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Clever Four Storey Space Saver in Japan

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In this tiny house in Japan by Tato Architects some clever space saving ideas are used.

On every floor in this very narrow building, there’s only enough width for one room.

This design makes the most of every one.

Obviously a house constrained into 4 stories, barely one room wide, is going to be dominated by stairs.

But actually, this is the only staircase exposed in the building.

And even that stair ends in what looks like two pieces of furniture, a chest of drawers and a coffee table, that happen to function as a stair.

Starting on the ground floor, a faux wardrobe by the entrance door in fact houses a small toilet, and… a staircase.

The toilet door is tucked under the staircase inside the tall end of the ‘wardrobe’ stair and allows the maximum spaciousness for the bathing part of the bathroom.

On the other side of the staircase, the bathroom sink is separated from both the hidden toilet and the spacious bath, next to the stairs that ascend through the wardrobe.

Because of this layout, the tiny entry/bathroom space appears like three rooms.

This wardrobe stair comes out right inside the table of the dining room, so dinner guests arrive right through the dinner table.

By doing double duty as under-table stairway and as a dining room, the result is a spacious place to eat.

Here is the way everything is laid out.

Hiding all the stairs in fun bits and pieces of furniture is the key.

By paying attention to the scale of physical bodies, the architect employs many ways of making these stairs fun and part of the furniture.

From every angle, there are serene spaces here.

And because the space is used so well, there’s even room for a peaceful skylit meditation space at the top.