The craze for kyosho jutaku, that distinctly Japanese variant of the micro home, may have started in the thirteenth century, but there’s good reason why jutaku has more recently exploded in popularity outside Japan.

These micro houses are often built on unused, “leftover” land —urban infill, in the truest sense of the term. We’re talking not much bigger than a parking space. The question is what sort of house do people aspire to live in versus what sort of house can they afford to live in? For most of us, it is picking our priorities and finding the perfect pad to fit the brief, normally with some element of compromise, size versus location.

So what if you were given the option of stunning, relatively affordable architecture in a great location – but the catch is that you are living your life in a smaller more compact space that perhaps wouldn’t cater for all your possessions. Just who are the mortals who buy into this?

Japanese jutaku house

Japanese jutaku house

Certainly this way of living is an integral part of Japanese heritage, dating back hundreds of years of jutaku houses built on minute plots. One Sarum team member lives in a house on British soil that is only 3 metres wide on a 24 square metre plot – and loves it. But some of these Japanese jutaku are a teeny 1.8 metres. That is micro living in the extreme.

National press and mass market TV home-design programmes showcase tantalising glimpses of some seriously slick architectural gems in London on ridiculously small plots. Architects rise to the micro challenge to create something so special, that small becomes the god of all things. These stunning dwellings are rarely cheap, as the creativity and ingenuity in clever design and engineering normally comes with an exclusive one-off price tag.

A jutaku house certainly demands a different way of living. Clever storage features with multiple functions are a must. A place for everything and everything in its place is the only way. For any homeowner familiar with a life of clutter, a ‘life cleanse’ is essential for peaceful, calm home surrounds. So it’s goodbye to chunky furniture, hello to only the simple, sleek and streamlined. For the jutaku homeowner work actually means working out of a briefcase (no study allowed) so start thinking remote cloud based computing.

For the Japanese new-build observer, they possess an eagerness for building-in modern technology. Perhaps in part due to living in an earthquake prone area. But consider another perspective on their property building with their incredibly high population density, which is reflected in the continual renewal of the housing stock. Just like Britain, Japan has to contend with 126 million people jammed onto a small island with some truly mega cities.

At Sarum, we think that knocking out hundreds of identical micro houses on one site to make affordable housing for people living in the city is a very different discussion from the magical jewel-like jutaku houses. But if lots of minute plots of land previously discarded for development could accommodate stunning architecture in the jutaku tradition, surely this would contribute something of intrinsic merit to our crowded cities? As a strategy for sustainable growth, jutaku make a whole lot of sense for busy cities trying to increase their core density without expanding on their peripheries. Small, energy-efficient homes could be just the thing for major cities desperate to get the most out of every square inch of space. The question is at what cost to the homeowner for this type of architectural splendour? Jutaku may be a pleasure to live in but how affordable will they ever be?

Sarum is excited by the thought of being different and commissioning an architect to design a jutaku house. Maybe an overdue change from a diet of aspiring to live in a “Grand Design”. Whatever the property, Sarum will carry on supplying their rugged Micropac hydraulic pumps for the construction of housing. Whether it is eco-friendly trench shoring hydraulics, lifting, pressure testing of heating systems or even proof testing of high tech misting, we will be there with the best of British. Look on www.sarum-hydraulics.co.uk.

Links: https://porch.com/advice/tiny-house for some more inspiration.