It’s no secret that the apartments and houses in Japan are incredibly small, especially in saturated areas such as Tokyo. But even Japan’s tiny homes are no match for this extremely narrow “paper building” in Shanghai, China! How do people even live in there?!
This unique building located on Ningbo Road in Shanghai, has been raising the eyebrows of netizens recently. From the side, it looks as if the rooms are being attached on to a piece of cardboard, earning it the nickname of “paper building”.
It would have been an architectural feat if they really managed to build a paper-thin building that was safe to live in, but unfortunately (or not), the seemingly flimsy wall is in actuality a really pointy corner, and the body of the building can be seen from the other end of the block.
▼ Looks like a regular building from the other end of the block.
▼ It looks perfectly normal on the facade as well.
Hidden behind the super-slim edge of the building is an alley known as the Shitan Alley, and deep down in the dark alley is a door that leads up into the block which houses over 40 units. Even with that said, the unusual design of the building makes us wonder what on earth inspired the architect to design a building with such an extreme corner.
While the “paper building” of Shanghai was just a cleverly angled photograph of a building with a really pointy corner, the truly narrow building in Guangxi pictured below is as slim as it looks: the four-storey building is only slightly over two meters wide at both ends. Some Chinese netizens commented that this super slim building looks like a thin slab of tofu from afar.
▼ No illusionary tricks behind this one!
Although there are plenty of seemingly fragile, narrow buildings in Japan, Japanese buildings are constructed to withstand the shakes and tremors of their earthquake-prone lands. The Chinese, however, have a lackluster track record in that domain, giving cyber citizens in China cause for concerned about the safety of this building’s tenants in the case of an earthquake or typhoon.
As cool as it looks, we wouldn’t dare live in there! Would you?
Source: CRI Online
Images: Nikiita Sokuhou
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