The Narkest House in the World It is in Warsaw. Touching the walls without even having to stretch your arms: that is the result of the crazy challenge proposed by the Polish architect Jakub Szczesny, from the Centralla agency. Partly housing, partly the work of art, the Keret house is conceded between two buildings of the Warsaw Gueto. Beyond the constructive challenge, the architect wanted to gather these two structures separated by one meter: a house before the war on one side and a block of apartments to the other, built after the war, after the partial destruction of the Warsaw ghetto – a common pattern in the Polish capital, where the visual inconsistency of certain districts often carries the scars of the Nazi past -. «I wanted to create a bridge between these times,» explains the architect to Ouest France. 70% of Warsaw buildings were destroyed during or after World War II. It is as if the city had partially forgotten its past.
Etgar Keret, himself of a Jewish family that perished in the Shoah (like 90% of the Hebrew-Polaca population), wanted to turn this place into a «family memorial», transforming this crack, witness of the war, in a real place to live. Inaugurated in 2012, Maison Keret takes its name from Israeli's owner, writer and filmmaker. «When Jakub Szczesny contacted me for the first time, I thought it was a joke,» explains Etgar Keret a Ouest France. «I realized that I was serious when Tel Aviv came to talk to me about the minimalist character» to sympathize with that of my writing – of this neighborhood where the ghosts of the Gueto remain, of the absence of Jews in the current city: suddenly everything made sense. «
From the street, the narrowest house in the world is almost invisible: only a fine column of Plexiglaás announces it. According to the plans, its width varies between 92 centimeters at the narrowest point and 1.20 meters in the widest, while it houses about 14 square meters. The explanation? The house lengthens in length (9 meters), but also in height (10 meters). At the entrance it is accessed by a retractable ladder and the second level by a ladder. The structure, all iron, includes a room, a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom. Despite the extreme narrowness of the house, the general effect is luminosity, thanks to the use of glass panels, both practicable and non -practicable, some of which act as walls; and the choice of clear tones, especially White walls. «Everything was designed to maximize the light, and my work was similar to that of a yacht designer,» explains Jakub Szczesny to Ouest France. «We already tried to take 7 or 8 people,» laugh in a video of Euronews. «But it was very tight. This house is designed for a maximum of 2 people.»