World’s Narrowest House

As of 2012 Polish Architect, Jakub Szczesny, can lay claim to being the designer and owner of the world’s narrowest house.

At just 122 cms at its widest point, and an incredible 72 cms wide at its narrowest point, the triangular home is wedged between two buildings in the centre of downtown Warsaw.

The house was conceived from Szczesny’s pondering what one person could do, living and working in such a tiny space and the result is a spectacular, if not spacious, habitation that is supported on stilts and accessed from a staircase below.

Covering two floors, the house has a bedroom and work area at the top, and a bathroom, kitchen and dining area on the first floor.

Named the Keret House, in honour of the leader of the group who created the space, the house is an art installation that explores the impossibility of living in such a small space, and succeeds in blowing that misconception wide open.

Financed by the Polish Modern Art Foundation and the Capital City of Warsaw partnered with the National Centre for Culture, the house is due to stay in place for two years, though as it is already on the local tourist map it is thought that it might remain permanently in place.

The house also makes a bridge between two periods of history and the architecture of each; on one side the Pre-World War II building on Zelazna Street and on the other a concrete, co-operative apartment building designed to remove the atmosphere of free Warsaw.

Keret House bridges the two realities and also the ghettos that existed in Warsaw, showing that the city has moved beyond and has reached out to the future.