The book is the first to explore the history and political significance of the Japanese public housing program. In the 1960s, as Japan's postwar economy boomed, architects and urban planners inspired equally by Western modernism and Soviet ideas of housing as a basic right created new cityscapes to house populations turned into refugees by the war. Over time, as Japan's society aged and the economy began to stagnate, these structures have become a burden on society. In this closely researched monograph on the conditions of Japanese housing, Tatiana Knoroz sheds unexpected light on the rise and fall of the idea of social democracy in Japan which will be of interest to historians, architects, and scholars of Asian economic modernization.
Author(s): Tatiana Knoroz
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 223
City: Singapore
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Transliteration Note
References
Contents
About the Author
List of Figures
1 Japanese Prewar Housing: Missing Context
Approaching Japanese Architecture from the West
A Quick Look at Japanese Traditional Housing
Minimalism and Temporality against Humid Heat
Timber, Modular Construction and Heavy Roofs Against Nature’s Mechanical Forces
Flexible Interior Planning and Portable Partitions for the Cyclical Lifestyle
Behavior Patterns Inside the House
Diffused Boundaries with the Outside
Prewar Urban Housing in Japan
The Prewar Family Structure
Nagaya: The Only Role Model
Dōjunkai Apartments: A Western Skin for the Japanese Bones
The Housing Corporation: The First Prefabrication During the War
References
2 The Short History of Danchi
The Birth of Danchi
Catching Up to the West
Toei Takanawa Apartments: The First Reinforced-Concrete Public Housing Complex
Lifestyle Revolution: The DK and the “51C”
The Japan Housing Corporation and Its First Experiments
The Spread of Danchi
Securing the “Group Land”
DK as the Engine of Modernity and Danchi as the Origin of the “New Middle Class”
The Connection to the Soviet Housing
The Suburban Expansion
The Decline of Danchi’s Popularity
The Irony of the Mid-1960s: Cramped and Neurotic
The Disappointment of the 1970s: Perverted and Socially Isolating
The Stigma of the 1990s and 2000s: Scary and Outdated
The New Hope of the 2010s: Danchi Revival
The UR Renovations
Renovations by Local Governments
Private Renovations
References
3 Dissecting the Danchi of Today
“Yeah”: Finding a Case Study
Wakamiya Danchi
Community Meeting
Apartment Visits
Endo
Hitoshi
Kimura
Akane
Inventing Devicology
“It’s Better to Just Get Used to It”: The Gaman Mentality
On the Verge Between Ethnography and Architecture
Getting Visual: Switching the Fieldwork Focus
The Devices
Technotowers and Kitchen Islands
Hanging Systems
Genkan Shapers
Sorting Towers
Platforms
Quantifying Devicology
The Six Categories and 15 Types
Flexibility and Customization Graph
Application Method
Summarizing Devicology
Conclusion
References
Index
