Vertical Living

As house prices are soaring and urban plots shrink in size, a look at traditional narrow homes, especially in Japan, Vietnam or the Netherlands, where slender buildings have a long history, provides contemporary architects with inspiration for buildings with restricted space. Living small is no new phenomenon.

Ultranarrow homes have often characterized the urban fabric of our historic cities where the demand for housing has outstripped the supply of land, but the slender, skinny houses that are now being build to fill the gaps offer increasingly innovative and aspirational solutions: Previously rejected, abandoned, or forgotten plots deemed too tight to develop become spacious townhouses.

Densification asks us to design buildings that uniquely fit a local context. The ‘International Style’ with its concrete cores and curtain wall facades uniformed our cities that once were so unique, be it London, Melbourne or Shanghai. But there’s no one-size fits all solution. Sustainable densification is about more than just efficiency. It starts with buildings that are not separate from their surroundings, but are an integral part of a healthy neighborhood.