Skinny homes are built for any number of reasons. It could be space constrictions, tax or code restrictions, the creative muse, or even for the vengeful-minded to grind an axe with a family member.

What does it mean to say a house is skinny? You know you’re in one if you can stand in the center of the room and touch opposing walls. Alas, many New Yorkers can identify, and the following homes are all in cities where space is at a premium.

The Dutch may be more familiar with the phenomenon. Take the example of the tall and slender traditional Dutch homes of Amsterdam pictured here. Amsterdam is rife with them because at one time there was a tax on the width of residences. The staircases of such structures are so narrow and steep they’re practically ladders, which made furniture installation and removal an issue. Hence, the narrow homes of Amsterdam also come with hooks at the top, so homeowners could hoist furniture up and down and through the windows.

Narrow Mist, a traveling art project by Austrian artist Erwin Wurm (pictured here in Venice) is modeled after the house he grew up in, only it has lost most of its width on a diet. The interior has narrow furniture, narrow bookshelves, a narrow landline telephone, narrow toilet and bathtub, and narrow rooms papered in 1970s patterns. Interior images can be found on the Design Boom website .

The oblong structure plugging up an alley resembles a giant version of several different personal items, but it’s a building called Ermitaz, or Ermitage — designed by Jakub Szczesny to be a hermitage for Israeli writer Etgar Karet. At a maximum width of four feet wide and 28 inches at its narrowest, it’s the skinniest house in Poland and maybe even the world. However, because the structure doesn’t conform to Polish building code the Centrala website calls it an “art installation in crack between the buildings” (or as we like to call a building crack, an “alley”).

This architecturally modern home overlooks the Puget Sound. While not much wider than the single-car garage it’s built over, the wall of windows facing the view help it feel spacious. It has flooring of cork, slate, concrete, ceramic tile and bamboo; an elevator in which to ascend to the roof deck, which has a stainless steel gas fireplace; custom lighting, and is wired for TV and Internet.

But Frank Shirley of Frank Shirley Architects did exactly that. In 2009, he and a team converted a two-car attached garage on a lovely ocean-side home in Massachusetts into a beautiful family room.

The cozy 84-year-old home overlooks the Atlantic Ocean, but like many older homes, it lacked the space needed for today’s lifestyle. The homeowners turned to Frank to help them solve their space dilemma.

While some people would never give up their garage, this family needed more bedrooms and a family room. Plus, the large driveway leading up to the old garage, often full of cars, blocked the home’s entryway. Frank had an idea: Don’t give up the garage, move the garage to the other side of the home. Then you’d improve the home’s curb appeal — and the family wouldn’t lose the much loved storage space.
The result is a spectacular conversion and addition that looks like it was part of the home’s original cottage-style. It added about 2,500 square feet to the home, including a family room where the old garage was once located, as well as a new 2-car garage, a mudroom, three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a laundry room.

The family room is divided into two areas: the game area (pictured above), which houses a pool table and a window seat, where you can wait your turn, as well as rich wood built-in cabinetry for storing board games and other recreational items. On the other side of the room is where the family can relax and watch movies or television on the flat screen TV that sits inside a custom-built wall-to-wall entertainment center.

Frank’s team wanted to pay respect to the original home, so he carefully selected woods to fit the character and craftsmanship of the house. To replace the old garage doors, he selected leaded glass doors that open onto an intimate front garden area, perfect for relaxing on a cool summer evening.

When it comes to leaning, Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa can no longer claim to going the furthest.

That honor goes to the Capital Gate building in Abu Dhabi, which was recently certified as being the “World’s Furthest Leaning Man-made Tower” by Guinness World Records, according to reports. The building leans at 18 degrees, which is nearly five times that of the Tower of Pisa, which leans at 4 degrees.

However, unlike the Tower of Pisa, the 35-story, 525-foot Capital Gate tower was built to lean 18 degrees westward. So, how did they do it? According to Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company, who developed the tower, the building’s floor plates are stacked vertically until the 12th floor, after which point they are “staggered over each other by between 300mm to 1400mm.” ADNEC says Capital Gate also features “the world’s first known use of a ‘pre-cambered’ core, which contains more than 15,000 cubic meters of concrete reinforced with 10,000 tons of steel.”

The building, which boasts on its website that it is “designed to provide no symmetry so it amazes inside and outside,” is being touted as an iconic tower for the Emirates’ capital, symbolizing the city’s vision of the future. “Capital Gate is a landmark development for Abu Dhabi and with this recognition the tower takes its place among the world’s great buildings. It is a signature building which speaks of the foresight of the emirate,” ADNEC’s Chairman Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan said in a statement.

The United Arab Emirates is no stranger to signature buildings, having unveiled the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai in January. The Capital Gate tower is scheduled to be completed later this year.