6 ms·

World’s narrowest house by Jakub Szczesny

84 points by mcenedella 14y ago

tedchs 14y ago
In Charleston there is an impossibly narrow Charleston single house, built to be not much wider than a single doorway. It is a pastiche of classic Charleston building techniques, with three types of traditional roofing and five types of siding. http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/controversial-flag-still-flying-from-spoleto-91/Content?oid=4085159 http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/controversial-...
sown 14y ago
I wonder what the widest house is like? Perhaps the same house?
ecaroth 14y ago
Just looking at the pictures makes me claustrophobic...
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  Its interesting what you can adapt to. I've got a small 'class B' motor home (which is a converted van) and while it is quite small you get used to it on long trips.
eungyu 14y ago
There are many attempts at making compact houses. I think the genius of this house is in making it narrow (short-width) without compromising the length, which makes it actually habitable.
zalew 14y ago
sadly, due to construction and safety laws, it's officially uninhabitable. it can only serve a purpose of being an artistic instalation where one can stay temporarily, but it won't be qualified as a house. the first concepts were a bit different looking http://warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/51,34885,12670651.html?i=0 http://warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/51,34885,12670651.html?i=...
- Munksgaard 14y ago
  Do you mean uninhabitable?
  - zalew 14y ago
    whoops, yes. corrected. tx
- olalonde 14y ago
  That's sad. In Hong Kong, this house would sell for a lot and would most likely be legal.
  - zalew 14y ago
    Corridor width regulations and such are probably more tolerant in places with limited land area like HK, but while I'm not an expert, I'm not so sure a metal box on sticks would qualify as real estate in most parts of the bureaucratic modern world.
jacquesm 14y ago
That's at least 22 cm wider than this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bagatell/128061040/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bagatell/128061040/ And that one is inhabited. I wonder how the inhabitants schedule their days, I can imagine they have to plan their evening ahead before getting into the house to determine who goes first :)
- praptak 14y ago
  This article says it's only the facade being that narrow, the other side is somewhat wider: http://www.holland.com/global/tourism/Article/the-narrowest-house-in-amsterdam.htm http://www.holland.com/global/tourism/Article/the-narrowest-...
  - jacquesm 14y ago
    Hah, cool! Thank you. Learn a new thing about your birthplace every day. When you're in Amsterdam walking along the Singel it's easy to recognize because there are always a lot of people in front of it making pictures of each other. What I like about this is that both the house in TFA and this one are 'leftover space' re-used by someone that figured it's wasteful. It's a pity the house from the article can't be legally occupied, I'm sure it would be an interesting experience to live in a space like that for a while. Hide-and-seek would be quite boring though!
  - wybo 14y ago
    True. Great for bringing it up. As for why facades are so narrow in Amsterdam, if people wonder (there are many more below 3 meters). It is because people used to have to pay property taxes based on the width of the facade of their house. (so the owners of the house in the article got a good deal by being able to have a small facade for a wider house) Maybe (not letting depth run wild either) something similar could be an interesting way to ensure walkable cities ;-)
    - jacquesm 14y ago
      Amsterdam had lots of weird taxes. But how about a window tax? (London) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3578125/When-politicians-go-mad-they-start-taxing-windows.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3578125/Whe... Something similar existed in nl as well, which resulted in many windows being bricked in.
tzs 14y ago
That's pretty neat, but even though it is not quite as narrow, I think the Richardson spite house is still my favorite narrow house: http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON005.htm http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON005.htm
- damian2000 14y ago
  That was an awesome story, thanks.
frozenport 14y ago
Is there a shower?
- dagw 14y ago
  Looks like it from the pictures
aidos 14y ago
While not the narrowest, this one in Hong Kong [0] makes really good use of space by being able to move everything around. [0] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg9qnWg9kak&t=1m39s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg9qnWg9kak&t=1m39s
jorleif 14y ago
Pretty cool, it seems to me that the reasons to have large spaces are mostly 1) psychological (this house feels claustrophobic) 2) storage of stuff. Imagine if we somehow managed to get rid of the second one. For people working from laptops this is already how it works, but for homes I think it is trickier. Of course there are people who live as techno-nomads already, but they have to swear by a kind of minimalist lifestyle that most people don't want, or that is economically infeasible. How quickly would one need stuff in order to make a JIT lifestyle feasible? For example: Need to host a dinner party? Rent a space with dining facilities and equipment that you need. I think the biggest bottleneck is that you can get these spaces, but you need to sift through many options, and you don't get the equipment that you would have chosen yourself. But what if you could store your preferences somehow virtually, and get the equipment you need exactly when you wanted it.
- peteretep 14y ago
  > that the reasons to have large spaces are mostly Actually, one of the most compelling reasons is building regulations, and minimum home sizes distorting the market.
  - netcan 14y ago
    Do we see many homes near the minimum? When some arbitrary floor is having an impact you'de expect it to be felt. A lot of people have had a minimum wage job for example. Most are aware of it. Few people even know about minimum home sizes.
- jquery 14y ago
  I'm not claustrophobic, and I don't need much storage, but I sure as hell need my own private space to move in all four directions. Don't underestimate the psychological aspect. People don't like to live in "prisons."
- Patient0 14y ago
  Don't forget that most people want to raise children some day. Sure maybe some solution could be made to work for single people, but for anyone in a family, you need space.
spikels 14y ago
He didn't go far enough. The real challenge would be to approximate Flatland where you are constrained (as much as humanly possible ) to two dimensions. For example the desk in this home would not be allowed as a person could occupy the same 2d space.
nicholassmith 14y ago
It's interesting that this is I think the 3rd article on tiny housing that has bubbled up on HN recently. At the moment in the UK the government wants people to buy houses, get on the market and so on, but in an area like London where housing is pricey and space is at a premium people are going to start needing to think up clever ways to use it at ground level, rather than building up and up. Of course, they're nigh on useless for family units, but as a first time buyer property they'd probably be quite useful in terms of pricing (as long as they don't get sold as 'designer apartment spaces') and in sensible land usage.
brunnsbe 14y ago
Quite neat that the front door is horizontal and not vertical. :)
shn 14y ago
It was enough for me to feel the claustrophobia to see those pictures. Clearly not for everyone.
pkorzeniewski 14y ago
I love tiny houses and I would like to live in such one day, I don't want to spend fortune on building a huge house, maintaing it and cluttering with useless stuff. Of course the house from link is too extreme as it's an aristic installation, but I love the idea.
bejar37 14y ago
Nq

84 points by mcenedella 14y ago

In Charleston there is an impossibly narrow Charleston single house, built to be not much wider than a single doorway. It is a pastiche of classic Charleston building techniques, with three types of traditional roofing and five types of siding. http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/controversial-flag-still-flying-from-spoleto-91/Content?oid=4085159 http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/controversial-...

sown 14y ago

I wonder what the widest house is like? Perhaps the same house?

ecaroth 14y ago

Just looking at the pictures makes me claustrophobic...

ChuckMcM 14y ago
Its interesting what you can adapt to. I've got a small 'class B' motor home (which is a converted van) and while it is quite small you get used to it on long trips.

eungyu 14y ago

There are many attempts at making compact houses. I think the genius of this house is in making it narrow (short-width) without compromising the length, which makes it actually habitable.

zalew 14y ago

sadly, due to construction and safety laws, it's officially uninhabitable. it can only serve a purpose of being an artistic instalation where one can stay temporarily, but it won't be qualified as a house. the first concepts were a bit different looking http://warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/51,34885,12670651.html?i=0 http://warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/51,34885,12670651.html?i=...

Munksgaard 14y ago
Do you mean uninhabitable?
- zalew 14y ago
  whoops, yes. corrected. tx
olalonde 14y ago
That's sad. In Hong Kong, this house would sell for a lot and would most likely be legal.
- zalew 14y ago
  Corridor width regulations and such are probably more tolerant in places with limited land area like HK, but while I'm not an expert, I'm not so sure a metal box on sticks would qualify as real estate in most parts of the bureaucratic modern world.

jacquesm 14y ago

That's at least 22 cm wider than this one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bagatell/128061040/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bagatell/128061040/ And that one is inhabited. I wonder how the inhabitants schedule their days, I can imagine they have to plan their evening ahead before getting into the house to determine who goes first :)

praptak 14y ago
This article says it's only the facade being that narrow, the other side is somewhat wider: http://www.holland.com/global/tourism/Article/the-narrowest-house-in-amsterdam.htm http://www.holland.com/global/tourism/Article/the-narrowest-...
- jacquesm 14y ago
  Hah, cool! Thank you. Learn a new thing about your birthplace every day. When you're in Amsterdam walking along the Singel it's easy to recognize because there are always a lot of people in front of it making pictures of each other. What I like about this is that both the house in TFA and this one are 'leftover space' re-used by someone that figured it's wasteful. It's a pity the house from the article can't be legally occupied, I'm sure it would be an interesting experience to live in a space like that for a while. Hide-and-seek would be quite boring though!
- wybo 14y ago
  True. Great for bringing it up. As for why facades are so narrow in Amsterdam, if people wonder (there are many more below 3 meters). It is because people used to have to pay property taxes based on the width of the facade of their house. (so the owners of the house in the article got a good deal by being able to have a small facade for a wider house) Maybe (not letting depth run wild either) something similar could be an interesting way to ensure walkable cities ;-)
  - jacquesm 14y ago
    Amsterdam had lots of weird taxes. But how about a window tax? (London) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3578125/When-politicians-go-mad-they-start-taxing-windows.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3578125/Whe... Something similar existed in nl as well, which resulted in many windows being bricked in.

tzs 14y ago

That's pretty neat, but even though it is not quite as narrow, I think the Richardson spite house is still my favorite narrow house: http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON005.htm http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON005.htm

damian2000 14y ago
That was an awesome story, thanks.

frozenport 14y ago

Is there a shower?

dagw 14y ago
Looks like it from the pictures

aidos 14y ago

While not the narrowest, this one in Hong Kong [0] makes really good use of space by being able to move everything around. [0] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg9qnWg9kak&t=1m39s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg9qnWg9kak&t=1m39s

jorleif 14y ago

Pretty cool, it seems to me that the reasons to have large spaces are mostly 1) psychological (this house feels claustrophobic) 2) storage of stuff. Imagine if we somehow managed to get rid of the second one. For people working from laptops this is already how it works, but for homes I think it is trickier. Of course there are people who live as techno-nomads already, but they have to swear by a kind of minimalist lifestyle that most people don't want, or that is economically infeasible. How quickly would one need stuff in order to make a JIT lifestyle feasible? For example: Need to host a dinner party? Rent a space with dining facilities and equipment that you need. I think the biggest bottleneck is that you can get these spaces, but you need to sift through many options, and you don't get the equipment that you would have chosen yourself. But what if you could store your preferences somehow virtually, and get the equipment you need exactly when you wanted it.

peteretep 14y ago
> that the reasons to have large spaces are mostly Actually, one of the most compelling reasons is building regulations, and minimum home sizes distorting the market.
- netcan 14y ago
  Do we see many homes near the minimum? When some arbitrary floor is having an impact you'de expect it to be felt. A lot of people have had a minimum wage job for example. Most are aware of it. Few people even know about minimum home sizes.
jquery 14y ago
I'm not claustrophobic, and I don't need much storage, but I sure as hell need my own private space to move in all four directions. Don't underestimate the psychological aspect. People don't like to live in "prisons."
Patient0 14y ago
Don't forget that most people want to raise children some day. Sure maybe some solution could be made to work for single people, but for anyone in a family, you need space.

spikels 14y ago

He didn't go far enough. The real challenge would be to approximate Flatland where you are constrained (as much as humanly possible ) to two dimensions. For example the desk in this home would not be allowed as a person could occupy the same 2d space.

nicholassmith 14y ago

It's interesting that this is I think the 3rd article on tiny housing that has bubbled up on HN recently. At the moment in the UK the government wants people to buy houses, get on the market and so on, but in an area like London where housing is pricey and space is at a premium people are going to start needing to think up clever ways to use it at ground level, rather than building up and up. Of course, they're nigh on useless for family units, but as a first time buyer property they'd probably be quite useful in terms of pricing (as long as they don't get sold as 'designer apartment spaces') and in sensible land usage.

brunnsbe 14y ago

Quite neat that the front door is horizontal and not vertical. :)

shn 14y ago

It was enough for me to feel the claustrophobia to see those pictures. Clearly not for everyone.

pkorzeniewski 14y ago

I love tiny houses and I would like to live in such one day, I don't want to spend fortune on building a huge house, maintaing it and cluttering with useless stuff. Of course the house from link is too extreme as it's an aristic installation, but I love the idea.

bejar37 14y ago