Breezy Japanese Micro House is Only 7 Feet Wide – But It Accommodates 2 Families

There are many perks to living in a dense urban environment, but if you want to enjoy the airy feel of a modern, efficient home, the right lot could be hard to come by. <a href="http://www.shnzk.com/" target="_blank">Hiroyuki Shinozaki Architects</a> feel that your design should never be limited by the space available. This amazingly skiny Tokyo <a href="http://inhabitat.com/super-skinny-horinouchi-house-reaches-the-pinnacle-of-space-management-in-japan/">micro-house</a> isn't quite seven-feet-wide, but it hides a comfortable living space you have to see to believe.

Called "House K", the structure is almost 30-feet-high and holds 1,700 feet of living space.

At its most narrow, a normal adult could almost touch both walls at once. Because space is at a premium, the architects had to come up with other clever ways to imitate the feeling of wide open space.

The house has two halves—one is slender and one is a bit chubbier, and the doorways that connect each side are open and breezy, without any doors.

Long corridors on each floor of the three-storey house divide it into two uneven halves, which together contain enough rooms to accommodate two families.

Kitchens, bathrooms, closets and a small bedroom are all contained in the slender wing of the house, while larger bedrooms and living rooms occupy the wider half.

In addition to being a clever demonstration of modern design, House K is also a demonstration of the future of the residential space. Designed to act as a duplex without walls, this space-efficient house could act as a prototype for cooperative living arrangements that build community without sacrificing privacy.