SELECTED TOPICS IN ARCHITECTURE II ARCH541 SUPERVISOR PROFESSOR VIKRAM BHATT

IN JAPANESE RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE by pei-yi lin 9927171

McGILL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE M2 FALL2003 PRESERVATION AND INNOVATION

"When I think about traditional crafts, it's about more than simply reusing the old techniques" said Eiji Sami, Japanese furniture designer. "What interests me most is thinking about a way of life, and extracting some of the spirit of the artisan's craft."1

What are the most attractive topics when we start to discuss about ? Is it about its fancy electronic products? Is it about its fashionable clothing? Is it about its creative arts work? Is it about its long and slow procedure of traditional ceremony? It is about its mixture of Old and New that attracts me the most.

Japanese has always the ability to create New in the meanwhile keep on refining the Old. The tradition has been constantly appeared in Japanese's life and has been growing and moving forward together with the time (the contemporary era) and the space (the western world). My impression of Japan is not simply to exhibit and preserve the historical treasures in a museum and then live in a modern way, which is totally separated to its traditional way. It is more like to accept the traditional way in a modern living.

HOUSING

Housing is not simply a type of architecture that reflects the culture of a country, a city or even a town, a village in a particular period. Housing is more related to people's living and constructed more in a human scale than other types of architecture.

Today Japanese housing types are characterized on 6 types, basically similar to those of the western countries: individual housing, attached row housing, collective housing, mid-rise , high-rise , and architect-designed self-expression . In this paper, the focus is on the houses

1 Wallpaper*, "Yearning Japanese: life craft - Eijisami, Design Water, Furniture Designer" by Fiona Wilson, July-August 2002, page 151 2 rather than large condominium or apartment buildings that are mostly influenced by the West. TRENDS IN JAPANESE HOUSING

"Throughout the high economic growth period of the 1960s and the era of rapidly increasing affluence of the 1970s into the 1980s, the dream of the average Japanese family was to own MY HOME: a detached with gateway, gable and garden within commuting distance of the husband's workplace."2 However, this dream became difficult to be realized or even be mortgaged. Due to the shortage versus increased value of land, the possibility of owning even a 100 square meter plot, which is the standard of living space for a family in Japan, has been pushed beyond the lifetime income of a typical salaryman in Japan. As a consequence, the land-less has to rent accommodation for the entire lifetime and thus the market for rental housing increases. Statistically, "since 1981 the amount of rental housing built each year has tripled. In the 1987-88 fiscal year there was a thirty-three percent growth in rental construction, with some 546,000 units of owner-occupied housing built compared with 859,000 units of rental housing."3

Few questions has been risen upon to the change in Japanese residential architecture:

How has the Japanese architect been affected by these changes? What is the relationship between the architect-designed custom-built home and other types of housing under these circumstances? Is this a turning point in residential architecture? Are Japanese architects using their special technical and aesthetic skills to address the economic and social challenges?4

Despite to the unfavorable changes described above, Japan is still one of the world's largest housing

2 The Japan Architect, "The Architecture of Reality: Trends in Japanese Housing 1985-1989" by William H. Coaldrake, October, 1989, page 61 3 Idem, page 61 4 Idem, page 61 3 markets: new construction housing starts 1.5 million dwelling units annually during the 1994-1997 (1.4 million in United States and only 134,000 in Canada for the same period), declining to 1.13 million in 20025. This fact attracts many countries to aggressively target Japan as a market for housing-related exports, including Canada: "Canada is a leader in the development of new housing technologies, and the design and construction of high quality housing, especially wood-frame single-family housing"6.

Wood has been the major material for housing construction in Japan although apartment represents half of the housing starts since 1991. Other starts include detached dwellings (one and two units) and housing with tenements (row dwellings). Detached houses are predominantly made of wood whereas most are made of other types of materials, mainly concrete. There is a 80% of detached housing made of wood and 80% of those new wooden housing starts refers to the traditional post and beam construction. Other types share a small part of wooden housing (but they are considered to increase in the future) are 2x4 houses and prefabricated houses.

TYPES OF WOODED CONSTRUCTION

The wooden housing sector is divided into three categories: - traditional Japanese wooden houses (Jikugumi) - 2x4 houses - prefabricated houses

Jikugumi is a post and beam structure and also refers to modern post and beam construction that uses engineered lumber rather than solid wood and metal joint systems. This type of houses accounts for the largest share of wooden housing starts in Japan, although it has been declining during the 1990s due

5 IWAKARA, T, "Unit Housing System of Sekisui", World Congress on Housing: Montreal, June 23-27, 2003, page 1 6 CMHC, Housing Market Intelligence Study of Japan, 1999, page i 4 to the introduction or importation of 2x4 houses from north of American. The housing market states that over 2/3 of single family houses built in Japan are traditional post and beam, more than four times the number of 2x4 houses built each year.

Due partially to the extremely high price and cost of housing in Japan, the government has actively promoted imports of new housing and building products from other countries, particularly the United States, Canada and Scandinavian countries. In 1997, imports of 2x4 and panelized 2x4 houses totaled over 8,200 units (almost over 3/4 of the housing imports). One news report shows how positively the 2x4 houses being adopted in Japan:7

TRADE PAPERS NIHON KOGYO SHIMBUN (INDUSTRY) SELCO BRINGS CANADIAN HOUSING TO AREA

Selco Homes of Sendai, a Japanese builder of Canadian "imported housing" (homes designed in Canada and assembled in Japan from Canadian materials) will open an office and erect a model in Tsuzuki-ku, Yokohama in April. The company has been successful in northeastern Japan receiving over 600 orders last year, but this will be its first venture in the greater Tokyo area. by stressing the value of 2x4 housing and its suitability to the area's cramped spaces, the company hopes the new Yokohama office will get 50 orders per year.

The post and beam construction occupied 80% of the wooden housing starts, nearly 12% for the 2x4 houses and 5-6% for the prefabricated houses (prefabricated houses in new construction starts, including non wooden construction, are 14%). The prefabricated housing has also the tendency to increase in the near future. Some people examined the actual situation in Japan and reported as follow: "Another major factor having a significant impact on the future of housing is the reduced availability of skilled craftsmen in Japanese construction."8 This fact encourages the market of prefabricated components of the building, such as structural post and beam, wall, floor, ceiling and roof panels, roof

7 Canada in the Japanese Press, Monday, March 1, 1999, page 12 8 Structural Building Components Magazine, " Japanese Truss market: Fertile Ground Ready for Growth" by Tom Rogers, December 1999 5 trusses, etc. In terms of consistent quality, reduced job-site labor, reduced job-site waste, the prefabricated houses are also more in responding to these considerations.

In terms of the market condition, mostly large home building companies (roughly 20% of starts) in Japan specialize in prefabricated construction, each built over 20,000 houses (including wooden and non wooden construction) during the year of 1995. In addition to these very large companies, there are many small and medium sized builders that account for 70% of building construction in Japan. A Jikugumi house can be built by the builder with less than five employees. The 2x4 sector has also a similar structure of building companies. There were a total of over 550,000 building construction companies registered under the Japanese Building Construction Law in 1995.9

THREE STORY THREE GENERATION HOUSING

The most recent and most notable trend in Japanese housing is the increasing presence of the three-story house, especially the housing designed for three-generation living together under one single roof. The development in this new type of housing reveals a close relationship between social, economic and cultural factors as well as architectural design. In addition, this type of housing is promoted energetically by Japan's industrialized housing manufacturers. The four largest home building companies in Japan: Sekisui house, Sekisui Chemical, Misawa Homes and Daiwa Houses, each built over 20,000 houses, other companies, such as Asahi Hebel House, Tokyu Home, Mitsubishi Jisho, Mitsui houses, all of them are specialized in prefabricated houses.

The construction types vary according to different companies, each company needs to have its own area of specialty. Asahi Hebel House and Daiwa Houses are marketing houses bases upon a steel-framed structure clad with autoclaved lightweight concrete (ALC panels); Tokyu Home and Mitsubishi Jisho are

9 CMHC, Housing Market Intelligence Study of Japan, 1999, page 15 6

Misawa Homes, timber-frame offering 2x4 timber frame housing clad with timber panels; Misawa Homes is offering both a 2x4 structure with wood panels and a steel-framed model clad with new ceramic panels (PALC); Mitsui House offers a three story home created by a conventional two-story timber-frame structure with a laminated beam superstructure creating the third story.10

All new models of three story houses follow the same standard pattern. The first floor is designed for grandparent, identified in advertising simply as the "parents". The first story is designed to be self-contained, with at least a modest and toilet. Functionally, it avoids the inconvenience for elderly to climb up and down. The interior design of the first story is also directed towards the senior generation. For example, it sometimes includes more traditional Japanese-style rooms and tea rooms. By having a traditional Japanese room on the ground floor, it helps also to manifest the tradition in an urban area since most of the traditional Japanese houses were built of one story.

The second and third stories are the province of the young married couple. The second floor usually includes the master bedroom, the main kitchen, living and dinning room. The upper story typically includes a children's bedroom or study bedroom.

This new type of housing has introduced many of "News".

Structurally, it is new. There are two types of three story houses, one is called the "true" three story structures: comprising an integrated frame, rising through all the three floors of the building. The other type called the "artificial" three story houses: usually having a two-story structure built either on top of a separately built first level or a separately built upper level. For example, there is a first reinforced concrete basement or ground floor level, comprising a large garage and a bedroom or a study bedroom, surmounted by a conventional timber-frame structure. Another example is to have a two-story of timber-frame with a separate third story superstructure, comprising a bedroom or a study bedroom.

10 The Japan Architect, "The Architecture of Reality: Trends in Japanese Housing 1985-1989" by William H. Coaldrake, October, 1989, page 657

It is new in its social composition. Comparing to houses built in or after the post war years that were mostly designed for single family, the three story houses create a new combination of two households living under a single roof but each can be operated separately. This also challenges the relationship between two housewives (especially between daughter and mother-in-law) living together. Due to the increased population of elderly in Japan recently, this type of house also solves the problem of the elderly housing. Some reports that there is always a lack of amenities or social interrelations for an elderly housing complex. The ground floor of this type of housing can also be used for the store and (left)thus "Artificial" improve three the income story house, of the family. two-story timber-frame mounted on reinforced concrete first story. This(right) type Mitsui of housing House, createstwo-story a new visual identity. The house is created by one of two methods. It can betimber-frame purchased with as separatea comprehensive third package or created by selecting options and customizing the identity. story superstructure. As for the Sekisui Chemical built three story houses, each was built based on the customer's requirements, family structure, lifestyle as well as the site conditions. "Each customer's house is individually designed using various types of units and parts or components, e.g. exterior envelope, roof tiles, windows, fixtures, etc, that are selected from the assortment by the customer"11.

This prefabricated house has been developed for a new construction system. The precursor is Sekisui Chemical Building Company. The idea is to renovate a part of the old house to adopt the change of the owner's life style by, for examples, adding new technology or using new building materials. There are three prerequisites for this system12: 1. availability of a certain level of stock of houses to be deconstructed 2. reusability of structural frame of the deconstructed house 3. ease of dismantling. The third prerequisite points to the prefabricated unit-based houses only.

11 IWAKARA, T, "Unit Housing System of Sekisui", World Congress on Housing: Montreal, June 23-27, 2003, page 2 12 Idem, page7 8

This new type of housing has also designed to use of "Olds":

- The idea of a big family is old; - The living in a traditional Japanese style room is old; - The plan with shop in the front of the ground level is old.

This type of housing starts has tendency to increase because it addresses to both a deep social need and solves a serious financial problem. It addresses the problems of an aging society and escalating land costs. It solves "the problem of increased land by increasing floor space and offer a revival of the 'traditional extended family' by permitting three generations to live under the one roof"13. In conclusion, Development of "reused system house" this type of housing could be seen as an extended traditional Japanese houses but divided into three sections and built on a y-z (elevation) plan instead of a x-y (plane) plan.

ARCHITECT'S RESPONSE TO THE TRENDS IN JAPANESE HOUSING

"An important way in which architects have responded to the land crisis is by the creation of mixed-use, multiple-unit residences."14 The three-generation housing of multiple-unit residences is one of the results created under modern economic pressure.

There are far many examples of multiple-unit residences being built to respond this circumstance. Matsunaga's Yoda Collective Housing is one. The site for this five-unit dwelling complex was once housed one family in traditional comfort in 1930. Hasegawa's House in Nerima is another example of three-generation housing. "The main family residence occupies half the first and all the second floor

13 The Japan Architect, "The Architecture of Reality: Trends in Japanese Housing 1985-1989" by William H. Coaldrake, October, 1989, page 66 14 Idem, page 61 9

(right) Yasumitsu Matsunaga's Yoda Collective Housing

(left) Itsuko Hasegawa's House in Nerima, first and second story plans, 1:500 with contiguous living, dinning and kitchen spaces, a sunroom and tatami six-mat room, two bedrooms and adjoining Japanese-style study room. […] The subsidiary self-contained living occupies the remainder of the first floor. A tatami six-mat room with small western-style study attached, and living and dinning and kitchenette with full bathroom facilities, comprise a manageable home for the older generation."15

Riken Yamamoto's Hamlet is a large family residence for three-generation, consisting of four households in total. The first floor contains the residences of the parents and that of the family of the youngest son. The second floor contains the home of the eldest daughter's family and the third and fourth floors forms the residence of the eldest son's family. The building has been divided according to the different households through different levels. On the other hand, the building is a single unit of residence with a share space, termed the "salon", followed by a tower of children's rooms next.

Another variation on this theme is a type of mixed-use building, usually built in the commercial zones of major cities. Gazebo Building by Riken Yamamoto is a mixed-use of shops, offices and apartments in Yokohama. As for this building, the lower level could be a shop or a leased office or a leased apartment as long as it is used according to its "urban logic". The third story is used for four self-contained apartments, each with at least one tatami mat room, and a large tatami mat or reception room with attached study room.

15 The Japan Architect, "The Architecture of Reality: Trends in Japanese Housing 1985-1989" by William H. Coaldrake, October, 1989, page 6210

"DESIGNS FOR LIVING"16 Gazebo

"Some things never change in Japan. […] The quality that makes these […] survive is economy of design. Most are made from common raw materials, wood, paper and straw left over from winnowed rice. But all have been designed with an eye for beauty, an appreciation of simple, natural form […] All are supremely functional. Because of this conscious blend of simple beauty and utility, these ordinary objects have left a permanent imprint on the texture of Japanese life."17

One of the examples of tradition being found in today's Japanese residential building is the traditional Japanese style tatami room. The traditional tatami room became so functionally adopted today due to its non-distinctive function. It could be easily transformed according to the actual uses of the space for a particular time during the day. It seems so easy to say to incorporate a tatami room in any type of residential buildings today. For spaces other than kitchen or toilet or bathroom, the living room, the dinning room, the bedroom, the study room, etc could all named as the tatami room. However, the tatami room does not only have one quality of multi-purpose. It is also a question about the scale or the size of the room. It does not matter how restrict the size of land the architect can plan and build on, the standard size of the tatami room should remain.

The technology is improved and the traditional way of living should be improved accordingly, too. The living condition is restricted (due to the financial problems, the social needs or the land crises) and the traditional way of living should also be in response (to these problems and needs). Why is it so important to keep improving the traditional way of living if it is still possible? In eyes of sustainability, the idea of recycling and reusing in order to reduce the waste is essential. Unfortunately we are knowing this since today when we discovered that there is a possibility of the lack. This means that the new creation is not always the most important and feasible. The most intelligent creation may be the

16 LEONARD, J.N., Early Japan, page 107 17 Idem, page 107 11 recycling and the reusing of the tradition. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Articles

JAPAN HOUSING INDUSTRY NEWS #7, December 1999. The wood products and housing industry talks in Tokyo. Talks focused on Japan's transition to performance-based standards in the revision of the new Building Standards Law, the new interim inspection system, the Housing Quality Assurance Law, and fire codes and regulations.

NIHON KOGYO SHIMBUN, Canada in the Japanese Press "Selco Brings Canadian Housing to Tokyo Area", Nihon Kogyo Shimbun: Tokyo, March 1 1999 (morning editions). [full article could be found in page 5 of this paper]

STRUCTURAL BUILDING COMPONENTS MAGAZINE, "Japanese Truss Market: Fertile Ground Ready for Growth" by Tom Rogers, December 1999. The Japanese housing industry, which produces 1.2-1.3 million new houses every year, is the world second largest market for new housing starts. This market is attractive to wood-supplying regions of the world because approximately 50% of new home construction in Japan is wood frame.

THE JAPAN ARCHITECT, "Gazebo", Shinkenchiku-sha Co.: Tokyo, autumn 2003, page 60. [plan and section of the building]

THE JAPAN ARCHITECT, "Hamlet", Shinkenchiku-sha Co.: Tokyo, autumn 2003, page 61. [plan and section of the building]

THE JAPAN ARCHITECT, "The Architecture of Reality: Trends in Japanese Housing 1985-1989" by William H. Coaldrake, Shinkenchiku-sha Co.: Tokyo, October 1989, pages 61-66. Recent changes to the Japanese residential architecture. Article divided into three main bodies: 1-Architect-designed Houses: Self Expression and Common Concerns; 2-From "Rabbit hutch" to Luxury Condominium; 3-Three Story Three Generation Housing.

WALLPAPER*, "Yearning Japanese:life craft - Eiji Sami, Design Water, Furniture Designer" by Fiona Wilson, July-August 2002, page 151. A country house in Gifu, where is the prefecture synonymous with contemporary craft work and decorous design including washi paper maker, wooden furniture manufacturer, lantern producers, ceramics firm, senmaki wooden craftsman, porcelain producers and furniture designer. 12

Books

LEONARD, J. N., Early Japan, Time Inc.: 1968, 191 pages. In Japan's semi-isolation, a diversity of traits, new and old, foreign and indigenous, could work slowly on each other to produce rich new combinations. Behind Japan's great achievements lies a very special historical narrative.

documents

CMHC, Housing Market Intelligence Study of Japan, CMHC: Canada, 1999, 30 pages. The information on housing trends in Japan includes economic trends, demographic trends, housing stock, new housing construction activity, housing costs and sizes, homebuyer characteristics and housing imports.

COHEN, D., Trends and Changes in Japanese Building Regulations, CMHC: Canada, 2001, 35 pages.

WORLD CONGRESS ON HOUSING, HOUSING PROCESS & PRODUCT, "Unit Housing System of Sekisui" by Takumi Iwahara and Yoshiyuki Suzuki, Montreal, June 23-27 2003, 9 pages. Sekisui has been not only providing prefabricated houses, but has also been making efforts to develop this business in an environmentally friendly way. The housing business never ends with the sale and construction of a house, but customer relations throughout the service life of the house are important. Sekisui provides support to our customers through the re-building stages. Sekisui has been seeking ways for effective use of resources in every stage across the long span of the lifetime of a residence.

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