Architect Jakub Szczesny has laid out design concepts to fill in a small crack between an old tenement building and tower building in Warsaw, Poland with plans to erect the world’s narrowest house, which will be 60 inches in width.
Talented Israeli writer Etgar Keret is a symbolic patron of the project and he will be given “the main pair of keys” to the house. After the house officially opens on Feb 4, 2012, Keret will spend the first month there and later on will share it as a studio for a select few creative and intellectual individuals from around the world. At the center of what Szczesny considers an art installation that he has aptly entitled, “Ermitage” or hermitage in English, is the residency program that will house these individuals and hopefully, foster a worldwide creative and intellectual exchange.
The architect has shared with Home-Designing some exclusive pictures of this project.
UPDATE,29 Oct 2012: The house is now complete and we have received new images. [Source: KR Properties, Via: Gizmodo]
BBC coverage:
https://youtu.be/VevHN_DEVGo
The house has one bedroom, bathroom, lounge, kitchen all on two floors, yet little room for one’s personal possessions and furniture. A ladder will also need to be used in order to move through the two floors. Its interior will come to 52 inches (133 centimeters) at its widest spot. “I saw the gap and just thought it needed filling. It will be used by artists.” Says Szczesny of the inspiration for his designs.
UPDATE(New Pictures):
In the early phases of design an alternate concept was also proposed which was nearly 40 feet deep, and actually had stairs instead of a ladder.
The Ermitage, upon completion, will be the world’s narrowest house, taking the title from the world’s current narrowest house, “The Wedge” in Great Cumbrae.