In a 4-foot crack between two buildings in Warsaw, Poland, Jakub Szczęsny envisioned a home. It would be dubbed the Keret House,
providing 150 square feet of living space to anyone who promises to
only stretch one way. It’s an extremely tight fit to say the least, yet
it squeezes in a bathroom, kitchen, and a reasonable place to sleep.
Since the last time we shared plans
for the project, you’ll see that the finished building has developed a
far more industrial aesthetic, resembling a Tetris block more than a
carefully rounded suppository. It’s sharp down to its frame, a series of
metal triangles that form a two-story lattice hovering 10 feet off the
ground.
“It’s a rather ‘minimal existence unit,’ but I’ve done my best to
fight for centimeters in table, seating, kitchenette, and corridor
widths,” Szczęsny tells Co.Design. “For sure some people might feel
claustrophobic, but there’s actually a lot of vertical space.”
Whereas white walls can be the hallmark of an undecorated home,
Szczęsny purposefully “maximized” the whiteness to enlarge the space,
making each wall glow through a semi-translucent polycarbonate roof and
facade. And he’s not lying about the vertical space. The Keret House may
be just 4 feet wide, but it’s also 33 feet deep and the ceilings reach
30 feet high at their peak.
That the Keret House merely looks tiny rather than completely
unlivable is a testament to its clever, functional design touches. Like
the entryway staircase--which folds up to double as the first floor’s,
well, floor. Or a toilet modeled after boat plumbing.
“As one of the ladies in the department of architecture in the Wola
district office said: ‘I think it’s impossible, but I’m giving my
acceptance, because maybe it’s possible.' Which made the whole thing
more possible, of course: It was a building permit,” Szczęsny writes.
So who will live in this tiny home first? Israeli writer Etgar Keret.
He’s a fitting namesake for the building, too, as Keret is known for
writing short stories that are particularly short.
Feel free to write