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).
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