Trying to find a specific photo book I once saw with photos of tiny apartments

July 6, 2007 10:19 AM

The book that got away! Trying to find a small photo book I once saw with photos of (truly) tiny apartments.

Clues:
- The book itself is small, maybe 6 or 7 inches tops on a side (and possibly square shaped rather than rectangular)
- It's more than an inch thick
- It's paperback
- It was published in 1999 or earlier (I saw this in a bookstore in the U.S. in fall 1999)
- All photos are in color
- Text is in English, or possibly in several languages including English. I feel like there was not much text (mostly just photos)
- Many (possibly all?) of the spaces are in Japanese cities
- Most (possibly all?) of the spaces are apartments or rooms, not freestanding houses
- These are real "tiny spaces" (more like 100 or 200 sq ft than like the 400 or 500 sq ft some other books call "tiny")

This was the coolest book. I so wish I'd bought it when I had the chance. I have looked for it in a few well-stocked bookstores (and tried searching online, but my keywords are not specific enough I think). Any ideas?

posted by lorimer to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

Were the photos of well-designed apartments that happened to be small spaces or were they of people who couldn't afford to live in any bigger space and thus crammed all their posessions in this tiny room? If the latter, I remember coming across such a thing recently and I will try to dig it up.
posted by desjardins at 10:36 AM on July 6, 2007

Is it Tokyo: A Certain Style? I jave this one, and it is great!
posted by sluggo at 10:41 AM on July 6, 2007

Is it Tokyo: A Certain Style?
posted by Siobhan at 10:41 AM on July 6, 2007

This fits all your specifications except pre-1999 publication. I purchased it on remainder in Cambridge (MA) a couple of years ago, so there ought to be others floating around. Even if it isn't the exact book that you're thinking of, its still quite cool.
posted by googly at 10:41 AM on July 6, 2007

And by "jave", I think I mean "have".
posted by sluggo at 10:42 AM on July 6, 2007

(I previewed and everything!)
posted by Siobhan at 10:45 AM on July 6, 2007

Good question, desjardins -- definitely the latter. I remember some student rooms packed with books, some extremely tiny garden spaces, at least one ultra-simple space like maybe a monastery -- this was definitely not a high-end "here's what our architect did with our oddly narrow lot" kind of book.

It *might* be Tokyo: A Certain Style, but I'm actually pretty sure the title was not location-specific and the book was a survey of many different kinds of tiny living spaces.

(I'm on a sub-dialup connection right now so the Amazon preview is too slow, but I will definitely check it out later.)
posted by lorimer at 11:00 AM on July 6, 2007

Hmm. If it was indeed the latter then I am less confident in my link (Asian Apartments, by Nerelle Yabuka & Hwee-Chuin Ang). But, like desjardins, I seem to recall seeing the book you describe somewhere as well.
posted by googly at 11:08 AM on July 6, 2007

Taking a look at "Tokyo: A Certain Style," I'm pretty convinced it is a new edition of an older book that a friend has (she'll get back to me with the ISBN when she gets home). The older edition (I think) is simply called "Tokyo Style," is square, and filled with photos of tiny, crammed apartments. I haven't been able to find this edition online, and it would date back to at least '95. "Tokyo: A Certain Style" has English text and I think the old one has Japanese text.

So I think we have a match.
posted by adamrice at 11:18 AM on July 6, 2007

Here's an Amazon listing for adamrice's "Tokyo Style" -- same author, and a WorldCat search does list editions as early as 1993.
posted by Siobhan at 11:44 AM on July 6, 2007

I hope it's "Tokyo Style," because I can't find the link I was thinking of. I swear I saw it on MetaFilter in the last few months, though.
posted by desjardins at 11:49 AM on July 6, 2007

desjardins, I think you're thinking of this post.
posted by enn at 1:26 PM on July 6, 2007

enn: yes, I was. Thanks for finding it.
posted by desjardins at 2:41 PM on July 6, 2007

Incidentally, another book by the same author is "Universe for Rent". I can't recall whether it's only in Japanese or not, but it's full of pictures of people's apartments—300 in all.
posted by armage at 4:57 AM on July 7, 2007