HOUSES TO LIVE AND WORK IN TOKYO CONTEMPORARY SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSING IN URBAN CONTEXT EXTENDED ABSTRACT Luís Filipe Alves dos Santos Baptista Machado October 2010 1. INTRODUCTION THE STUDY OBJECTIVES The theme focuses on the relationship between spatial organization of the Japanese house, with a workspace in order to explore the complexity and diversity of different modes of experience and ownership of space, embedded in a very rich and characteristic cultural context. The study of the historic, social, economic evolution and architectural examples of contemporary Japanese is done in order to decode some patterns that exist in Japanese architecture, and be able to introduce them in other future projects. The work focused on the study of contemporary Japanese residential buildings, which are associated to workspaces. The main goals of this study are: - Study of articulation and configuration of built spaces, that link the two uses (housing and work) and that enhance this relationship as an important issue to be worked. - A study of the batch insertion in the urban mesh and locations. - Study of the types of relationship between outer space and the sets of housing and work spaces, and its classification according to some parameters. - A study of four pre-defined typologies and their classification according to parameters previously established. - Identification and systematization of the data investigated in the search for typology solutions, in project phase that relate to housing and work space. THEMATIC FRAMEWORK This work is aligned with an increasingly common topic these days, the theme proposed is related to the theme of entrepreneurship. Since immemorial times, man needed to work to get basic needs (food and housing), quite common in the everyday activities of any person, regardless of their culture. With the emergence of cities, large clusters of housing, commerce and services it, has become increasingly complicated to work and live in the same space. For economic, social or cultural reasons, the physical link between the living space and work over the years has become more distant. Thus the time plays more and a more a key role in the life of every person, it is a valuable asset that people have to learn to manage. For example, there are cases in Portugal of people who come to travel 300 km every day to access their work. Others, in turn, despite living much closer to the workplace, they lose the same time on the road. We then witnessed an increase of so-called dormitory neighborhoods, located on the outskirts of city centers, which remain almost deserted during the day due to the lack of provision for local employment, and work only as places to rest overnight. With the great technological development in recent decades, access to information and communication between people has become much easier and more efficient, minimizing the time spent performing each task, and profiting from it the best a using it for other activities. There are certain jobs that due to the evolution of media, such as Internet usage, can be performed anywhere in the world, without having to be installed in the cabinet, or a specific site. On the other hand, more and more professions allow us to work from home and those who see this as an opportunity to have a quieter life and spend more time with family, especially with the children or elders. Residents of all towns seem to gain from the existence of full-time residents, merchants and craftsmen of the modern era. The visual permeability and / or sound of the built environment is a key point in building a more safe, comfortable and suitable space for these use. However, it seems 1 to be a crucial added value that the presence of fixed agents who develop their business locally is a key link in fostering, promotion and enrichment of where they live. The desire to improve the working environment in order to maximize productivity and job satisfaction is another important issue. It is well known the success story of Microsoft, something that Bill Gates developed from the garage of his home, as it is well recognized the importance of Manga, Japanese comic animation, created in the Nara period (century VIII a. C.) brand "Hello Kitty" and many other products of current Japanese economy, which originated many years ago - products of small houses of work. In this perspective, the organization of living space will have to be rethought in order to insert a new use - the workspace. Although the Japanese planning regulations may be different, nothing prevents us to reflect on the validity of these models (case studies) on the application in other cultural contexts. 2. DEVELOPMENT OF STUDY The work was done into five chapters, in which the first is for an introduction. The second chapter is divided into 2 parts. In the first part is made literature review on the origin and development of the subject until today. We study the apperance of urban areas that stood out the most, the various historical events and the high rate of rural exodus, which led to the growth of the suburbs of large urban centers. In the second part was made an approach to the theme "Knowledge Society" and how this relates to the theme of entrepreneurship and work from home. EMERGENCE OF URBAN CENTERS As the man began to set in places and left the temporary shelters, it was necessary to create conditions that would allow their stay. This has allowed the development of various economic activities, agriculture and trade that did not exist to date in such an organized and planned way. With the first building, the man was forced to rethink the living space and its structure. The buildings became more elaborate and more solid than the temporary shelters. The earliest civilizations evolved from agrarian societies, which were located in the fertile valleys along major rivers. The fertile banks allowed people to subsist in the region and the rivers also became important channels of communication and transportation. The early of four civilizations, which led to the development of urban centers and with it the necessity of introducing living spaces were located along the major rivers in the alluvial regions, such as the valleys of the Tigris - Euphrates in Mesopotamia the valley of the Indus River and its tributaries in Pakistan and India, the valley of the River Nile in Egypt and the river basins of the Yangtze and Hwang Ho in China. RURAL EXODUS Rapid urban growth, along centuries was initially due to rural exodus, rural people who flocked to urban centers in search of new opportunities and better living conditions. In some cases, migrating in search of protection, derived from the numerous wars that ravaged many areas. The concept of urbanization is associated with the concentration of many people in a confined space and the replacement of the primary activities (agriculture) for secondary activity (industry) and tertiary (commerce and services). 2 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Before the industrial revolution in the century XVIII, economic activities were composed in the urban environment by small workshops of artisans and merchants, and in rural areas by agricultural activities. With the invention of the steam engine by Watt (1765) it begins of the industrial revolution. The Industrial Revolution represented a huge technological advance, with a profound impact on productive, economic and social process. It triggered the development of various areas such as food, transport, construction, among others, and it ended up completely changing the habits and culture of populations, increasing capital accumulation and consumption. Moreover the production of many goods, which were handmade, started to be manufactured by machines and therefore more accessible for people. With the introduction of industries, many people abandoned other activities to go to work for factories, mainly people from rural areas with less education. The factories begun to concentrate hundreds of workers, later forming large clusters. URBAN PLANNING It was necessary to rethink the city again, in order to improve the quality of life for its inhabitants and reduce the miserable conditions where the majority of the population lived. At the end of the century XIX, better organized plans were suggested with greater emphasis on improving hygiene conditions, such as ventilation, lighting, piped water and sewers. Polluting industries were relocated to remote areas of the city, the suburbs, away from the center as well as some dwellings of the middle and working classes with more reasonable dimensions. The rationalization of communication channels with the creation of broad avenues, the division of economic activities in urban areas and large enterprises gave a more modern look. There were two types of approaches to minimize the impacts of industrialization of the century XIX: the utopians and hygienists. Another major factor influencing the size of urban centers is the means of transportation, which according to Mumford (1982), have always been the driving force of the city and that without them it would be impossible for them to evolve. If we look at the origin of early urban centers, we see that all these come from nearby rivers or the sea, taking advantage of the potential for trade. With the invention of the steam and consequently the train, after the industrial revolution, it was possible to transport people and goods more quickly, enabling the relocation of homes and factories out of urban centers. It was during the century XX, that was registered the highest level the development of transport, when Henry Ford in 1912 began producing cars in series, resulting in the widespread use of private transport. POPULATION GROWTH According to Philip M. Hauser (1957) it is estimated that in 1800 only 3% of world population lived in urban areas, consisting of 5,000 or more inhabitants.