over 200 model ships.

Automated – Animated Bands Out the Kazoo:

The Circus Room has all things circus. The pyramid of elephants is but one tame example. There is also an automated 40-piece band and an 80-piece orchestra.

Among knick-knacks, antiques and re-creations, music seems to rule the House on the Rock. The Organ Room is only one of many automated musical rooms surrounded by walkways, spiral staircases, and bridges.

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

Beside the indoor trees and huge pipes, you can see two of the three theater organ consoles.

Carousel Room

The Carousel at House on the Rock is recorded as the world’s largest. Hundreds of angel mannequins hang from the ceiling as well as 182 chandeliers. 20,000 lights surround the bizarre merry-go-round, heightening that Christmas on crack, drug-induced blur feeling. The indoor carousel has 269 different basts, gathered from all around the world, with none of them being a a traditional carousel horse.

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

The “mouth” entrance to the Carousel Room leads down a hallway. If a person grows bored, there are elephants loaded down with life-sized Barbies in another room not too far away.

Trip to WTF?

The House on the Rock is a crazy place that you can probably not prepare yourself for, even after a quick search on the web. Every nook and cranny is crammed full of treasures. The walls and ceilings are carpeted or padded with cushions. Was this done perhaps in case visitors go temporarily insane?

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

The Music of Yesterday is piped with loud oriental music and animated with robotic musical instruments. If you take a quick detour to one of the restrooms, you will find the walls equally packed with loony yet oddly cool displays.

Weirded Out Yet?

If you aren’t weirded out yet, perhaps a few cheesy stops to shake hands with Uncle Sam or be terrorized by a clown will do it?

Knights protect the damsels from dragons. All kinds of time periods and all kinds of cultures are jumbled together at House on the Rock.

What collection is complete without Mardi Gras masks?

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

Frog Girl “alive” is probably something you never thought to see. Kids will either come away impressed or distressed and have nightmares.

How about now?

If you weren’t yet completely weirded out by all the eccentric oddities, how about now?

(image credits: Dave Lyons)

To say this would be a very unique experience is putting it mildly. The schizophrenic blend which makes up House on the Rock is for you to decide if you like it or not. To say it’s extremely odd is surely a safe bet.
A big shout out and thank you to Dave Lyons who kindly gave permission to use his awesome photos!

Narrower Towers: 20 Of Japan’s Thinnest Buildings

By Steve in Architecture & Design, Travel & Places, Urban Images
When land is expensive or in short supply – or both, as is the case in Japan’s major
metropolises – smart real estate developers don’t get down, they look up. These 20 tall thin Japanese buildings show what happens when builders shoot stories upwards to get the most bang for their yen.

(images via: Mike’s Blender)
Even after two decades of economic stagnation and the collapse of a formidable stock market and real estate bubble, Tokyo remains one of the most expensive places on Earth for developers to build in. The apartment building above is typical of those constructed in the “good old days”, when building thin was an ideal way to fatten one’s bank account.

(images via: Totonko)
When Tokyo’s bubble burst at the end of the 1980s, building thin remained in fashion but for very different reasons, notably the need for developers to get the highest possible ROI in a buyer’s market. The design for a modern apartment building conceived by Mitsutomo Matsunami is a marvel of simplicity and minimalism: though seven stories tall and offering 10 apartments of varying sizes, the building’s ground footprint is just 1,200 square feet.
(images via: Yukichika World)
When is thin TOO thin? That depends on your point of view. Take this building in Nagasaki. Viewed face-on, it looks rather normal; wider than it is tall and with an architecturally interesting pyramidal peak on its roof.
(image via: Sergio In Nagasaki)
Step around to the side, however, and… whoa! Unless the building operates using the same space-expanding engine as Doctor Who’s Tardis, it’s hard to imagine how anyone could function normally once they entered. And yet, the author of the blog that describes this splendid splinter states that there’s a Chinese restaurant inside, on the ground floor!
(image via: Joseph Tame)
If you live in a modern American suburban home, more than likely your front lawn is divided into a larger main expanse plus, after the sidewalk cuts through, a small area that continues on to meet the street. The post-sidewalk slice isn’t useful for much, maybe the City will plant a tree there but that’s about it. Not so in the Ushigome district of Kisarazu City in Japan’s Chiba prefecture, where they use that small space to build apartments on.
(image via: Google Maps – Japan)
The semicircular balconies are a cool feature, as they offer a 180-degree view for claustrophobics… who likely wouldn’t set foot in this building even if they were being chased by flaming wolves.
(images via: M.Terada, Jimgris and N@O)
Here are a few more apartment blocks and individual houses in built-up, urban areas of Japan. In many cases, the size of the footprints chosen by developers aren’t dictated wholly by the presence of existing buildings – in those shown above, there appears to be sufficient space to construct what most would consider to be a normal building. For reasons yet undisclosed, the developers of the structures above preferred to stay anorexically slim.

(images via: Izismile and Brad Templeton)
Downtown districts of Japan’s larger cities are where you’ll find a host of slim towers, all appearing to compete for the same small section of real estate. It’s been commented that if Godzilla really does exist and decides to go on a rampage, he’ll have a grand old time playing dominoes with Japanese skylines.
(images via: Whooba and Chipple)
The two thin Tokyo buildings above show that it’s possible to look thin AND look good… at least, look different. The structure on the left saves interior space by mounting its staircase – a 10-story spiral staircase – on the exterior. I’m guess the penthouse isn’t the most expensive unit here. On the right we have a building that aims to look like it belongs in Paris but actually fits in better on a street in Rock Ridge… not the real Blazing Saddles town, the fake one made of plywood storefronts.

(images via: M.Terada)
Photographer M. Terada has posted a set of images taken of so-called “Pancake House” or “Kamenori (razor) House” buildings in the Osaka area. One of the more striking is shown above left, and appears to be a restaurant cheekily named “Try Angle”.
(images via: M.Terada)
Just like the cars of the Fabulous Fifties compared with those of today, a building can be extremely thin on the outside yet seem comfortable on the inside due to clever, ergonomic design. These buildings have got space to spare where it’s needed most – after all, our bodies aren’t shaped like squares, are they?
(image via: Bouncing Red Ball)
Umm, did someone say “ergonomics”? Maybe that just goes for the expensive, designer slim buildings. The run-of-the-mill, workaday thin buildings have to cut corners in areas some might feel are, well, a little too close for comfort.
(image via: 1987porsche944)
Here’s a real treat for the thin building fan: a cluster of slim structures seemingly leaning on each other for support near Hamamatsucho Station in Tokyo. According to the photographer, the brownish-red building on the right houses an eyewear shop on the ground floor and a chiropractic clinic one floor up. The width of the building on the inside is about 2.5 meters or about 7.5 feet, not exactly luxurious but livable assuming there’s decent length to go with it. The thin white building on the left is a Capsule Hotel – the room there make those in the eyewear building seem positively spacious.

(images via: Dark Roasted Blend)
Just another “House in Tokyo”? That’s what this design by the Atelier Tekuto architecture studio seeks to define in this exquisite, cathedral-like structure. The most salient feature of this design study is the rear entrance where a stepladder unfolds to the ground as in some futuristic spaceship.
(images via: Mike’s Blender)
So lonely… the building above stands alone and at the mercy of earthquakes, typhoons or volcanic eruptions. Good thing Japan never gets any of those… oh, wait. It does seem strange that so many tall thin buildings have been built – and are STILL being built – in a country so often visited by nature’s more violent phenomena.
(images via: WWU Geo-hazard Index and Kyoto U)
Building codes are indeed more strict in Japan but how can a building that looks like it’ll fold up like a cheap circus tent at the mere rumor of a typhoon meet some of the toughest rules & regulations in the world? Then again, what are the works of man compared to the immeasurable power of nature? As the rows of not-so-narrow apartment blocks capsized during the 1964 Niigata Earthquake so obviously indicate, not a whole lot.