World's Thinnest House is only 4 ft wide | Hacker News Reader

World's Thinnest House is only 4 ft wide

archdaily.com

93 pointsLiveTheDream33 comments

This reminds me of the Richardson Spite House, which was 5 feet wide and built to block the windows of another property.

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON005.htm

This reminds me of Flatland

It personally reminds me of 2d side-view games (like later castlevanias) where you can't walk around objects like tables or boxes (you have to jump over them to progress). Perhaps level designers for these sorts of games will become architectural consultants when super-thin houses start springing up in other places?

Yes, there's another similar book called The Planiverse by A.K. Dewdney that demonstrates a vertical plane-world with a host of 2d innovations necessary for working mechanics and biology. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planiverse

Interesting. I live a short walk from what I believe is the narrowest current spite house in the US, in Old Town Alexandria, Washington DC. 7 feet wide and still proudly lived in. Nearby is +another+ spite house of the same period (post-federal).

"The house upon completion shall become the narrowest house in Warsaw, measuring an interior that will vary between 122 centimeters and 72 centimeters in its narrowest spot."

Key phrase: "In Warsaw." Was there any discussion of it being the narrowest in the world? Or did I miss something?

Apparently the world's current official narrowest house is narrower at the front (47 inches) but expands to 22 feet. This one will be a bit under 60 inches the whole way through. By average width, this will be the narrowest in the world, not just Warsaw.

For "in the world" it may be between Vancouver's Sam Kee building http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Kee_Building and Pittsburgh's Skinny Building. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04151/322795.stm

Vancouver's building is thinner at the first floor, but has overhangs on the second which increases its width.

Edit: Hmm this is for "commercial" properties so there may be thinner houses.

Vancouver Chinatown buildings are pretty interesting. There's also a number of buildings with 1/2 floors. http://scoutmagazine.ca/2011/07/21/secret-city-on-buildings-...

Other key phrase: "upon completion" -- the project date is listed as December 2011 and often these artist concepts don't see the light of day.

Why is it a triangle? that'd be a lot of wasted space if these were being stacked vertically.

It lets each room get at least some natural light. This is an art project, not civil engineering.

Also rain and snow runoff.

I like that Etgar Keret is going to be the first resident.

One of his stories is called Malffunction, it's about a keyboard with a stuck "F" key.

http://books.google.com/books?id=un6rKAjevT4C&pg=PA87...

He never mentioned the width. I ffound this house in the paper, it looks ffine, it looked good. Now I have a broken keyboard and a ffour ffoot house.

It's not clear to me how one is meant to reach that beanbag.

It seems possible once the stars are up, though I'm not sure how well I would trust using a transformable stair as a floor.

Easy, the stairs pull up.

http://cdn.archdaily.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/13112565...

place the blue portal here, and an orange portal...

... and just a proposal/graphics render at this stage?

I once considered building a lakefront house limited to 6 feet wide by zoning restrictions. I'm delighted to see someone is implementing such a design.

I love seeing things like this. It's too bad it's just a concept for now.

It reminds me of the Boeing 727 house (http://www.costaverde.com/727.html) or the modular apartment in Japan (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/garden/15hongkong.html?_r=...)

That house makes me think of this movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0123755/ ;p

I love creativity like this. The whole stairs into the bottom with a ladder between floors is pretty cool too. Presumably you could make a one-motorcycle garage underneath.

I feel claustrophobic just looking at the rendering!

The ladder in the house reminds me of Super Mario. Great concept, but I would go insane living in such a 2D world over time.

Not 1 closet. That's not a house.

Not everyone needs a closet

I am genuinely curious about this statement. Who doesn't need a closet? (I mean, theoretically I can imagine someone who only wears 1 outfit in perpetuity... but that's hard to imagine.)

Isn't the whole house one big closet?

If you lined a number of these up, how would the noise be?

No different than a usual apartment building? As long as the walls are insulated enough, I would guess.

Insulation takes space, though. I'm not sure those walls will be thick enough, and the space inside the house still comfortable and livable.

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