The ‘thinnest house’ in the world is 3ft wide — and there’s no electricity

Getting on the housing ladder requires a Herculean effort these days.

So if you are fortunate enough to get on the property ladder, you might be willing to take whatever you can get, even if that space is smaller than you anticipated.

But if you thought you were struggling for space in your city rental, spare a thought for the ‘thinnest house’ in the world. At its tightest point, Keret House in Warsaw, Poland, is just 92 centimetres (3.02 ft), while the widest is 152 centimetres (4.99 ft). Cosy, hey?

Built by Polish architect Jakub Szczesny, the property was constructed to provide temporary accommodation for travelling creatives rather than somewhere to call home.

The very first person to stay there was writer Etgar Keret – and this is how it got its name.

Jakub discovered the site when he was walking home one day and started to wonder what he might be able to do with it, if anything at all.

(The furniture had to be custom-made (Picture: Jakub Szczesny/Inside The Keret House/Foregemind Archimedia/Creative Commons/Flickr)

‘I started to think who could live there. It had to be a person that would like to be a hermit, someone who would like to spend time alone doing something, but doing what?’

Wondering how he managed to fit all the furniture inside?

It was all custom-made as, inevitably, much of what was on the market was too large to even construct inside, let alone fit into the home’s tiny corners.

(It’s safe to say that it’s relatively compact in here (Picture: Jakub Szczesny)

Inside, there’s more space than you think, with one bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom and a living area split across two floors – though anyone who stays there will need to be comfortable using a ladder to move between levels.

It’s not completely dark in there either, as there are two windows (though they don’t open) and a few translucent panels that welcome in the sun.

In the 12 years since it opened, it’s made quite the impression: so much so that in 2019, it was listed as one of the world’s most notable homes by Iconic Houses, despite the fact that it doesn’t technically qualify as a house because of local building codes. Instead, it’s listed as an ‘art installation.’

(The property is technically an ‘art installation’ rather than a home (Picture: Jakub Szczesny/Inside The Keret House/Foregemind Archimedia/Creative

Ref: The ‘thinnest house’ in the world is 3ft wide — and there’s no electricity (metro) Photo Credit- Jakub Szczesny