April 2, 2019 9:00 a.m. ET
In the past two decades, home prices in some leading North American and European cities have skyrocketed. In Tokyo, however, they’ve flatlined. So why no affordable-housing crisis in Japan? A big factor, experts say, is the country’s relatively deregulated housing policies, which have allowed housing supply to keep up with demand in the 21st century.
and smart thermostats which let you program your HVAC system to turn on at a specific time, so you don't have to cool or heat the house when nobody is home.
Some of the smart home features include lightning control, with motion sensor lighting and dimmer controls that ensure that lights are turned off when a room is vacated, smart meters allowing you to schedule hot water heating and reheating,
Smart home technology has transformed home design to energy-efficient design, enabling you not only enjoy your home more, but also significantly reducing energy bill costs.
The new houses are smart-energy homes including a smart thermostat with energy reporting capabilities, integrated with the home's heating, ventilation and air condition (HVAS) system, and light-emitting diode (LED) lighting.
smart lighting systems, integrated home automation systems, and new, green, renewable construction materials.
The affordable beautiful home of the future utilizes integrated new technologies to create a personalized experience of home living, provided by smart solar energy, water economics, smart waste, structured components, integrated organic environment, battery storage systems,
to produce panels, components, modules and whole structures to be assembled by a small team of workers on a worksite, the factory-built housing is already set for wide adoption tomorrow.
according to specifications obtained through numerically-controlled code to each machine in the order of assembly offsite, with experience and expertise of leading architects and civil engineers, that use their technical, technological, hands-on, and automated skills
With modern-day CNC, CAD, CAM, and 3D BIM, cutting-edge robotics, AI-enhanced automation, green building materials, with fastening tools and devices that cut, measure, join, and attach with nano-scale precision for straightness, rightness or structural strength
This not only saves much time and money, but also the on-site installation and assembly is much more efficient. Smart, forward-thinking construction companies are automating manufacturing and construction using large-scale 3D printing, robotics and green construction materials.
Timber houses are on the front cutting-edge of innovation in mass timber design, 3D modeling, engineering, and manufacturing. One of the biggest advantages of a timber building is the capability to prefabricate and test off-site the structures of the entire house.
including 3D printing, robots, drones, smart solar roof, AI-enhanced automation, smart home, and much more.
* One that carries not only the promise of better, faster, cheaper, greener building, but also the promise of future fast growth, with significant network effect and important benefits from adding new participants from other industries to their ecosystem,
Focused on smart design and smart components manufacturing, the integrated building of the future represents a new business model and a new kind of ecosystem in construction tech.
Mass timber has also an important role in rural development, forest health and preservation, resilient infrastructure, and mitigation of climate change.
Mass timber qualities include fire safety, resistance to seismic and explosive forces and thermal performance. A renewable material, the timber not only lowers carbon emissions from the building, but provides long-term carbon storage, making buildings behave like carbon sinks.
Much of the work in a engineered wood house is completed off site, cutting construction time.
While implementing new business models for modular building and construction-integrated manufacturing, in an industry that is becoming more and more global and offers many new forms of partnerships, the companies who will master this balancing operation will be the 2019 winners.
Governments, regulatory bodies and the industry are eventually realizing that while getting more people into the industry is important, the most strategic best solution would be to fundamentally change the way house building works.
Modular construction is expected to grow by 6% globally by 2022, and construction-integrated manufacturing will become a major competitive advantage, related to the ability to invest in the right new technologies and the right people and finding the right business partners.
Around 25% of all new houses in 2018 in Japan were prefabricated. Their success was time tested over the years, for both the quality of assets manufactured in controlled factory conditions, and for the always increasing number of new entrants in the building industry.
From multi-unit apartments in Tokio to bungalows in remote villages to luxury homes in suburbs, prefab-housing is the normal common in Japan. Without doubt, modular structured construction and construction-integrated manufacturing are the wave of the future.
With the world more and more interconnected than ever before, when disaster happens, it doesn't just impact the community where it is located, but a large neighborhood around and beyond boundaries, across the world, involving much more people and businesses.
By constructing a building following the building codes for Fire Safety means that the building should incorporate features into its design which limit the spread of the fire, prevent fires, and allow safe exit from the building.
building codes, the rules specifying the minimum levels of safety in modern buildings today.
Requirements like sustainability, resistance, structural safety and fire safety, framed infrastructure, civil engineering structured design, fire-resistant structures, earthquake-resistant structures and tsunami-resistant structures are implied in the modern-day architecture
Engineered wood products are manufactured according to highest building standards, which consistently meet the structural, thermal, acoustic and fire safety criteria for use in modern construction.
Wood is a renewable 'green' material, meeting the goal of saving energy and reducing emission of carbon dioxide.
Engineered wood has proven to outperform noncombustible materials in direct comparison fire tests, making it an ideal building material for construction.
And delay collapse of the building, while the residents escape.
There are now several design solutions to allow building designers to use wood in fire-resistant-rated construction. They are intended to prevent the spread of fire and smoke within a building, stop fire from spreading from one building to another.
The huge implications of disasters such as Fort McMurray wildfire and aftermath effects bring topics of standard building, usage of quality building materials, structural building components, building regulations, quality control and 'Frame Check Inspection' to center stage.
The survival of homes was a function of resistance to ignition, and not a random event. Risk mitigation guidelines demonstrated their effectiveness in mitigating risk under the harshest of wildfire conditions.
Lessons from this terrible disaster, based on risk management analysis are meant to help shape a more sustainable and resilient housing future, with reduced catastrophic hazards and losses.
This was the largest and most expensive natural disaster in Canada’s history.
Insured losses reached US$ 3.8 billion, with direct impacts of private and public property loss, labor income loss, production loss in oil sands, private business revenue loss, evacuation and fire suppression costs, emergency management costs, forest industry loss and others.
Less than two mounts later, torrential rain flooded the streets and destroyed about 40 homes that had survived the fire. Some residents needed to wait for debris from both fire and flood events to be cleaned before they could return to Fort McMurray.
On May 1, 2016, a disastrous wildfire started in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. The fire quickly spread from forests to neighborhoods, destroying 2400 homes and businesses, displacing more than 80,000 people and burning more than 1.43 millions acres of land.
And while prefab buildings made up about 7% of new homes in the early 1970s, they accounted for more than 15 % by 2016.
Homebuilding grew from about 688,000 new housing in 1963 to more than 1.9 million ten years later. And since then, Japan had a very high rate of new homes built, every year.
In the aftermath of the destruction of World War II, Japan faced acute need for housing. With the population growing and the government offering incentives for housing construction, some innovative companies started to build residential homes.
From multi-unit apartments in Tokio to bungalows in remote villages to luxury homes in suburbs, prefab-housing is the normal common on Japan.
according to the same 'battleship' principle that Frank Lloyd Wright believed would protect the 'Imperial Hotel' from earthquake.
In 1981, the Japanese government revised the building codes for new construction to include provisions to minimize the effects of an earthquake and the new requirements called for rubber dampers, hydraulic shock absorbers, and base isolation pads,
The marvelous design of the 'Imperial Hotel' with water from decorative pools lining the courtyard used to quell fires in the surrounding buildings and extra steel in the frame preventing a roof collapse provided live lessons for architects, engineers and government, as well.
With its steel-reinforced construction that enabled retaining the tile roof, the 'Imperial Hotel' pioneered the technology many years before it would be feasible for residential buildings on an extensive scale.
In front of the 'Imperial Hotel' Frank Lloyd Wright provided a feature pool, arguing that it would be a reservoir from which to fight fires following an earthquake. In the aftermath of the 1923 Tokyo earthquake, the pool was tested and used exactly for this goal.
while the ground shifts laterally underneath, and thicker walls and lighter roofs were designed according to a 'battleship' principle that Frank Lloyd Wright believed would protect the 'Imperial Hotel' from earthquake.
The foundation set on loose wet soil, designed to float on the mud 'like a battleship floats on salt water' in the event of an earthquake, with provisions like rubber dampers, hydraulic shock absorbers, and base isolation pads allowing the structure to remain upright,
The main building materials were reinforced concrete and brick, while the choice of soft volcanic Oya stone enabled the carving of elaborate ornamental decoration.
Other design features to fight the earthquakes danger included cantilevered floors and balconies to provide extra support, seismic separation joints every 20m along the building, tapered walls that were thicker on the lower floors, and smooth curves, more resistant to fracture.
His idea was to float the building upon the mud using shallow, broad footings, which would allow 'balance like a tray on a waiter’s fingertips.”
While most surrounding buildings were ruined, the 'Imperial Hotel' survival is most often attributed to Frank Lloyd Wright’s foundations, which were set above ground to “float” on the mud.
The 'Imperial Hotel' was the city's only large structure to survive the earthquake intact, so testing its architect's claim.
Frank Lloyd Wright spent seven years on the 'Imperial Hotel' project, designing a beautiful and revolutionary building that he claimed was 'earthquake proof'. Only one year after its completion, the 'Great Kanto Earthquake' of 1923 devastated the city of Tokyo.
The 'Imperial Hotel' in Tokio is a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed masterpiece, which revolutionized Japanese hotel practice architecture, bringing it in line with the finest buildings in Europe and America.
Water from the decorative pools lining the courtyard was used to quell fires in the surrounding buildings. And extra steel in the frame prevented a roof collapse.
Frank Lloyd Wright's 'Imperial Hotel' was among the few buildings in Tokyo left standing after the quake and ensuing fire.
The 'Great Kanto Earthquake' and the aftermath tsunami that struck Yokohama and Tokyo in September 1923 had a magnitude 7.9 on Richter scale, killed more than 100,000 people, traumatized the Japanese nation and destroyed two of Japan’s largest cities, with historic consequences.
This disaster brought by earthquake recalls other disasters from Japan's history. It also reminds past success stories, such as the greatest earthquake test a Japanese building successfully passed, the 'Imperial Hotel' in Tokio, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake shook northeastern Japan, causing dozens of deaths, more than 80 fires, and a 10-meter savage tsunami along parts of the country's coastline. About 230,000 people lost their homes.
And some great historical structures that suffered little to no damage in massive earthquakes have been based on smart earthquake engineering.
By constructing a building following the building codes designed on the basis of the seismic history of the region, the extent of earthquake damage can be greatly reduced.
while being customized according to each individual homeowner’s needs, choices and lifestyle.
The 'Brad-Acre City' was never constructed. It is now Big Time for innovative companies, to build sustainable residence communities in America, make the home more affordable by leveraging economies of scale and minimizing construction time and material waste,
It definitely seems that Frank Lloyd Wright's vision was timeless.
The 'Usonian House' was meant to be part of a larger 'Broad-Acre City' project, a community that would include not only homes, but also facilities that create a community, such as shopping centers, religious institutions, schools, healthcare institutions and service operations.
'Usonia' sounds much like 'Utopia', and maybe this is what Frank Lloyd Wright had in mind by the 1930s when he developed his concept of the Usonian residences, with clean lines, modest size, low roofs, open floor plans, minimalistic interior and built of natural materials.
Frank Lloyd Wright created more than 900 drawings and sketches of various designs for the basic system, and the first six model examples of Usonian houses were constructed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Such a system was meant to save waste of material and much of the money paid to skilled workers and dealers.
The standardized 'system-built' homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright between 1915 and 1920 are the foundation of the 'American System-Built Homes', a system designed with structural components manufactured in a factory, and bringing them to the building site for assembly.
these houses had a strong visual connection between indoor and outdoor, implying Frank Lloyd Wright's belief in 'bringing the outside in' and using natural materials.
Typically one story, without attics, basements, or much storage, with standard and modular structures, with flat roofs and cantilevered overhangs which allowed for passive heating and cooling,
Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Usonian-style houses represented his vision of beautiful affordable houses, for medium and low-income families.
The roots of the American ranch-style houses that would gain vast popularity in the United States in the 1950s are in the Frank Lloyd Wright’s concepts for the Usonian homes.
As a matter of fact, “Usonia” was Frank Lloyd Wright’s idealized vision of the United States of America: a country that celebrated individuality and personal connections with nature.
Visually and physically, this was a comfortable house, with concrete radiant heat floors and a beautiful, sculptural interior wrapping the residents in ways that a traditional house never could.
And although built with standardized elements, each house had its unique touch, was customized according to customer dreams and with the architect vision for the owner's house.
This allowed for the final product to grow, simplified design and construction by using standard pieces of various sizes, prefabricated, enabling to recreate the components for later construction or renovation, being a standard structured system with tolerance for flexibility.
The Usonian system invented and evolved in the 1930's was a 'Post-Industrialized' labor system, blending the advantages of a modular industrial system with a craft system of production and assembly.
This allowed to reduce the cost of the construction, and was also a great way and opportunity of training-on-the-job for the future architects.
This line enabled to assemble the building easily, effectively and cheaply, without the need of skilled workers. As the concept of the Usonian House evolved, Frank Lloyd Wright would send apprentices from 'Talesin West' to the building site to assist in the construction process.
The Usonian system-built model enabled the creation of standardized structured elements that anyone can use and install to achieve better and cheaper housing, a model of a small house designed with convenience, economy, service and comfort in mind.
Frank Lloyd Wright designed his first Usonian system-built houses in a time when building labor implied skilled work and was expensive, so his solution to introduce factory mass-production was a way to decrease the construction cost for home builders.
Frank Lloyd Wright hoped to introduce to communities electricity from cleaner sources and also worked to include his little farms into a larger suburban town plan.
'The Davidson Little Farms Unit' project imagined the rural landscape as a kind of agricultural main street, with fresh meat and products, and small facilities, such as a beauty salon, a crèche, a school and small restaurants.
At the top of the 'Great Depression', Walter Davidson, a friend and a customer from Buffalo proposed Frank Lloyd Wright to design a series of small, pre-fabricated farms, each one with an associated market which would enable small-scale farmers to earn a profit.
Frank Lloyd Wright was a firm supporter of new technologies, new materials and innovative building technologies and methods, always pushing the boundaries of what was accepted and known.
an innovative approach to residential construction that reflected the hard economic realities.
Responding to the financial crisis of 1929 and the aftermath 'Great Depression' that hit the United States and the rest of the world, Frank Lloyd Wright began working on affordable housing, which developed into the American Usonian house,
He created the concept of personalized architecture, 'an architecture for every man, rather than every man for one architecture', through the consistent use of standardization and tailoring options appropriate and specific for each one of his customers.
As a successor of the Humanistic Renaissance, Frank Lloyd Wright aspired to achieve a design for democracy, by providing customers with environments that were both “eloquent and human.”
The Usonian-style of building was Frank Lloyd Wright's response to the financial crisis of 1929 and the 'Great Depression' period that followed. As a matter of fact, the Usonians homes were a simplified practical approach to affordable residential construction.
As President of the United States, in 1803 Thomas Jefferson purchased more than 800,000 square miles of 'Louisiana Territory' from France, effectively doubling the size of the United States, with the vision of a country based on independent citizens with their own land and homes.
It was President Thomas Jefferson who acquired most of the frontier of America, supplying the land necessary to make his vision for America as a nation of affordable homeowners, come true.
Since the founding of America, affordable homeownership has been one of the foundations of the American dream, and its spirit kept live and inspired the next generations of Americans.
'The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.' said Thomas Jefferson. It was Thomas Jefferson who first established the great vision of homeownership as the foundation of American democracy.
They will also drive forward many industries, including affordable residential building.
Many new jobs and additional work opportunities returning to America from overseas are optimistic factors in the U.S. economy today and key drivers of affordability which will add new jobs and will be propelling the employment market and the economy forward.
The United States economy is predicted to grow 3 to 5% and with employment strong we will see more Americans buying a home.
a recent forecast from the housing expert Freddie Mac reveals.
'The decline in mortgage interest rates could provide some welcome relief to a housing market that is looking to regain momentum. We forecast that the U.S. economy will continue to grow and that the housing market will bounce back, posting modest growth in 2019.'
No growth in demand because there's no population growth.
Maybe the +200% debt to GDP ratio is finally catching up with Japan
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