When Life Gave Them an Oddly Shaped Lot, a Young Family Made a Superbly Skinny 868-Square-Foot Home

Tsuyoshi and Maya Ōhama were living just north of Tokyo with their then-toddler, Nana, when the high school sweethearts learned they were expecting twins and decided to move back to their hometown, Osaka. After welcoming their daughters Kano and Yuno, the family settled into a 646-square-foot apartment in the Hirano neighborhood, near Maya’s parents. But after three years, they started to feel the squeeze of apartment living: "Our kids were younger and noisier, so we were always worried about disturbing the neighbors," says Maya. They began to search for land where they could build a home to give their growing girls more space.