- Small size has a beauty all of its own.
Go big or go home, dictates the famous phrase. However, you don’t need to be the largest of something to make an impact.
Sometimes, a much smaller construction will serve the same purpose. Or maybe the tiny thing is all you have space for or can afford.
Even then, though, certain things people have built over the years are very small for their intended use. So much so, in fact, that it’s a bit bizarre they ever got made.
Here are seven weirdly small things from around the world.
1. World’s Smallest Violin
Want to play a sad song for someone on the world’s smallest violin? Well, you should buy a Thomann Stentor SR1400 Violin.
What we’re talking about here is a 1/64 scale version of a regular violin. These miniature instruments are intended to be the first violins of very young future virtuosos.
Now, we’re certain somebody has built a nanoscale “violin” that’s smaller than the width of a human hair. These 1/64 scale violins, however, are the smallest that can still be played as if the real thing.
2. World’s Smallest Park
When thinking of a nice park, you’re probably picturing sprawling green spaces with plenty of room to enjoy some fresh air. That’s not what you’ll find at Nagaizumi Park.
Sure, there’s greenery and a bench. But the park covers an area of a whopping 2.5 square feet.
The park exists because the local authorities wanted a park, but simply didn’t have the space for it. Then, one staff member of the Nagaizumi Town construction management team visited the U.S. and saw the Mill Ends Park in Portland Oregon — the previous record holder for the title of the world’s smallest park.
“We can do better than that,” they thought. Despite its minuscule size, locals still stop to sit at the park’s tiny bench to catch their breath.
3. World’s Smallest Car
In America, a big car is a status symbol. In Europe, however, a huge street barge is simply impractical on the continent’s packed streets.
In 1692, the Peel Engineering Company from the Isle of Man introduce the P50. The world’s smallest production automobile, it was purpose-built to maneuver congested European cities.
The P50 measures only 54 inches long and 39 inches wide. The original design didn’t even have a reverse gear, but that’s fine — the thing was so light that it could be maneuvered with the hand crank in the rear.
The cars (or their replicas) are still manufactured to this day — and funnily enough, they’re the most popular in the U.S.
4. World’s Smallest Ship
Naming the world’s smallest ship is a bit difficult, because first, you’ll have to define when a ship becomes a boat. For our purposes, we decided to look at what tiny things the world’s navies sail.
With that, the world’s smallest ship might just be the U.S. Navy 19BB. This tiny 19-foot-long ship has served the Navy since 2003.
Built by Chuck’s Boat and Drive in Longview, Washington, the 19BB can tow small vessels, but its primary purpose is deploying security booms around larger navy ships. Although the BB in its name officially stands for “Barrier Boat,” its operators often affectionately call the thing the “Boomin’ Beaver.”
5. World’s Smallest Skyscraper
With skyscrapers, you again run into a definition problem. Originally, a skyscraper had to be around 490 feet tall, but they’ve grown significantly since then.
That said, the world’s smallest skyscraper is the New-McMahon Building located in Wichita Falls, Texas, which stands at a not-imposing 40 feet tall. We know, that’s way short of 490, but it’s still technically a skyscraper on paper.
That’s because its existence is due to a massive con pulled by one J.D. McMahon. In 1919, he was contracted to build a skyscraper he’d designed that would be 480 units tall.
Everyone assumed the unit was feet, because the plans were for a skyscraper — but McMahon had labeled his blueprints in inches. Long story short, he pocketed most of the construction funds and skipped town while Wichita Falls got its 480-inch-tall “skyscraper.”
6. World’s Smallest (Livable) House
It’s impossible to say what the world’s smallest actual home is, because we’re sure the cities around the world are full of two-square-foot closets some unfortunate soul has to call home. Yet, if we look dedicated buildings where someone could live reasonably (more or less), one the smallest ones is the student apartment designed by Swedish architecture firm Tengbom.
These houses boat 107 square feet of living space. It’s a bit cramped, but it has a loft bed, a kitchenette, a minuscule bathroom, and a bit of storage space.
Designed to be environmentally friendly, the whole thing is built out of unpainted cross-laminated wood and has no sharp corners, as construction rounded corners is apparently easier. In 2014, 10 of the houses were deployed at Lund University — but we couldn’t find out what the students thought about them.
7. World’s Smallest House
Okay, but what’s the world’s smallest house if you don’t need to actually make it livable? Well, that might be the One-Sqm-House by the German architecture and design company Hartz IV Möbel.
As its name implies, the house has one square meter (10.7 square feet) of space. However, weighing only about 80 pounds and having casters on one side, it’s quite versatile.
Standing up, it could be a closet or a small storage shed. Flipped to its side, you can lay down in it for a nap.
The One-Sqm-House was intended more as a statement against homelessness and housing shortages in Germany than a real thing someone might live in. But hey, if your other option is the street, this little thing will keep the rain and wind off of you.