この10年で家づくりが変わったなと思うこと

Today, I'd like to share some random stories for anyone who's thinking about getting serious about building a house. I'm talking about how, over the past 10 years or so, attitudes toward home building have changed considerably. That's what I'd like to talk about today. Apologies for the old story, but over 30 years ago, when people were thinking about home building in Japan, I believe there was a curse word. It was the "rabbit hutch" that Westerners used to mock Japanese lifestyles when they came to Japan. Older people may have heard it, but I don't think young people these days know it. "Japanese homes look like rabbit hutches" felt like a mocking remark. Japan was experiencing rapid growth at the time, and the world was saying things like, "Japan as No. 1" and "Wow!" At the same time, there was also a sense that "Isn't that a little strange?" There was a time when people would say things like that, as if to nitpick. I wonder if the entire industry, or perhaps the Japanese general public, felt a sense of "Damn it!" I used to work for a major home builder, and it was the same when I was a university student. When designing a house, my seniors would tell me the approximate amount of floor space needed per person. They would say that if each family member had about 30-33 sq. m (9-10 tsubo), the house wouldn't be mocked like a rabbit hutch. Keep that in mind when planning the overall volume, they said. If each person needs about 30 sq. m, then a family of four should plan for about 122-135 sq. m (36-40 tsubo). 135 sq. m (40 tsubo) sounds pretty big, doesn't it? When we were younger, we interpreted this to mean that for a family of five with three children, a house of about 155-165 sq. m (45-50 tsubo) would be ideal. In fact, about 30 years ago, when salesmen for home builders on the front lines said that "plans that were popular with customers" were often 122-135 sq. m (36 tsubo) for a family of four. On the other hand, there were also highly airtight and insulated homes in Japan around 30 years ago (I admired OM Solar, with its passive design, as a student). However, in home building at that time, there was a feeling that such things were only enjoyed by a select few, edgy enthusiasts. When you think about it, low-cost housing only appeared around 1995-2000. Low-cost housing had its selling points, but salespeople would use phrases like, "For the same price, we can build a bigger house than the major home builders," or, "For the same floor area, ours will cost less." I'm not sure if there was any backlash against rabbit hutches even in the low-cost housing era, but it seems that the major home builders were saying, "A house needs to be a certain size," and they were steadily improving their specifications, adding more and more equipment, and making their houses more expensive. As they were publicly listed companies, they probably had to constantly increase their sales, but there was also an atmosphere that this was the standard and something very good. Conversely, before the advent of rabbit hutches, Japanese attitudes toward houses were extreme. People who lived in old-fashioned tenement houses had a dirt floor right inside the front door and a room at the back where the family slept and woke up, and the kitchen was a shared well. There's a term for this, "chit chat," and I think it's a custom that dates back to the time when kitchens were built in a central corner of tenement houses. Life back then was in some ways ultra-rational, with the family waking up and sleeping in one room, folding up the low table after breakfast, and lounging around on their days off. It may be small, but I think it was quite an act of wisdom. Changing the subject, in 2009 a book called "The Rebellion of the Simple Tribe/Miura Ten" was published. The subtitle was "The Emergence of Consumers Who Don't Buy Things." According to this book, there is an increasing number of young people who don't consume material things, and there is a trend toward returning to handcrafts and natural materials. Around that time, I also had the impression that the awareness of the customers I helped build their homes had changed completely. For example, there was a trend toward living a rich life in a small house. What's more, I had rebelled against the rabbit hutch and built a big one, but that was the moment I realized that there could be richness in smallness. The advantage of a smaller house is that it costs less. Not only does it reduce the total cost, but the smaller costs also mean you can build something of higher quality. By improving insulation and energy efficiency, you can reduce utility bills while still living comfortably, warm in winter and cool in summer. More and more people are thinking about this. The development of new building materials was a key factor in low-cost housing, but this has led to a return to natural materials. Also, even on the same lot size, a smaller house frees up space, making it possible to crea...