At it’s narrowest point it’s just two meters, though width restrictions are far from the only constraint of this unusual urban plot. Naturally we’re in Japan, where time and time again the architects have proven to be the masters of maximising an awkward build envelope. When first tasked with designing for the space now filled by the Todoroki House, MDS (@mds_arch) were looking at a less than ideal set of circumstances. Narrow at one end, wide at the other, curved at the boundaries and sloped to one side. The house in turn takes on an unorthodox form, with each room staggered at slightly different heights in an arrangement you could hardly describe as conventional storeys. Most importantly of all, it looks nothing like its neighbours. Like so many residential streets in Japan, individual houses have individual characters. How the population prefers to cut their cookies is data that we don’t have to hand, but we’ll let you take an educated guess. Photos by Masao Nishikawa Words by @therealfiemunkenbeck for @type7