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The world’s largest city, Tokyo, is divided into 23 individual wards. One of the most populous of all wards, Setagaya is itself subdivided into five districts. Putting a new home in the crowded ward is akin to using a shoehorn to slide a grey whale into a thimble.
But that hasn’t stopped innovative architect Yasuhiro Yamashita from trying. Yamashita claims that 60 percent of nature is destroyed by architecture. Consequently, he spends almost all of his time on commuter trains in designing small homes with even smaller footprints.
Good Fortune
Yamashita created his “Lucky Drops” home to fit the skinniest parcel in Setagaya—a forty-foot wedge in an afterthought of land in 2005. The idea is that, shaped like a cathedral with light streaming in from above, the house is illuminated like a paper lantern.
Going Cellular
National Public Radio has reported on the “Cell Brick” micro house that Yamashita built in Tokyo in 2004. The three-story house is designed of “cross stitch” glass and steel.
Crystal Clear
Yamashita used a steel frame to hold air-filled glass blocks in place to create this unique home in Tokyo called Crystal Brick. These kyosho jutaku (ultra-small homes) are rather unique, even in jam-packed Tokyo. Says Yamashita, “People tend to think of homes simply in terms of floor space. We architects think in 3-D.”
You can’t judge a small house from the outside. This interior of Crystal Brick illustrates Yamashita’s point: “I think that the Japanese architecture system is very veiled. This means that the outside of a building does not necessarily reveal how the inside is organized.”
I was enamored with Yamashita even more to learn that his small homes are also low-cost dwellings. America could learn a few things from this sensei.
2 Responses to “Learning to Get Small from Setagaya”
How many ways are there to say “ugly”?
Cold, bizarre, uninviting, sterile, weird, inhuman, clinical, waste-of-space, delusional, unfriendly, claustrophobic, inhospitable, etc., etc.
You can design small, eco friendly and energy efficient, and still be warm, human and inviting.
These designs are a total turn-off.
That guy really likes small square spaces. I agree, these designs are pretty ugly. I am sure some hipsters would like the design of them because they are so ‘modern’ but I’ll pass. How could you sleep in those places, they are all too bright.