The tiny homes inside this Japanese apartment building put cramped Manhattan studios to shame.
Tokyo’s Nerima Triangle Building likely numbers among the narrowest apartments in the world, but it hosts an incredible four units — space for four families — within its confines.
The well-known residence resembles a bright-yellow domino, with its narrowest side measuring just under 2 feet wide. Its incredible design managed to squeeze five floors into its parking space-sized lot, plus one basement level.
Signs on the residential building advertise its former life hosting micro-sized bars — a popular attraction in notoriously space-starved Tokyo.
The YouTube account Tokyo Lense, run by Norm Nakamura, took viewers on a rare tour of the interiors of the Triangle Building, also known as Sankaku Biru, in 2023. Nakamura compared life there to “living in your own personal Toblerone block.”
His tour of the surreal floor plan has since racked up 13 million views — and resurfaced once more this week on X.
YouTuber Norm Nakamura took viewers on a rare interior tour of the building in 2023.
A precariously narrow flight of stairs connects the four full-floor units — all but one of which were inhabited at the time Nakamura toured.
Units in the Triangle Building open up to a kitchenette area with room to accommodate a metal sink, a single hot plate and a mini fridge. Behind the front door is the locker-sized shower, which remarkably includes a small tub and a window.
Past the hallway-like kitchenette is the apartment’s sole room, measuring little more than 8 feel across at its widest point.
The space hosts just enough square footage for a small futon. Overhead cabinets offer precious storage space.
One of the four units here cost roughly $268 per month in 2023, according to Nakamura.
Lack of elbow-room aside, the cheap rent comes with two major downsides. The first is the noise. Located at a five-point crossing in the bustling ward of Nerima, the apartment was declared by Nakamura to be “the single noisiest apartment that I’ve had the opportunity to experience in Japan.”
The second issue is the toilet — or lack thereof. Residents have to exit their apartments and cross the narrow stairwell to access the building’s facilities, which resemble airplane lavatories in size and fixtures.

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