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Foreign affairs: two San Francisco architects practicing in Japan learn to be prepared for anything - perspective

Residential Architect, August, 2003 by Adele Naude Santos, Bruce C. Prescott

affordable housing in any country is highly regulated and constrained by conditions ranging from building codes to societal attitudes. In designing public housing in Japan, we have been exposed to constraints and opportunities that are very different from anything we had previously faced. The opportunity to work there arose out of relationships we had developed with Japanese architects, engineers, and housing advocates over a 12-year period. Foreign architects rarely design affordable housing in Japan, so the experience was novel both for us and for our collaborators.

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Our first Japanese project involved developing prototypes to replace several public housing projects in the industrial city of Kitakyushu. The housing consisted largely of eight-story linear slab buildings arranged for good sun orientation but with little regard for the urban fabric. Having been planned in the 1950s without parking, the buildings were now surrounded by haphazardly arranged parking areas.

The goal was to achieve the same density as the existing slab blocks while including modern amenities. Our client, the city housing authority, encouraged us to question all of the standard assumptions about housing production, and thus provided us with very little information about specific building standards. Contrary to Japanese convention, we developed prototypes in cross-section--including tuck-under parking, townhouse units, and private, ground-level gardens--in the plans.

give and take

Intrigued by our prototype study, the housing authority commissioned us to develop a site known as Kadota for construction. At this point we were introduced to the detailed regulations that determine much of Japanese housing, as well as to the political influences well known to anyone, anywhere, who de signs affordable housing. Although our study had proposed a low-rise, high-density approach, the local councilman requested a tower that would be visible from a nearby highway interchange. It was difficult for us to understand why this tower was necessary, but it became clear that the issue was not up for debate, and we ended up including it in the design.

The local standards and attitudes were the source of our greatest design challenges, as quantifiable, technical constraints governed many important decisions. For example, we were required to provide straight vertical shafts for plumbing, running from the ground to the highest unit. The fact that we were not able to adjust the plumbing laterally severely limited the efficiency of the tuck-under parking. A regulation mandating that every bath-room be naturally ventilated compromised the building's perimeter. Standards that called for three bedrooms in 750 square feet further complicated matters. Exterior monsoon shutters and window ledges over windows were another requirement, producing facades that appear clumsy in places. We also discovered late in the design process that the city dictated a standard aluminum exterior railing, and that it only came in one color.

Despite their rigidity, many of the housing standards we encountered do have a positive influence on livability. For example, the law prescribes a certain number of hours of sunshine that must fall in each living room. Private outdoor space, often marginalized in the United States, is required as well. There is an expectation that people will personalize the entries to their units to create the sense of individuality that is so important to collective living.

For all the compromises we had to make at Kadota, we did come out with some major victories. We used the project's steeply sloping topography to create a multilevel circulation system that connects to the existing neighborhood at the high end of the site and becomes a "street in the sky" on the third level in other areas. We accommodated a variety of household types, providing townhouse units with direct ground access for families and units designed for senior residents, in addition to the more typical two-bedroom flats. The large, required common outdoor space has become a popular community vegetable garden, just as we planned.

second try

While finalizing the Kadota project, we were commissioned by the Fukuoka prefectural (state) government to design a 100-unit public housing project in the Dairi-Nishi neighborhood of Kitakyushu. There, we had a more defined building program that even specified room sizes. Furthermore, the site was highly constrained by sun-angle regulations that limit the amount of shadow a building may cast on neighboring parcels.

Having learned to choose our battles, we focused on taking advantage of the livability standards through the concept of a "patio in the sky." Each unit in this project has a large terrace conceived as an outdoor room, which significantly expands the small interior space. We developed two plans that alternate on even and odd floors and interlock so that all of the terraces are two stories high. A diagonal configuration of rooms in each unit is accommodated within an orthogonal structural grid. This arrangement provides long diagonal views from the entry through the terrace, and also allows the project to conform to the footprint required by the shadow regulations.

Foreign affairs: two San Francisco architects practicing in Japan learn to be prepared for anything - perspective

Residential Architect, August, 2003 by Adele Naude Santos, Bruce C. Prescott

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