Dissecting the Danchi: Inside Japan’s Largest Postwar Housing Experiment

Description

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. 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Neurotic The Disappointment of the 1970s: Perverted and Socially Isolating The Stigma of the 1990s and 2000s: Scary and Outdated The New Hope of the 2010s: Danchi Revival The UR Renovations Renovations by Local Governments Private Renovations References 3 Dissecting the Danchi of Today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