And more people are thinking of how to live on a small plot of land”. Architect Satoshi Kurosaki builds sleek, tiny, modern homes that answer this need. Kurosaki recalls that the first compact home he built was on a 249-square-foot (23-square-meters) site. It was basically a large parking space in central Tokyo that a 27-year-old woman had inherited, and wanted to live on. Kurosaki somehow managed to design and fit a five-story home on the site.
In Europe, researchers and designers have developed the m-ch (micro-compact home) a tiny, two-story, aluminum cube that, though efficient use of space, can serve as home for one or two people. The 8.5-foot (2.6-meter) m-ch was inspired by the compact spaces in first-class airplane cabins. These tiny, transportable homes are now being sold throughout Europe. Hilda Koch, who lives in an m-ch with her husband, points out, “In the past, it might have been difficult to live in such a small space, but as long as you have a laptop and digital music player, you no longer need a stereo system, countless CDs, photo albums, and shelves of books ”.
After years of house growing bigger and bigger in some part of the world, we may now be seeing a reversal in the trend. The growing desire to live more simply and more economically may mean that the house of the future in not only smaller-it may be tiny!