It has already been 120 years since Ebenezer Howard invented the Garden city. There are countless detached house complexes which have a bunch of abandoned houses in a Japanese suburbia which is far from London. The dream houses of the youth from all over Japan who were gathered for labor during the rapid economic growth have never succeeded to no one and they are dying with their owners who were in their 30’s when they migrated to the Danchi. It had not been predicted what would happen on the houses that’s been needed for the extraordinary speed of growth of the industrial environment when its growth stopped. Had the carpenters who built those houses imagined the day was coming when they were going to be garbage? They had never had any ideas 40 years later of tabula rasa where the younger people drank and danced together without any relations because they were from totally different places. The town of textile, coal mine, auto mobile, and tourism, the people come and go with their industries. But the buildings remain with their infrastructures and some quality of comfortness made sure they had been lived by the people. If someone looks at them for no use, someone looks at them as resources. Once they recognise it, people are coming and creating new industries or cultures again. It is probable that the Japanese suburban housing complexes are about to close their Act one and start their histories as if most historical cities did. So I try to think of the possibilities of “Kogaidanchi of To-morrow” from our case studies at the housing complex in Ichihara Chiba where there is our office in order to look for the Act two of them.

kurosawa kawara-ten

TABLE OF CONTENTS

00

Introduction

　It is better to stop to rethink about the people who are making the policy of housing for the Japanese Government, about the amount of lime, quartz, iron, aluminum, cement, and wood that have been used so far. Even if you build a single house, the amount of building materials used in it is always dizzying. But if you imagine the number of newly starting construction sites for brand new houses that have been made every year in this country, how big is the hole that has been dug on this planet up to now? It reminds me of how many huge holes we have opened, how many big trees we have cut on our world ever. It makes me feel guilty and wonder if I was involved in evil deeds. And recalling the history of the famous Easter Island, I can’t help being anxious for the future of this country.

　Currently, the number of constructions of new detached housing in Japan exceeds 900,000 a year (the fiscal year 2015 data from http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/001133591.xlsx). However it has decreased by nearly 40% over the past 20 years, still, the number of newly started condominiums is 1.2 million a year so, considering the same interval (http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/001133639.xlsx), in the fiscal year 2015, more than 2 million new homes would have been supplied. Of course, about 1.2 million households are demolished annually (the fiscal year 2013 data fromhttp://www.mlit.go.jp/common/001133667.xls), so if it is purely increasing or decreasing analysis, there will be an increase of about 800,000 units. Yet, in other words, that means 800,000 homes per year, so it is a fact that the number of newly built houses keeps increasing. In some cases, there may be inevitabilities or opportunities, such as demand due to earthquakes, to new developments, redevelopments, or the creation of a new city as a policy or urban strategy, but given that the number of households has increased by only 1.45 million in the last five years (http://www.stat.go.jp/data/kokusei/2015/kekka/zuhyou/jinsoku0102.xls), for the same period, at least nearly half a million new homes continue to be built annually without prospects of use. Simply put, almost half a million empty houses that are not addressed are being created by pushing and oppressing the sense of guilt in the subconsciousness of Japanese people.

　These numbers are exclusively related to the newly built houses, and there are over 3 million houses in Japan for stocking, or the so-called vacant houses (the fiscal year 2013 data from http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/001036700.xls). In other words, the fact is that there are more than 4 million unoccupied houses in the country that have no prospect of being used, which means that more than 500,000 homes are about to be increased.

　So, is there any harm to the people of this country if we neglect this situation where housing keeps increasing purposelessly? Is it essential for people’s lives in the future to keep all these local self-proclaimed “President” (In Japan, There are lots of family-owned small companies and freelance engineers. They overemphasized calling themselves as CEO or president) flourishing all over the country? What is the reason why the entire nation must live in expressionless plastic boxes, all chosen from the catalog? Is it right that the whole nation should thoroughly use the same toilet, bathe in the same bathtub, and spend their daily lives on the same floor?

　Once again, it is necessary to stop and rethink the housing situation now and how it will be dealt with in the future.

01

The current situation of the suburban housing complex

The Suburban detached housing complex (Kougaidanchi)／The life in Kougaidanchi／ The situation of the suburban area around Tokyo