I have seen the light

[Borja Castillo Alberola]

Hi all,

About Us have to rewrite history, creating a new story based on the reality of Japan in the changes that have happened there in the last twelve years, so that the new house is unique, we have to adapt these sociocultural changes the family living in the house and so as to generate a unique concept for people who live, something that can not be criticized from the formal aspect, since the formal, now has no place.

For all this, my proposal is to analyse the house from the following parameters:

1. Because of this: "In 1998, a study showed that around 60% of single Japanese men and 80% of single Japanese women aged 20 to 34 were still living with their parents. So now it's not uncommon for young couples to share an apartment before marriage. Moreover, in recent years, Japan is undergoing a demographic and social and economic change, and it is becoming common for young people to share apartments, making condominiums more and more popular. Compared with 1983, when 64% of homes were owned houses, and only 27% were rented/leased condominiums, the latest statistics show that the latter is now about 40% of the category." We can say that children, who have grown up, they have left home for college, leaving the house, so there are two people less, which leads to the variation of age is reduced.

2. Knowing this: "A common pattern in the Japanese housing market is to rebuild in the same place, knocking down old houses and replacing them, all in the same owner cycle. To accomplish this, the occupants move into a temporary residence. A contractor is hired to demolish the old structure and erect a new one in its place. The residents then are able to move back onto the property and into the new home. This is done quite often at least once in every home owner’s lifetime and the process has the advantage of keeping the same address, telephone number, and utility bills, and avoiding the cost of purchasing new property. Because of the wood construction methods native to Japan and the relatively short lifespan of the Japanese house typology, replacement is often considered cheaper than maintaining the old structure." We could rehabilitate certain areas and build new ones.

3. Another value to consider is that: "Japan is a country that has remained isolated for many centuries, which is why there is a certain distrust of foreigners. Such mistrust can be overcome by establishing strong personal relationships, but this will involve some time and effort on both sides. Contrary to what happens in many countries, where raw encourages professionalism and the separation of personal and professional life, in Japan both sides have a common link should be encouraged to obtain positive results." So in the rehabilitation of the spaces and the generation of new spaces, we could include areas where these people could do their job.

4. Along with all this we find that: "the family moved out of the city looking for some tranquillity also because since the 1980s the authorities have been promoting decentralization and dispersal of the population to decrease the high density of the large megalopolises. Now some other families have moved on the same place, so now more people live on the neighbourhood. Also, young people, in place of stay with the family, rent a flat in the city with more young people looking for a place with more activities." So something interesting would be also how to manage that relationship with the neighbourhood in order to find that nature and tranquillity that looked at first just outside Tokyo.

And apart from that, a lot of parts of the house are now useless, as there inhabitants have left. With less people living in the house, there is no need for so much open floor space. Since there is more containers then people to move them, the functionality and freedom of movement they once represented is gone. so we could mange this too.

Best wishes,

Borja Castillo Alberola