The Development of Universal Design Housing in Japan

Satoshi Kose, Prof., Shizuoka University of Art and Culture, Hamamatsu, Japan

Yoshiaki Goto, Ph.D. Senior Manager of Heart-ful Living R&D Institute, Sekisui House, Ltd. Kyoto, Japan

Shinji Tanaka, Japan

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Part 1: Toward Higher Quality Design

By Satoshi Kose

It was in 1986 when the Japanese government was given a warning signal that the aging of the society will necessitate a radical change of the physical environment as well. In response to that, research and development project was conducted toward designing for the aging society for five years between Fiscal 1987 and 1991. The most important outcome was the proposal of the draft design guidelines of dwellings toward the aging society, which finally became official recommendations by the construction ministry (in 1995), and were later linked to the government housing loan schemes by (Housing Loan Corporation of Japan) the next year. Now, about ten years from then, Japanese people accept the concept of designing for ones' own future selves regarding dwellings.

Current policy measures include: Official design guidelines of dwellings for the aging specifically targeted to private rental sector with economic incentives (2001); and quality indication system for dwellings that includes design for the aging among the categories (2000).

Although the latter is not mandatory, it is now gaining popularity because the trend is toward obtaining a long lasting dwelling rather than moving from one dwelling to another. People realize that keeping the property value in the long run is worthwhile, and the higher housing quality will be more appreciated.

The statistics show that around 3500 dwelling units of detached house and 10,000 dwelling units of multi-family housing construction are obtaining housing quality certificate as newly built ones every month. This means that still the majority of newly built dwellings are without certificate, but there is a tendency that multi-family housing are more likely to apply for certificate. Certification system for existing dwellings was introduced in December 2002, but very few numbers of dwellings have applied so far (127 detached houses and 89 multi-family dwellings until March 2004). It is partly because of cost versus benefit, and partly because of the potential risk of poorer quality to become evident.

Regarding the official dwelling design guidelines for the aged, the content is quite similar to the previous design guidelines for the ageing society. The introduction of new law toward securing housing for the seniors was necessary because it is now impossible to accommodate all the seniors who wish to rent a dwelling in public sector. The law introduced several economic benefits toward private rental housing provision, from subsidies for construction, to assuring rents of seniors in case of troubles. Simply said, it is a change of emphasis, from direct housing provision by the local governments to attracting private sector provision.

Whether this works effectively or not is yet to be seen because constructing new higher quality dwelling units targeted toward seniors could involve a large amount of investment. Existing dwelling units are generally too poor quality and normally cost a lot to modify, that the government may experience difficulties until good quality dwellings will become a matter-of-fact. For private banks that provide housing mortgages, higher quality dwelling is favorable, and this is expected to accelerate the trend.

Part 2: Toward Further Refinement by Sekisui House

By Yoshiaki Goto

1. Introduction

Our Universal Design Housing was developed from the lifetime housing concept that we have proposed for years. The life time housing concept is based on the knowledge that we have acquired through the experience of building 1.59 million dwellings.

We have tried to create a safe and comfortable residential environment that any member of the family can enjoy all the time through their life.

Our Universal Design Housing was established in order to roll (?) out this lifetime housing concept more comprehensively and specifically.

I would like to report 3 systems that we have developed to promote SEKISUI HOUSE UNIVERSAL DESIGN (SHUD).

2. System of Product Design

We have improved the guidelines to develop safe, secure and user-friendly housing components, and built the system to operate it. SHUD has two major goals to accomplish, "safety/security" and "usability."

We have classified the daily life into four scenes to make this point clearer: "to move," "to work," "to operate" and "to cognize."

We have broken these scenes down into details like the "safety/security" in the scene "to move" is "to avoid falling over," or "to avoid being injured even if falling over." Then we examined how the housing design should be to realize the function "to avoid falling over," and studied specifically like "to create no step, which might obstruct the walking and moving."

Finally, we have summarized the types of design which can be "safe/secure" and "usability" in the document called "Functional Goal."

Based on this document, we also made the guidelines of designing parts such as the design of kitchen, bathroom, and so on.

These guidelines were distributed to the staff responsible in planning and development of each housing part in our company.

These guidelines were distributed to the architectural planners and research & development staff of each housing part in our company.

At the same time, we developed "The Planning Guidelines" that can help put these housing parts and facilities together into one house.

These guidelines were distributed to our employees engaged in the design at our business offices throughout the nation.

Meanwhile, we also created a manual to design a house for people with special needs arising from disabilities.

Because we consider that only reading a manual is not enough to fully understand the concept, we also planned an in-house training session where our employees can learn about the assistive housing design.

3. System for Employee Development

A dwelling is a complex set of various components. It is not enough to use UD parts individually. It is important that the planner put together the housing components appropriately.

We have about 14000 employees nation-wide. So we have started an in-house training to nurture them to promote the concept of Universal Design throughout the company.

Also, we have started an in-house qualification system for our employees who have both completed this in-house training session and also passed the exam organized by the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Trainees are architects and chief planners at our branch offices. They will study through some lectures, simulated experiences and workshops during three days. 280 chief planners have received this special training. And we hope they lead their planning staffs at each branch.

4. System of Usability Trial

As the good universal design looks just ordinary, it is difficult to know what the benefit is. So we have established some facilities where our employees and consumers can experience the benefit of Universal Design.

Sekisui House has the research institute in Kyoto, and there is an experience-based training facility called "Nattoku Kobo" opened in 1990. This facility is also open to the outside visitors for their experience and inspection.

Since its opening, the number of visitors amounts to 30,000 each year, and we have maintained the same annual level of number of visitors since. There are also experience-based Model Houses called "Dream factory" at our five plants in Japan. In addition, we also built the experience-based show rooms called "Museum of Housing" at the business offices.

Our clients and employees can experience Universal Design that Sekisui House proposes and share the information through the experience at these facilities. As a result, we can also provide more specific consulting service to our clients through these experiences.

5. Conclusion

I had reported our achievements at last two conferences. This time, I introduce our further refinement on UD housing. Probably Japanese housing industry is the biggest in the world. Almost all housing companies of Japan are going to practice UD housing. We started it about 30 years ago. We should practice it for our rapidly aging society. I hope our trials will be good samples for other countries in the world.

References

Part 1

Kose, S., "Capability of Daily Living of the Elderly and Their Accident Experiences: Implication to Design of Safer, Easier-to-Use Dwellings," Equitable and Sustainable Habitats - Proceedings of EDRA23, pp. 158-166. (1992)

Kose, S., "Housing for the Ageing Society: The Meaning of Barrier-free Design in Japan," MERA Journal, 2(1), pp. 59-64. (1994)

Kose, S., "Possibilities for Change Toward Universal Design: Japanese Housing Policy for Seniors at the Crossroads," Journal of Aging and Social Policy, 8(2&3), pp. 161-176. (1996)

Kose, S., "Dwelling Design Guidelines for Accessibility in the Aging Society: A New Era in Japan?" in Wapner S. et al, Eds., Handbook of Japan-US Environment Behavior Research: Toward a Transactional Approach, New York: Plenum, pp. 25-42. (1997)

Kose, S., Design Guidelines of Dwellings for the Aging Society: Japanese Approach Toward Universal Design, Proceedings of the Designing for the 21st Century: An International Conference on Universal Design, Adaptive Environments Center Web page, (http://www.adaptenv.org/21century/), Vol. 3, 5F, (2000)

Kose, S., The Impact of Aging on Japanese Accessibility Standards. Preiser W. and Ostroff E. Eds., "Universal Design Handbook", pp. 17.1-17.12, New York: McGraw-Hill, (2001)

Kose, S., Housing for an ageing society: Adapting housing design toward universality is the minimum requirement for inclusion, Inclusion by Design Congress Proceedings, Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work Web page, (http://www.ccrw.org/worldcongress/proceeding.htm), (2001)

Kose, S., Designing Dwellings for a Highly Aged Society: Recent Progress in Japan, Proceedings of the International Conference for Universal Design in Japan 2002, Organizing Committee, pp. 402-404, (2002)

Kose, S., Kumano, I. & Matsuzaki, A., How Far Has the Design of Dwellings Improved in These Ten Years?: Comparison of Two Groups of Houses from the Viewpoint of Design for the Ageing Society, EDRA30 Proceedings, pp. 127-132, (1999)

Kose, S., Ohta, A., Tanaka, Y. & Watanabe, K., "Examination of Design Effectiveness of Special Housing for the Aged: Is Japanese 'Silver-Housing' a Success?" Socio-Environmental Metamorphosis -Proceedings of IAPS12, Vol. 3, pp. 161-166. (1992b)

Kose, S. and Tanaka, Y., "The New Design Guidelines for Dwellings Toward the Ageing Society: How Are They Accepted by the Residents?" People, Places and Public Policy - Proceedings of EDRA29, pp. 53-56. (1998)

Part 2

Goto, Y & Kose, S., "Universal Design Dwellings: An Approach of a Housing Manufacturer in Japan" [ juried ] Designing for the 21st Century, An International Conference on Universal Design 2000, Proceedings VOLUME - 5F

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