4.2K+Subscribers
Popularity
20Supporters
Subscribe
I am endlessly fascinated by some of the small homes that get built in Tokyo. This one, also pictured above, is called the Borderless House.
Designed by Selma Masic — in collaboration with Sei Haganuma (Haryu Wood Studio) — the house sits on a 3-meter-wide lot, has a total area of 63 square meters across three floors (~678 square feet), and allegedly houses a family of four. Bridgestone also appears to be its immediate neighbor.
To put these dimensions into perspective, 3 meters is roughly the width of a “typical” new apartment living room here in Toronto. Usually, if you have a floor plate that can accommodate an outboard bedroom up at the glass, you design for a structural grid somewhere between 6–6.5 meters.
This gives you around 10 feet for the living room and around 10 feet for the bedroom. (As a a Canadian, it's important to always bounce back and forth between metric and imperial.) In this case, the entire lot is only 3 meters wide, though a corner lot always enhances a floor plan.
All of this is fascinating because, compared to North America, it represents a completely different way of conceptualizing space. Of course, the point of posts like this one is not to suggest that this is what all homes should be like. The point is that there are benefits to allowing those who would like such a home to be able to build it.
Cover photo by Selma Masic
https://youtu.be/grwHG9SDkRs
This is my new favorite YouTube channel. I discovered it last night and it's called "Never Too Small." The focus is on beautifully designed small spaces. And all of the videos are meticulously crafted -- they have a calming feel to them.
The first video that I watched was the one above (click here if you can't see the embed) about Desmond Wong's 31st floor apartment in Hong Kong. At 52 square meters, it's actually one of the larger spaces on the channel. But it is perhaps important to keep in mind that this was a 2-bedroom flat before Desmond renovated it.
Floor plans are an interesting thing (and something I enjoy working through for work) because there are lots of nuances to consider, some of which are entirely local. For example, in this flat you'll see that the kitchen is off in its own little room and furnished with a window.
That is common in many of the HK apartments that I have seen, but it is not how we would typically lay things out in a new build of this scale here in Toronto. The kitchen would likely be a galley kitchen adjacent to the living/dining room to create more of an open concept plan.
I'm looking forward to watching their other episodes. For more about NTS, you can also check out their website. They recently published a book which, from what I can tell, looks equally beautiful.
I am endlessly fascinated by some of the small homes that get built in Tokyo. This one, also pictured above, is called the Borderless House.
Designed by Selma Masic — in collaboration with Sei Haganuma (Haryu Wood Studio) — the house sits on a 3-meter-wide lot, has a total area of 63 square meters across three floors (~678 square feet), and allegedly houses a family of four. Bridgestone also appears to be its immediate neighbor.
To put these dimensions into perspective, 3 meters is roughly the width of a “typical” new apartment living room here in Toronto. Usually, if you have a floor plate that can accommodate an outboard bedroom up at the glass, you design for a structural grid somewhere between 6–6.5 meters.
This gives you around 10 feet for the living room and around 10 feet for the bedroom. (As a a Canadian, it's important to always bounce back and forth between metric and imperial.) In this case, the entire lot is only 3 meters wide, though a corner lot always enhances a floor plan.
All of this is fascinating because, compared to North America, it represents a completely different way of conceptualizing space. Of course, the point of posts like this one is not to suggest that this is what all homes should be like. The point is that there are benefits to allowing those who would like such a home to be able to build it.
Cover photo by Selma Masic
https://youtu.be/grwHG9SDkRs
This is my new favorite YouTube channel. I discovered it last night and it's called "Never Too Small." The focus is on beautifully designed small spaces. And all of the videos are meticulously crafted -- they have a calming feel to them.
The first video that I watched was the one above (click here if you can't see the embed) about Desmond Wong's 31st floor apartment in Hong Kong. At 52 square meters, it's actually one of the larger spaces on the channel. But it is perhaps important to keep in mind that this was a 2-bedroom flat before Desmond renovated it.
Floor plans are an interesting thing (and something I enjoy working through for work) because there are lots of nuances to consider, some of which are entirely local. For example, in this flat you'll see that the kitchen is off in its own little room and furnished with a window.
That is common in many of the HK apartments that I have seen, but it is not how we would typically lay things out in a new build of this scale here in Toronto. The kitchen would likely be a galley kitchen adjacent to the living/dining room to create more of an open concept plan.
I'm looking forward to watching their other episodes. For more about NTS, you can also check out their website. They recently published a book which, from what I can tell, looks equally beautiful.
The smaller of the two new designs is the Yksi House. It consists of two stacked volumes (pictured above) and is about 1,000 square feet. The ground floor has two bedrooms and the second floor houses the main living area. This allows the exposed roof areas of the lower volume to serve as outdoor spaces. You also naturally get better views from up top, which is one of the reasons why this configuration is so common across many vernaculars.
If you'd like to play around with the Yksi House in 3D (directly in your browser), you can do that over here. It's a wonderfully simple design. I know that the building industry has been talking about and experimenting with prefabrication for many generations (and it has never stuck), but I can't help but think that as beautiful products like these become far more accessible and affordable, we might finally make it happen.
Image: Koto Design
The smaller of the two new designs is the Yksi House. It consists of two stacked volumes (pictured above) and is about 1,000 square feet. The ground floor has two bedrooms and the second floor houses the main living area. This allows the exposed roof areas of the lower volume to serve as outdoor spaces. You also naturally get better views from up top, which is one of the reasons why this configuration is so common across many vernaculars.
If you'd like to play around with the Yksi House in 3D (directly in your browser), you can do that over here. It's a wonderfully simple design. I know that the building industry has been talking about and experimenting with prefabrication for many generations (and it has never stuck), but I can't help but think that as beautiful products like these become far more accessible and affordable, we might finally make it happen.
Image: Koto Design
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
