A maze-like tower of voids and projections looms above the streets of Tokyo, offering residents cascading outdoor spaces all along the building’s roof and facade. ‘Tree-ness House’ by Japanese architect Akihisa Hirata takes inspiration from nature for this unusual design of stacked concrete boxes full of inward-facing private rooms as well as outward-facing terraces. It almost seems like you could get lost inside exploring all of its nooks and crannies.

Announced in 2010 and completed this year, ‘Tree-ness House’ aims to create a more dynamic experience for its residents with ambiguous interior and exterior spaces. Instead of stacking the floors on top of each other, individual private spaces are offset at various heights with ‘pleated’ openings making room for small gardens.

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The interior spaces are just as ambiguous, with staggered voids and glass walls offering glimpses of the terraces and the sky beyond them. For a better look at Tree-Ness house, inside and out, check out the website of photographer Vincent Hecht.

Plots of land long considered too small and strangely shaped to build upon prove to be more valuable when they seem thanks to some creative thinking. Across the world (put particularly in cramped Tokyo), architects are rising to the challenge to expand available living spaces in heavily populated cities, designing structures that fit these ‘odd lots’ without sacrificing privacy, comfort and outdoor spaces.

Wedge-Shaped Home by Oof! Architecture

The geometry of this triangular site in a residential neighborhood in Melbourne presented a major challenge for OOF! Architecture, especially due to strict building rules. The architects created a three-story structure full of split-level living areas to avoid wasting space on internal walls, doors and hallways.

House in Horinouchi by Mizuishi Architect

One of Tokyo’s most distinctive odd-shaped houses, ‘House in Horinouchi’ by Mizuishi Architect Atelier had to fit within a strip of land roughly the size of a parking spot while still having a place to store bikes outside. The ultra-narrow result features a tapered cantilevered end, a slightly wider area containing the living spaces, and a play loft for the owner’s children.

Grass Cave House by Makiko Tsukada

This plot is squished between several existing houses in the suburbs at an odd angle, which could easily have resulted in a dark structure with very little privacy and no outdoor spaces. Instead, Makiko Tsukada Architects built a step-shaped structure consisting of three grass-covered volumes, including a carport roof and the home itself. Large windows face these elevated lawns to bring sunlight inside.

Mountain House by Hiroki + Tomoko Sekiguchi

Monolithic and windowless from outside, ‘Mountain House’ by Hiroki and Tomoko Sekiguchi Architects has to accommodate a large four-wheel-drive car on its lowest level and contend with the prying eyes of neighbors. The result frames views of the sky and accesses daylight via skylights.

Triangular House by H.ARCHITECTS

Strict Japanese setback requirements prevent architects from building right up to the edge of the plot, including roof overhangs, yet the typical Japanese plot is incredibly small. This one was considered too awkward to build on and used as a parking lot for many years, but H.ARCHITECTS found a solution that makes the most of the adjacent park. A z-shaped interior layout allows for the creation of a few outdoor spaces, like the third floor balcony.

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Against All Odd Shapes 12 Homes Tailored To Tiny Difficult Plots

The same Japanese retail chain selling household supplies like space-saving furniture, bed linens and travel toothbrushes will soon sell pop-up houses, too, so you can literally walk out with a kit for an entire, fully-outfitted home in one trip. The Muji Hut, designed by Konstantin Grcic, Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa for retailer Muji, comes in three variations starting at $25K. Each offers just enough space for one or two minimalist residents.

The Japanese housing market is a little different from that of the U.S. and other parts of the world in that real estate doesn’t accrue value over time, and demand for preexisting houses is low. Not everybody has the money to knock down an old house and build a new one in its place, however, and lots tend to be tiny.

Each designer created their own version of an affordable, no-frills structure that can be assembled in short order, including one made of aluminum, a two-story timber creation and a little cabin clad in cork. Each takes inspiration from kyosho jutaku, the Japanese style of micro homes that aims to squeeze as much function out of tiny footprints as possible.

The Muji Huts are envisioned as weekend getaway destinations rather than full-time living spaces, but each contains a generous living room, bathroom and kitchen, and can be heated with a wood stove. The huts can be installed in virtually any location, from tight city lots to the banks of a river, and will be available for purchase in 2017.

A tiny 750 square foot apartment is definitely not a lot of space for two people, but this couple was lucky enough to find an exceptionally creative architect. This Tokyo home had a lot of room to grow vertically, so Hiroyuka Shinozaki Architects used floating floors and a series of stairs and ladders to create a spacious living area and studio.

The interior of the home is virtually free of walls and even features huge cutout areas in some of the floors. The architects named it House T, but the owners call it a “ninja house.” Their reasoning behind the name? The couple feels that they have to be as nimble as ninjas to navigate the innovative interior.

Large hanging lights and the wide-open space fill the combination home/studio with bright, cozy light. Part of the space is largely unfinished, with plywood floors and very little furniture. It contributes to the austere yet homey feel of the apartment.

In addition to the absence of walls, many of the home’s functions and features were built into the walls to maximize available floor space. A decent amount of storage is built into the home’s central set of stairs. While walking along ledges and tiptoeing around holes in the floor might not be for everyone, the pair who live in the apartment say that the unique layout – and the unusual way in which they have to navigate it – has made them healthier.

Measuring just 280 square feet, this tiny house in Tokyo by architecture firm Flathouse includes a public biscuit shop on the first level and manages to fit a lot of function into an irregularly shaped footprint by taking advantage of vertical space. Built on a system of parallelograms that create a herringbone pattern both inside and out, the home has no interior walls, dividing the rooms with a series of staggered platforms instead.

For privacy-obsessed Westerners, this may seem like a strange move, but interior walls aren’t seen as a necessary part of a home in many areas of Japan. In this case, eliminating these dividers keeps a small space open and encourages rapid movement from one area of the home to the next. The shop owner can quickly move from the personal areas of the home to serve a customer on the first floor, and back again.

All levels are connected by a central staircase. The dining room, living area and private rooms are all set on small platforms with barely enough room for the furniture required in each. The shop and bathroom are tucked into a concrete basement level, while the rest of the home is lined in a light and airy larch plywood.

This approach uses the full available height of the property, creating a comfortable space despite the restrictive dimensions of the plot, a common architectural challenge in Tokyo.