Danchis are already a nest of minority people. This also means that danchis are nest of yakuza or mafia in Japan.

before I lived in Japan the newest building I have ever lived in was built in 1910. When I first came here, as a tourist, I was astonished to see 30 year old buildings built with sub-par materials and engineering. Still today the architects are about 50 years behind the western world. Yes many cry "this is an earthquake area", but that argument does not hold any water. When I began the process of building my house I chose one of the top house builders in the country, Sumitomo. About half way through the design process I had to threaten to terminate the contract to get a copy of the plans. When I did finally did get a copy, in autocad, I had to alter about 80% of it because it did not comply to international standards. When Sumitomio tried to tell me that I am full of shit I had to pull all my references and previously drawn, U.S. Union approved, plans to prove that they had no idea what they were doing.

I asked the architect, "how many years did you study house design?". He replied with confidence "four years!" I had that amount of design experience at my high school graduation. In the US "architect" is an eight to ten year college program. This is the point that I demanded the autocad plans. They said "we don't use autocad." Who on the planet earth does not use autocad to design houses? It turned out to be a lie. They use a j-lang program to present the plans to the customers and autocad to design the structure. I had to dump my entire design portfolio, which includes city use plans that I drew when I was 17, to get them to fork over the files.

Bottom line here is that the major corporations design their structures for limited use so that they can rebuild them.

[/rant]

wuchan wrote:before I lived in Japan the newest building I have ever lived in was built in 1910. When I first came here, as a tourist, I was astonished to see 30 year old buildings built with sub-par materials and engineering. Still today the architects are about 50 years behind the western world. Yes many cry "this is an earthquake area", but that argument does not hold any water. When I began the process of building my house I chose one of the top house builders in the country, Sumitomo. About half way through the design process I had to threaten to terminate the contract to get a copy of the plans. When I did finally did get a copy, in autocad, I had to alter about 80% of it because it did not comply to international standards. When Sumitomio tried to tell me that I am full of shit I had to pull all my references and previously drawn, U.S. Union approved, plans to prove that they had no idea what they were doing.

I asked the architect, "how many years did you study house design?". He replied with confidence "four years!" I had that amount of design experience at my high school graduation. In the US "architect" is an eight to ten year college program. This is the point that I demanded the autocad plans. They said "we don't use autocad." Who on the planet earth does not use autocad to design houses? It turned out to be a lie. They use a j-lang program to present the plans to the customers and autocad to design the structure. I had to dump my entire design portfolio, which includes city use plans that I drew when I was 17, to get them to fork over the files.

Bottom line here is that the major corporations design their structures for limited use so that they can rebuild them.

[/rant]

So, if one were not an architect or engineer, how would one go about building a decent house in Japan without breaking the bank or losing one's mind?

TennoChinko wrote:So, if one were not an architect or engineer, how would one go about building a decent house in Japan without breaking the bank or losing one's mind?

they'd hire wuchan, obviously!

snip:

"So, if one were not an architect or engineer, how would one go about building a decent house in Japan without breaking the bank or losing one's mind?"

Go with an independent architect. (Here's a [url=(http://aiajapan.org)]list[/url] of American-affiliated ones.) But be prepared to spend about 1 million yen per tsubo, plus land.

Other alternatives include a log home, or if you have a competent builder who can work from Western plans, buying a design from a company like Hometta.

TennoChinko wrote:So, if one were not an architect or engineer, how would one go about building a decent house in Japan without breaking the bank or losing one's mind?

Use a foreign company or build a log cabin.


If people doubt me, go wander around Yokohama or Tokyo. There are more than a few buildings that were built during the meiji era. Most were built with gaijin plans and they are still standing. A lot of you walk through one every day. Tokyo station was finished in 1914.

wuchan wrote:before I lived in Japan the newest building I have ever lived in was built in 1910. When I first came here, as a tourist, I was astonished to see 30 year old buildings built with sub-par materials and engineering. Still today the architects are about 50 years behind the western world. Yes many cry "this is an earthquake area", but that argument does not hold any water. When I began the process of building my house I chose one of the top house builders in the country, Sumitomo. About half way through the design process I had to threaten to terminate the contract to get a copy of the plans. When I did finally did get a copy, in autocad, I had to alter about 80% of it because it did not comply to international standards. When Sumitomio tried to tell me that I am full of shit I had to pull all my references and previously drawn, U.S. Union approved, plans to prove that they had no idea what they were doing.

I asked the architect, "how many years did you study house design?". He replied with confidence "four years!" I had that amount of design experience at my high school graduation. In the US "architect" is an eight to ten year college program. This is the point that I demanded the autocad plans. They said "we don't use autocad." Who on the planet earth does not use autocad to design houses? It turned out to be a lie. They use a j-lang program to present the plans to the customers and autocad to design the structure. I had to dump my entire design portfolio, which includes city use plans that I drew when I was 17, to get them to fork over the files.

Bottom line here is that the major corporations design their structures for limited use so that they can rebuild them.

[/rant]

Ok, so that makes at least you, me and Taro to go batshit over the housing in Japan...

Coligny wrote:Ok, so that makes at least you, me and Taro to go batshit over the housing in Japan...

Pleeease. I am The BATSHIT, not just going batshit.

Seriously, what the fuck japan?

mi vie en béton

How long could you live in that fucking house before you killed yourself?

wuchan wrote:

Seriously, what the fuck japan?

obviously the far-side up-pointed part of the house is all solar panels. this is a quirky but forward-thinking design.

wuchan wrote:Seriously, what the fuck japan?

Hey, what's wrong with that? I end up in a similar sort of position on the sidewalk nearly every night...

The Mainichi has an article (Japanese) about Tokiwadaira Danchi in Chiba which is seeing an influx of young Chinese under a local urban regeneration programme, creating an odd community mix alongside elderly Japanese. The article says it is slightly unsettling for visitors in that there seem to be none of the Japanese kids around you usually associate with a danchi.

I can't be arsed to summarize the piece because it says pretty much what you'd expect. It is generally positive, however, pointing out that Chinese have a Confucian respect for the elderly. I thought one story was quite poignant. A Chinese man saw his elderly neighbour struggling on the stairs. He asked him if he was OK in Japanese but couldn't understand his reply. He assumed his own language abilities were lacking but later discovered the man was suffering from early stage dementia.

Mulboyne wrote:The Mainichi has an article (Japanese) about Tokiwadaira Danchi in Chiba which is seeing an influx of young Chinese under a local urban regeneration programme, creating an odd community mix alongside elderly Japanese. The article says it is slightly unsettling for visitors in that there seem to be none of the Japanese kids around you usually associate with a danchi.

I can't be arsed to summarize the piece because it says pretty much what you'd expect. It is generally positive, however, pointing out that Chinese have a Confucian respect for the elderly. I thought one story was quite poignant. A Chinese man saw his elderly neighbour struggling on the stairs. He asked him if he was OK in Japanese but couldn't understand his reply. He assumed his own language abilities were lacking but later discovered the man was suffering from early stage dementia.

Mainichi is fucking racist.