The Very Small Home: Japanese Ideas for Living Well in Limited Space [Hardcover]

Azby Brown (Author), Kengo Kuma (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 1, 2005

The Very Small Home is an inspiring new book that surveys the creative design innovations of small houses in Japan. Eighteen recently built and unusual houses, from ultramodern to Japanese rustic, are presented in depth. Particular emphasis is given to what the author calls the "big idea" for each house-the thing that does the most to make the home feel more spacious than it actually is. Big ideas include ingenious sources of natural light, well thought-out loft spaces, snug but functional kitchens, unobtrusive partitions, and unobstructed circulation paths.

An introduction puts the houses in the context of lifestyle trends and highlights their shared characteristics. The Houses section details each project the intentions of the designers and occupants are explained. The result is a very human sensibility that runs through the book, a glimpse of the dreams and aspirations that these unique homes represent and that belies their apparent modesty. The second half of the book is devoted to illustrating the special features in the homes, from storage and kitchen designs to revolutionary skylights and partitions.

Building small can be a sign of higher ambitions, and those who read this book will undoubtedly grow to appreciate that building a small home can be an amazingly positive and creative act, one which can enhance one's life in surprising ways. In The Very Small Home, Brown has given home owners, designers, and architects a fascinating new collection of ideas.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"The small abode has become all the rage in Japan," architect Kengo Kuma declares in the foreword to this inspiring book, which should appeal to fans of the small home movement in the U.S. as well. Brown (Small Spaces; The Japanese Dream House) presents 18 residential buildings in his photo-packed volume, all of them built within the past five years. Many of them were designed by leading Japanese architects, such as Tadao Ando and Shigeru Ban. And although their actual floor spaces may be too small for most American readers-they range from 540 sq. ft. to 1,730 sq. ft.-the volume is so full of ingenious ideas that it's a good bet for anyone trying to maximize the space and light of a small residence. Architect Hoichiro Itai's house, for example, manages to squeeze a garden deck, a study, three bedrooms and a sunny communal dining space into 995 sq. ft. Another house makes the most of a small footprint by setting the entryway between two glass-walled garages, so that the entrance resembles an elegant auto showroom. And a third fits a workspace, a bedroom and a bathhouse all in a long, narrow lot that was once a driveway. But the most impressive aspect of all these homes is the bright, airy feeling they manage to convey within in their tiny confines. As Kuma explains, "Focusing on the essentials and a strong sense of poetry ... they are creating, within finite quarters, a refined living space, generating new and important ideas." Brown's excellent textual commentary will help readers bring those important ideas into their own homes.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Four people living in less than 1,000 square feet may sound cruel and unusual by North American standards, but these ultramodern Japanese homes are a testament to using every inch of space to the fullest. Each design makes the featured home feel much larger than it actually is thanks to open-concept layouts, neutral materials, and clever storage ideas like removable kitchen floor panels that hide infrequently used storage. Other clever solutions for living well in limited space include a series of skylights that allow light into a windowless bedroom, and garage door-style retractable windows that open up three storeys to visually expand what might otherwise be a dark, claustrophobic live/work environment. (Style at Home)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha USA; 1 edition (May 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770029993
• ISBN-13: 978-4770029997
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 0.8 x 12 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #664,837 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

135 of 137 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Architecture book celebrating the Japanese Modern Mini June 3, 2005

By Zack Davisson HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Japan is a country with a large population and very limited living space. Due to its mountainous geography, there is a tradition going back centuries for comfortable living in small areas. A classic of Japanese literature is Kamo no Chomei's "Account of a 10-Foot-Square Hut." Traditional Japanese homes are built to be convertible, to maximise space with collapsible furniture that can be stored and multipurpose rooms that can have walls removed to create bigger spaces when necessary.

Building on this need and tradition is the current architectural Small House movement, where new homes are built on miniature lots, maximizing the space with a surprising efficiency. There are TV shows and books galore on the topic in Japan, and the ideas are starting to creep over in to the US as well, with book such as "The Very Small Home: Japanese Ideas For Living Well In Limited Space."

"The Very Small Home" is a showcase for some of these architectural marvels, eighteen of them to be precise. Each building begins with a different problem to be solved; an ancient tree that must be accommodated by law, a tiny lot in Tokyo that needs to fit two houses. My favorite is the family who each inherited a portion of their parents home. One child inherited the driveway, and needed a long, thin house where he could live in on his section of the land. Going for a traditional feel, the architect created one of the most beautiful homes in the book, complete with tiny garden and a luxurious traditional bath. Many of the solutions are quite ingenious, and the photographs of the homes are beautiful to look at.

What the book is not is a guide to better utilizing existing small-space homes. These are definitely architectural solutions, not interior design or decorating solutions. A lot of money went into these houses, and unless you are willing to completely tear down and rebuild your little living space, there won't be much here for you.

For what it is, however, the books succeeds very well, and those interested in architecture as well as those looking to build a small home of their own will probably be amazed at the creativity and beauty of these buildings. The homes are much more modern than traditional, featuring the sparsity of modern Japanese design. I can't help but think of a master-crafted piece of sushi, reverently sitting on a pristine white plate. Small, but incredible.

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes, They Are Small February 27, 2006

By A. Ross HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

While I would agree that the 18 homes profiled in this beautifully designed and produced book are very stark and modern for most people's tastes (I certainly couldn't imagine living in any them), I want to clarify a misrepresentation one of the reviewers made. 11 of the 18 houses featured here have floor plans of under 1,000 square feet, and another 4 are right around 1,200 or less-- the smallest is "T-Set House" at 618. About half of the homes are occupied by couples, and the other half are by families of three or four. So, it does have a lot to show one in terms of living in a small space. Of course, a lot of the living solutions cater to the Japanese format of futons on tatami, which are then put away so that the space is usable the rest of the day, so it's not exactly brimming with solutions for the average person. Still, for design or architecture buffs, or just house porn afficianados, each house gets a nice 5-10 photos and is well-explained with cutaway and 3/4 view diagrams. And if one is really interested in the style, the homes profiled are all in the greater Tokyo area and their addresses (and architect contact info) are all listed in the back.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Rethinking square footage June 13, 2005

By Gaylon Emerzian

Format:Hardcover

Brown has given us rare access into the homes of Japanese architectural trendsetters. The footprints of these houses may be small but what they lack in floor space is compensated by an airy ambiance. There are translucent walls that fill spaces with light, walls that open like huge shoji screens to merge the inside living space with the outdoors. Clever storage units tuck everything away, leaving clean uncluttered expanses that seem spacious even by Mac Mansion standards. The book definitively illustrates that less is indeed more.