The World’s Smallest Living Structures

Published June 2, 2012
Updated February 28, 2018

While you might think your apartment is too small, your mind might be changed after taking a look at the world's smallest living structures.

World’s Smallest Living Structures: Little House

World's Smallest Living Structures

Boasting a mere 312 square feet, this famous miniature miracle is located in Toronto, Canada. Wanting to utilize space in between two bigger houses, contractor Arthur Weeden built the commonly coined “Little House” in 1912 and thus lived in it for the next 20 years.

The house is seven feet wide and 47 feet deep, and despite its size it doesn’t skimp on the essentials; Little House offers a living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, washer, dryer, fridge and patio.

Little House

Little House Toronto

Single Hauz

Single Hauz

Inspired from roadside billboards, these innovative designs offer an interesting and eco-friendly way to live. Conceived by Font Architects, a Polish design company, the split level living space is 290 square feet with a bathroom, kitchen, living room and deck on the first floor and a sleeping space on the uppermost level. The buildings can even be raised over a body of water or other landscapes including cliff faces.

Single Hauz Smallest Living Structures

Smallest Living Structures: Tumbleweed Tiny Houses

Tumbleweed Tiny Houses

Invented by Jay Shafer, the popularity of the Tumbleweed Tiny Houses has exponentially grown in recent times. Shafer originally built the tiny 96 square foot living space for himself in 1997 as a way to reduce his impact on the environment. Nowadays, he and his Tumbleweed team create a variety of tiny houses in varying sizes, but the concept remains the same.

According to their website, the houses are built with attention to “light, warmth, energy, efficiency and proportion” and this is done by minimizing “transitional areas like hallways and stairwells”. The homes also save space through clever storage spaces and even come in a ready-to-build kit so that you can make your own!

Tumbleweed Houses Smallest Living Structures

Smallest Houses Tumbleweed

Free Spirit Spheres

Free Spirit Spheres

Offering affordable, fun and compact housing solutions, the mobile Free Spirit Spheres can be hung from trees to buildings and rock faces. Inspired from sailboat construction, each sphere is equipped with webbings and ropes that anchor it to the sphere’s chosen location.

Demonstrating their vessel-visages that much further, the spheres are also wooden, waterproof and impact-resistant via a clear fiberglass exterior. Likewise, entrance is difficult: to access these elevated houses you must climb a spiral stairway and cross a short suspension bridge.

Smallest Living Structures Spheres

Free Spirit Spheres Building

If you liked reading about the world’s smallest living structures, check out beer bottle houses and the world’s weirdest houses!

author
All That's Interesting
author
Established in 2010, All That's Interesting brings together a dedicated staff of digital publishing veterans and subject-level experts in history, true crime, and science. From the lesser-known byways of human history to the uncharted corners of the world, we seek out stories that bring our past, present, and future to life. Privately-owned since its founding, All That's Interesting maintains a commitment to unbiased reporting while taking great care in fact-checking and research to ensure that we meet the highest standards of accuracy.
editor
Savannah Cox
editor
Savannah Cox holds a Master's in International Affairs from The New School as well as a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of Sheffield. Her work as a writer has also appeared on DNAinfo.