This is truly the world’s tiniest tiny house

At Curbed, we love a good tiny house. Over the years, we’ve chronicled the boom in itsy bitsy homes and have seen them come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. This teeny-tiny house, however, is blowing our minds.

Scientists from the Femto-ST Institute in France recently unveiled a “micro house” that’s built on the tip of an optical fiber. The silica membrane bungalow was constructed on a 300 by 300 micrometer plot of wire via a nanorobotics system that makes use of an ion gun, gas injection system, and vacuum chamber. A micrometer, by the way, is one millionth of a meter.

As New Atlas explains, engineers used a focused ion beam to cut a flat sheet of the silica membrane. That piece was then folded like origami to make the home’s frame and welded together via the gas injection system. Detailing, like the stripes on the roof, were achieved with a less powerful ion beam.

While the researchers’ accomplishment has little bearing on the world of livable tiny houses—not even a mite can live in this thing—it’s an impressive technological accomplishment nonetheless. After all, it did give us the tiniest house ever built.

Via: New Atlas