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8 Incredibly Slender Houses
December 2, 2014
Narrow sites present designers with a unique spatial challenge. Building upward might add square footage, but it won't make a structure the width of a subway car feel any less claustrophobic. These eight slender homes maximize space and light with freethinking design solutions.
Viewed from the street, this London cottage looks not much more commodious than a dollhouse. In back, however, it blooms dramatically into a semi-open plan kitchen, dining room, and living space.
Photo by
Originally appeared in A Slender Geothermal Cottage in London
House NA's matrix of rectangular rooms and outdoor terraces make it appear as though it's bursting with space, even though it's hemmed in on three sides by buildings.
Originally appeared in Architect We Love: Sou Fujimoto
Built as an infill shack between two larger buildings at the turn of the last century, this matchbox-sized home in San Francisco was made significantly less claustrophobic by replacing interior doors with translucent scrims of fabric that open up to let in light.
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Originally appeared in Worth the Wait
A raised patio adds much-needed space to another narrow San Francisco house, built on a 20-foot-wide lot.
Photo by
Originally appeared in Standout in a Crowd
In a family home in Okazaki, Japan, architect Katsutoshi Sasaki toyed with length and height to create an airy atmosphere on a lot barely wider than a big rig. To maximize space, he designed flexible environments, such as children’s rooms that accommodate activities from sleep to study.
Originally appeared in Minimal Home on a Narrow Plot in Japan
Nicknamed the "Eel's House" after the narrow urban properties of the same name in Japan, this slim home in Los Angeles's Echo Park squeezes a garage, architecture studio, open-plan kitchen and living room, patio, and more into four levels.
Courtesy of
Anonymous Architects
Originally appeared in Home and Studio Maximizes Very Narrow Site in Echo Park
Tasked with transforming a 96-square-foot boiler room into a habitable guesthouse, architect Christi Azevedo designed and fabricated nearly everything to fit within the structure. “I treated the interior like a custom piece of furniture,” she says.
Photo by
Originally appeared in A Compact Three-Story Brick Loft in San Francisco
At Yang Yeo's renovated shophouse in Singapore, which is only 16 feet wide, two retractable motor-driven canvas canopies open the roof to allow light into the living space.
Photo by
Originally appeared in Straight and Narrow
Viewed from the street, this London cottage looks not much more commodious than a dollhouse. In back, however, it blooms dramatically into a semi-open plan kitchen, dining room, and living space.
Photo by Charlie Crane.
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