One of my new favorite blogs is LittleDiggs, which was pointed out to me by my good friend Sterlingspider. This particular blog is devoted to small spaces, i.e., houses and apartments that are about 500 sq. ft. or smaller, and the accessories that help people live comfortably in dwellings of this size.

One diminutive house featured on the site was designed by Japanese architect Makoto Koizum in 1952 and measures in at a mere 538 sq. ft.

The reason for its tiny size is that after World War II, the housing corporation of Japan would only provide loans to build homes that were no larger than 50 square meters.

If you had the means to build a bigger home, you were perceived as being wealthy and not in need of a loan.

The Masuzawa house was dubbed “the minimum house,” but Makoto Koizumi, who reintroduced the house to the current Japanese market, said this is a misnomer.

“It should be called the maximum house,” he said. “Despite its small space, Masuzawa-san’s creativity made the house seem open and spacious.”

I think I’d feel comfortable in this house if I was single or didn’t have five cats and a baby on the way. Then again, I’m surrounded by a great deal of unused space in my current house, and who’s to say that I actually need all that room?

If like what you see and you live in Japan, you can order one of these houses online for $98,000-$146,000. Land is not included.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 10:21 am by Christa Terry and is filed under Design and decor blogs, Designers We Love, Spaces, Unusual homes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.