Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Azby Brown's skills just might finally be realized in his native country. What a breath of fresh air he brings to housing! This country needs less of the expensive mega-residences and over-priced, dysfunctional condos and townhouses. We need more "small communities" of creative villages consisting of Brown's beautiful and functional little houses that could be afforded by the first-time buyer and appreciated for its simplicity by the retired. I loved his Small Spaces, love The Very Small Home more, for the perceptive color photos and exceptionally detailed drawings.

Although the Engawa House is the perfect home, ranch style, and the Home in Kyodo the ultimate family home, my favorite remains Koizumi's Sumire-Aoi House. As a retiree, I'd love to own this house with one modification, a disappearing bed, Murphy style. There is a deeply spiritual quality to Brown's houses that bring a sense of peace and contentment just looking at them, over and over. To live in one of the houses in this book would be to live on a spiritual plane far above the mega-millionaire!

John Viveiros
Las Vegas, NV

Did you ever have a tree house as a child? I did. It was set in a weeping willow tree. The play of light from the leaves over the canvas cover was magical. The Very Small Home by Azby Brown evokes the same feelings in me... feelings of magic and wonder. Brown explores modern the fascinating world of modern Japanese architecture with a seasoned sense of style and design.

The book is beautiful. The images are gorgeous. It is truly fascinating the way these modern Japanese architects have used light among other techniques to create small homes with that appear so open... so roomy. Yet, at the same time they have a coziness that can not be matched by their larger Western counterparts.

Brown gives all the details architect buffs want - floor plans, elevations, coding, etc. without boring the casual reader. The photography is first class - a work of art in itself.

The second part of the book is filled with practical applications of design elements gleaned from these amazing homes.

Whether you are an architect buff, an aficionado of Japanese culture or just someone who wants ideas for creating more space in your home, this book is a must-buy. (It looks great on your coffee table too.)

One thing that stood out from this book offering would be Kengo Kuma's essay defining and exploring the definiton of living well in limited space. Credit goes to the author of choosing small homes of different themes. I would have to say that many of homes featured here wouldn't be conducive to day-to-day living from Westeners' point of view. As everyone would be aware of, land is a precious asset in Japan and thus, many of homes here are actually going upwards instead of spreading flatwards. Those that are spreading flatwards are mainly built in the occupants' families' land which I'm sure would go back centuries. Whilst it's a novel idea to challenge the ideal of building small homes, it doesn't necessarily mean that savings can be actualised. Rather, suffice to say that this challenge fall into the realm of the intellects and cerebrals who are testing the limitation on architecture. Detailing plans are provided with amples of photos. Readers are pledged to read this book with an objective mind and there are bits and pieces that can be implemented elsewhere but in many instances, some ideas are totally unique to Japanese setting. Still, an enjoyable reference book to have. Commendable reading.

As I work through the major renovation of my 750 sqft loft I've bought and closely reviewed the design strategies and tricks from about 20 books on small apartments and lofts. Beyond a doubt this book has provided more practical, cost effective insights than any other (also see "Small Lofts"). In particular, this book contains engaged descriptions that go far beyond the typical coffee table book of merely impressive photographs.

This book is about the specific challenges found in Japanese home design including air rights issues that I doubt exist in most of the USA, but the solutions to these foreign problems are just as useful here (for solving other challenges) as they are in Japan. I strongly recommend this book!

I LOVE this book! I don't think I could live in most of these houses... But, oh wow, would I love to spend a weekend.

In the truest Japanese tradition, these very, very small homes are morsels of perfection. No detail is too small; no corner neglected.

Somehow, ancient Japanese design seems modern. So these "modern" homes, in the Japanese context, carry on tradition.

My favorite house may be the little gem squeezed into what was a long, narrow driveway. It manages to be private, spacious, light filled and warm, AND incorporate a charming courtyard between the kitchen and traditional bathhouse.

There are so many ingenious ideas packed between the covers of this book. If you love architecture or small houses or big houses or live in a house or apartment or refrigerator box (especially the box--it's roughly the size of some of these houses) you may enjoy this book.

My main objection to these designs, is that I would require more privacy for the master bedroom. Many of them were open loft types, many of them barely segmented from the children's space. But, I still marveled at these tiny wonders. Some had the aura of cathedrals.



Highly recommended.

This is a fun book that can be perused many times without getting tired of it. It is well put together. It features twenty small Japanese houses (including two in the introduction) in the Tokyo area, all of contemporary architecture. There isn't much available land in Tokyo so the architects had to use their imaginations to put everything in a small space. Four pages are devoted to each house, two for photos, one for large 3-D floor plan drawings, and one for the text and a cross section drawing of the different levels or stories.

The rooms appear spacious because they are sparsely furnished, as the Japanese value simplicity. Living areas often have only a dining table and chairs and sometimes a couch or a bookcase, and the bedrooms only have space enough for a bed, storage, and sometimes a desk. The kitchens save space with compact appliances that until recently were not made in the USA. And the toilets are usually put in tiny cubicles separate from the bathing area, which has a tub and/or a shower with a curtain but no stall. The tiniest house has a footprint of less than 18' square and only 533 square feet of floor space, including the loft, and a family with two children live there.

To bring nature to an urban setting where there isn't a tree in sight, several houses are built around a garden courtyard that also illumines the interior rooms that would otherwise be dark. One house has a separate bathing house with grass growing on its roof and views of a private garden. Another house has all its rooms in a row with sliding glass doors that can be pulled back so every room is open to the small yard, including the bathroom that has no door!

The original description from Amazon was very accurate. I found the book informative and beautiful to look at. The details at the back of some of the houses were terrific. I liked also that they were built to fit in a certain space. The draw back for me was that everything was virtually custom made so the expense had to be great. I am always looking at tiny spaces for living coupled with a modest cost. It was a good book for storage ideas also, there were some wonderful storage solutions shown.