In Japan, there’s a saying “Luck is in the leftovers.” With these sage words in mind, a young Tokyo couple turned to architect Yasuhiro Yamashita and his team at Atelier Tekuto to build them a home on a tiny sliver of land previously thought to be too narrow for development. Yamashita compares the lean size and trapezoidal shape of the leftover plot—just ten feet at its widest point and two and a half at its slimmest, and measuring 96 feet long—to waribashi, the ubiquitous disposable chopsticks used throughout Asia.

The project, known as Lucky Drops, was inspired by the bonbori, a traditional Japanese lamp made from paper stretched over a delicate wooden frame. The 650-square-foot home’s exterior of fiber-reinforced plastic resembles the translucentmembrane of the bonbori and serves to direct light into the basement’s main living area. Additionally, the first and second floors are made of perforated metal grating, which allows light to pass through from above and below. By day, the basement receives ample natural light, and by night, the light from the living area makes the home glow from within like a candlelit paper lantern. With the livability of the aboveground portion of the home so severely compromised by lot width and a required setback, Yamashita emphasizes light and loft in his design.

As the architect modestly states, “I did not intend to build a novel and unconventional Japanese home.” But a softly glowing, Gothic-arched starter home just inches wider than a Hummer is bound to raise a few eyebrows—even in Tokyo.