Living Large in the Compact 9tubohouse
It's so great when old ideas, once forgotten, are rediscovered and flourishing today. That's the case with the lovable Japanese 9tubohouse. Originally designed in in 1952 by Makoto Masuzawa as an "absolute minimum" house anyone could afford, the 9tubo has been revived of late by Makoto Koizumi and others, who are working to bring this compact darling to homeowners in Japan today.
The 9tubohouse is based on the traditional Japanese unit of measurement in building, the tubo. One tsubo is a square composed of two tatami mats arranged side by side. At nine tsubos (naturally) the plan is only 538 square feet inside. It's a small, but highly livable design, with its wall of windows, a compact but efficient kitchen, a tatami room, and a spacious loft. It's a very efficient design that lives a lot larger than its tiny footprint. The houses are easy to build too, utilizing simple and traditional post and beam construction.
I love the way the houses are finished. Very natural and modern. Here are pics of a few different 9tubohouses:
Most of the pics above are of the second 9tubohouse (the dark one - the first 9tubohouse is the very first pic at the top of the post). As you can see, there are lots of variations on the basic theme too - taller ones, wider ones, etc. - some of which I've shown. I really like the exterior treatment of the bottom one, and the matching detached studio.
Of course, the 9tubohouse site is all in Japanese, and so it's hard for me to navigate. But click around, there are lots of great images including many of people visiting 9tubohouses during an open house showing. There is an English page, but it is still being developed.
You can read about the 9tubohouse in the great book, Space: Japanese Design Solutions for Compact Living
By the way, is it "tubo" or "tsubo." I always see it written tsubo, like in the book Space, but I'm going with tubo since that is how the web address is written.
The Japanese concept of turning limitations into strengths is really at work here. The 9tubohouse works well, even for families, despite its tiny size. Everything you need is there, and nothing is wasted. Though small, it is bright and airy and never feels cramped. And it has so much personality, which is what every house should have. Beautiful!
Image credits - 9tubohouse site, Amazon.com listing
11 comment(s):
These are just great.
I think it is Tsubo. It also happens to be the name of my favorite shoe brand. http://www.tsubo.com/
yeah - check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_units_of_measurement
it's pronounced "tsubo," but there is a romanization (used by the JSL series of books) that writes it "tubo." for those learning japanese, the latter romanization is actually a lot more helpful, even though it looks odd.
in fact, i believe there is no "tu" as in "two" sound in japanese whatsoever.
Both transcriptions are 'correct'. They are simply using different romanisation systems.
Tsubo is a transcription using the Hepburn system. Tubo is a transcription using Nihon-shiki. The word is pronounced the same if you know how to correctly read the two different systems.
The advantage of the Hepburn system for English readers is that it is based on English phonology and thus naive English readers of transcribed words will usually get the pronounciation approximately correct. But it can also hide the real differences that exist between the sound systems of the two languages. For example the sound at the beginning of the name of Japan's tallest mountain, transcribed as Fuji in Hepburn, is a sound that does not exist in English and is only approximated by an English 'f'. Likewise the 'u' is not exactly the same.
The tsubo is equivalent to 6 foot square. 6 foot is equal to a fathom in English and is an anthropic measure equivalent to the height of a (tall) man or the reach of a man with arms outstretched, from fingertips to fingertips. Most languages and cultures have an equivalent of the foot and fathom measures and in japanese the fathom is the ken. So one tsubo is one square ken.
A tatami is 1 ken in length and 1/2 a ken in width. Thus two tatami placed side by side fill 1 tsubo.
As you can see, traditional Japanese architecture was built on anthropic principles. Personally, I like that (despite being 6'2" and not fitting on a tatami).
Thanks for the clarification, Oska. I really like your point about the anthropic measures. A human being should be the basic unit of measure for building a home, shouldn't it?
Yes, I think so.
A nice example of the concept of a tsubo in the European tradition is the square that Vitruvian man is standing in.
Just discovered your blog today John. A very interesting read.
The 9tubohouse is also featured in the book Mini House Style. A good book with many nice compact homes.
I am glad you found my site, oska. I like your insightful comments!
does anyone know where i can get a scaled plan of this house
Why:
A human being should be the basic unit of measure for building a home, shouldn't it?
The unit of measure doesn't matter for the final product. Metric measurements simplify building and calculations.
Unless you are building for a specific person who stays there their entire life the proportions can even be problematic.
We live in a house largely built by and for a short couple. We are significantly taller and the kitchen counters are too lower, the bathtub is too short etc.....
For Anonymous:
Most kitchen counters in the U.S. are 3 feet deep. If you live in the U.S. and are comfortable with the scale of your house, figure that the sketch on the website is to scale and enlarge everything according to that scale. (Example:Get a piece of graph paper. Each square represents 1 square foot. The counter is then 3 squares deep, the tatami room is about 9 squares by 9 squares. Measure other things in comparison to the counter and repeat) It wont be perfect, but it should give you a ballpark of some usable measurements. The other thing that might work would be to get the metric or English conversion of a tsubo and scale a printed version of the sketch from there.
Good Luck!
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