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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.

There’s only one thing worse than ugly window treatments: hideous curtains that reek of dust and mildew. What can you say about the unaccountable poor taste homeowners have exhibited from time in memorial in their drapery? I was visiting a friend in New Jersey once and every time I sat on the couch, my sinuses would flood and I’d start to sneeze uncontrollably.

If it’s true that pictures are a suitable substitute for thousands of words about ugly curtains, read on!

Just for Browsing

The valance on this rather hideous window treatment, say the writers at the Carter Family blog, creates a most-unsavory, unbroken appearance reminiscent of an Austin Powers villainess. Hence:

Lily’s Pad

While we’re discussing window treatments straight out of Hollywood, the Ugly House Photos web site dishes up a set of curtains it claims comes directly from Lily and Herman Munsters’ haunted mansion.

Cheese Grits

Bloggers at The Stamford Wife have termed this acrimonious collision between curtains and wallpaper “The Kuntry look”.

Funeral Home Depot

My apologies to lovers of the Victorian era. But this parlor window treatment gives me the willies. I’m sure it’s the right choice for lining your final resting vessel. But it’s just a wee too stuffy for the living.

The Bates’ Motif

Not sure if this example comes from a private home or motel bathroom. Perhaps it’s just me, but if I’m standing up to my neck in steam behind this curtain,  I’m fairly certain that someone one’s skulking in the doorway with a glinting meat cleaver. Even a clear, plastic liner would be an improvement over this Rubic’s-cube -of-death motif.

At Freshome, the writers say that tying in the curtain style with your room theme is probably the best advice.  I’d say it’s the second-best advice, behind having a sense of style to begin with!