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

by Azby Brown (Author), Kengo Kuma (Foreword) "From the exterior, this house is a simple rectangular volume that fills the entire lot, with recesses to accommodate the ground floor entryway and a..." (more)
Key Phrases: White Box House, Pittori Piccoli

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.
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Review
"A must for anyone wanting to understand how to do more with less when it comes to home design." -- Sarah Susanka, AIA architect and author of THE NOT SO BIG HOUSE series and HOME BY DESIGN

"Books like…THE VERY SMALL HOME…explore how small spaces can be put to ingenious uses." -- Time Magazine

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha International; 1 edition (May 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 4770029993
• ISBN-13: 978-4770029997
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #52,674 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 104 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 "All Good Things" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Spiritual Home, August 8, 2005

By	John Viveiros "dreamer" (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.