Tiny Charcoal-Colored Hut by Koji Kakiuchi Creates a Corridor to Nature

Tiny huts and homes completely reject the "bigger is better" mentality. Instead, it seems like many of the small structures we have come across - like this beautiful charcoal-colored hut designed by <a href="http://www2.odn.ne.jp/yaomitsu/">Koji Kakiuchi in Japan</a>, and the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/lantern-like-hanging-japanese-tea-house-brings-visitors-in-touch-with-nature/">lantern teahouse outside of Washington D.C.</a> featured previously - have some kind of meditative purpose. Certainly that is true of this 8.31 square meter hut raised off a steep slope in Nara, which was designed to resemble a Japanese Torri corridor - a reflective space that bridges the outside world with the entrance to sacred shrines.

In Japan, a Torri Corridor is a reflective space between the outside world and a sacred shrine

And the inspiration for this tiny hut in Nara

At only an 8.31 square meters it has a tiny footprint

Only one room, and an outdoor sheltered terrace

The interior is finished off in Japanese cedar

While the exterior is clad in charred timber

From afar, it's almost invisible, surrounded as it is by trees

But small and simple does not preclude depth

By creating a series of repeating frames

Kakiuchi has created a different kind of corridor

Except this time, nature is the shrine!

We love tiny huts and homes that completely defy the bigger is better mentality.