Narrower Towers: Japan’s Thinnest Buildings

When land is expensive or in short supply – or both, as is the case in Japan’s major metropolises – smart real estate developers don’t get down, they look up. These tall thin Japanese buildings show what happens when builders shoot stories upwards to get the most bang for their yen.

Even after two decades of economic stagnation and the collapse of a formidable stock market and real estate bubble, Tokyo remains one of the most expensive places on Earth for developers to build in.



















































































































































































































When Tokyo’s bubble burst at the end of the 1980s, building thin remained in fashion but for very different reasons, notably the need for developers to get the highest possible ROI in a buyer’s market. The design for a modern apartment building conceived by Mitsutomo Matsunami is a marvel of simplicity and minimalism: though seven stories tall and offering 10 apartments of varying sizes, the building’s ground footprint is just 1,200 square feet.



































































In www.weburbanist.com