1.8-metre-wide Tokyo house squeezed between its neighbours

It feels like Japanese architects might be leading the charge in showing the rest of the world what the future of urban living might look like.

YUUA Architects in Tokyo have designed this very narrow house that measures in at just 1.8-metres-wide.

All novelty aside, the home has been cleverly designed to create a compact, but airy feeling space.

The property has been divided into several floors, without any closed-off spaces. This means, each area overlaps into the other to give a sense of spatial breadth.

The building’s fully glass façade overlooks the street, letting in a huge amount of light to help make the combined living dining and kitchen floor feel bigger than it is.

Rather than going for a safe option of white and neutrals to fudge space, the dark walls and wide-plank timber floors create a rich, luxurious feel.

Clever techniques, such as sunken wall storage, and clean minimalistic interiors add to the sense of fluidity in the space.

So while there's not enough room to swing a cat, it certainly makes a convincing case that you don't need to skimp on big design features when you're dealing with tight living quarters.