Background
 The supply of housing for the elderly has increased rapidly in recent years. To plan the units in elderly housing, an understanding of the correspondence between household goods and space, and a detailed study of how various elderly people live are needed. However, most reports on housing for the elderly are concerned with the availability of medical and nursing care services, or such quantitative trends as building information represented by unit area and descriptions of interior facilities. Compared to research on nursing homes, prior research on housing for the elderly includes only a few studies focusing on household goods.
 Objective
 The aim of this study are to determine the quantity and layout of household goods in serviced housing units for the elderly and to obtain indicators of the relationship between household goods and unit space.
 Research Method
 The research methods used were a survey on the style of living in elderly housing and resident interviews. In the style of living survey, the furniture, appliances, and other household goods inside the unit are entered into a floor plan for 23 units having one-person households in two elderly housing complexes: F and M. The survey included 11 1K (one bedroom and kitchen) 27 m² units in elderly housing F, and 5 1R (one bedroom) and 7 1DK (one bedroom and dining-kitchen area) 33 m² units in elderly housing M. In the interviews, we inquired about changes in living conditions and diet, among other topics, before and after moving into the housing for the elderly.
 Conclusions
 (1) In more than 90% of the cases, four household goods were confirmed to be distributed in the unit: a television set, microwave oven, refrigerator, and bed. (2) Attributes that influence the quantity and number of classifications of articles were the individual factor of sex and the environmental factor of the unit area after moving in. However, there was no clear relationship between the quantity and number of classifications of articles and physical condition. (3) The bed was arranged parallel to the longest wall and opposite to the entrance of the room. (4) In the 27 m² units, only two of three goods—cupboard, refrigerator, and microwave oven—were distributed in 73% of the cases, while in the 33 m² units, 83% of the cases had all three of these goods. Furthermore, in the 1DK 33 m² units, furniture for food preparation was distributed in the kitchen space. (5) For the types of seating furniture and rug, placement of a chair was most frequently, at 43% and 68% for unit areas of 27 m² and 33 m², respectively. The average numbers of chairs or rugs were 1.9 in the 27 m² units, 4.0 in the 1R, and 3.0 in the 1DK of the 33 m² units. (6) The layout of articles in the residence was classified into six types, based on the presence of a bed, the number of articles in the layout related to meals and cooking, the presence and type of dining table, and the type of seating furniture and rugs.

View full abstract

 This study aims to clarify the spatial structure of contemporary Thai houses as seen from passive design by focusing on living areas. Firstly, traditional house's characteristics were clarified in term of geographical conditions. Secondly, contemporary houses' characteristics were clarified according to location and window potentials. Thirdly, combination models of living area and interactive components are analyzed on the correspondence with environment and similarities between traditional and contemporary houses. The results show dominant type in contemporary houses are multiple living areas with separated boundary and it seems to inherit overall aspects of traditional house spaces with plenty combinations of interactive components.

View full abstract

 This study aims to quantify the structural damages, evacuation situation, and utility interruptions caused to facilities for the elderly in the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake. We gathered data by administering a questionnaire to all facilities for the elderly in Kumamoto and Oita prefectures, and a series of interviews administered at 17 facilities in the Kumamoto prefecture. The results are as follows:
 1) The foreshock caused structural damages in 56.2% and 16.1% of facilities in the Kumamoto and Oita prefectures, respectively. Further, the main earthquake caused structural damages in 69.2% and 21.4% facilities in the Kumamoto and Oita prefectures, respectively. The interior and exterior walls and ceilings were found to be cracked, and some furniture were damaged, while the interior of one of the facilities was severely damaged by flooding because of a sprinkler malfunction. After the foreshock, in most facilities, the furniture was damaged because it was not fixed to the walls. To ensure less damage after the foreshock, most facilities took precautions such as putting tall furniture on the floor and moving the residents' beds to a safe space.
 2) According to the interview survey, most of three facilities to which evacuees temporarily fled from outside the facilities, and they returned to the facilities in the following morning after staying a night in vehicles. Evacuation to other facilities was made at only two facilities of GH. At four facilities, most of which were nursing homes, residents gathered in a space. At unit-type nursing homes, residents gathered in a dining room and a hallway within a unit, and at old type nursing homes, residents gathered in a functional recovery training room and an elevator hall. The number of residents per room changed at only one unit type nursing home.
 3) According to the questionnaire survey, electricity was lost in 21.4% of the facilities, water supply was lost in 25.3% of the facilities, gas outage was observed in 55.6% of the facilities, with 12.1% of propane gas outage, and 6.3% of facilities suffered from sewage drainage stops. According to the interview survey, no facilities experienced a serious shortage of food because relief supplies became available and procurement became possible after a few days of subsistence with their food stock.
 4) About a quarter of the facilities (29.5%) accepted evacuees who needed care, and 17.6% accepted general evacuees by the questionnaire survey. The interview survey found that there were many cases where local residents evacuated their homes because they felt uneasy about the aftershocks following the foreshock, and no facilities clearly differentiated required assistances from general evacuees when they accepted evacuees, and the facilities used their community regional common space, entrance hall, and annexed day service floor as an evacuation space.

View full abstract

 It is possible to see the description about the classroom system in the book "Didactica magna" which was written by the educational scholar, Johannes Amos Comenius (1592-1670) in the 17th century. The classroom system was developed later in German gymnasiums in the 19th century. The development of elementary school architecture in England in the latter half of the 19th century was strongly influenced by gymnasium architecture. The Johnson Street School, designed by the architect Roger Smith and completed in 1871, was experimentally built to prove the effectiveness of the system.
 Eventually the classroom system also spread to elementary school buildings in Scotland. In 1906, the Scottish Street School was completed in Glasgow, with the design of the architect, Charles Rennie McIntosh, in which the classroom system was adopted and the similarity to German gymnasium architecture was also recognized.
 In Japan, "Drawings of Primary Schools' construction estblished by the Ministry of Education (文部省制定小学校建設図)" emerged, in which 6 types of elementary schools were indicated. These schools had classrooms and their plans were not similar to American ones, but similar to German and British schools which had corridors.
 On the other hand, the architect Josiah Condor, who was a son of Roger Smith's cousin and worked at Smith's office when the Johnson Street School was built. He was invited by the Meiji government and came to Japan in 1877 (Meiji 10). So Condor taught architecture to Masamichi Kuru and Kingo Tatsuno and others, that the concept of classroom system might be transmitted to them from him. Apart from this, there was an explanation about classroom system was seen in "New book of Elementary Education (小学教育新篇)" written by Tei Nishimura in 1881 (Meiji 14), who was a bureaucrat of the Ministry of Education and had studied in Glasgow.
 In 1895 (Meiji 28), the Ministry of Education promulgated "School Architecture Drawing Explanation and Design Compendium (學校建築図説明及設計大要)" which was said to be written by the accounting department building manager, Masamichi Kuru. The 60 children's classroom indicated within the compendium was exactly the same size as the German classroom of 60 children explained in Robson (1874). In addition, the compendium presented the plan of elementary school "virtual design", which adopted the classroom system and was similar to the plan of the Gymnasium Andreanum published in Robson (1874).
 In 1895 (Meiji 28), under the guidance of professor Kingo Tatsuno who had been educated by Roger Smith at the University of London, Tadashi Sekino wrote a graduation thesis "School Architecture" written in English which quoted Robson (1874). The thesis clearly expressed that a classroom was the one of main elements in a school building.
 In 1901 (Meiji 34), the Karatsu elementary school was completed by the design of Professor Kingo Tatsuno. It was a plan that adopted a classroom system, and was familiar to the characteristics of the Johnson Street School and the Gymnasium Andreanum which were described in Robson (1874).

View full abstract

 Introduction
 Guide signs are an important source of information that assists users in navigating railway stations, but they are becoming more complex each year. Through the past decades in Japan, major Japanese railway companies have established signage systems that regulate the amount of information, design of signs, and locations of signs to make the signs understandable for users. However, when surveying stations in Japan, the authors found not only official signs (Fig. 1), designed in conformance with the signage system regulations, but also additional signs (Fig. 2), which were made by local station staff. The additional signs were generally made deliberately to supplement information missing from the official signs based on user needs; however, previous studies have not clarified how users evaluate these additional signs.
 The goal of this study was to clarify user evaluation of the additional signs in railway stations by using an online survey focusing on the amount of information and the design elements in these sings. Then, positive and negative factors of the additional signs were extracted to improve the sign guidelines for railway stations.
 Method
 An online questionnaire survey about additional signs was conducted among 3,446 station users who expressed an interest in station signs. The respondents evaluated several station signs using the semantic differential method with nine evaluation items selected by the authors (Table 1) in a five-step scale (Fig. 3). The evaluated signs were made by the authors in such a way that they imitated the additional signs and described the same information showing the way to a track, but with different styles. The questionnaire was sectioned into the following two parts with regard to the varied elements in the evaluated signs:

 1) Amount of information (Table 2, Fig. 4)
 Four signs were each presented in two different amount of information levels, “length of sign description” and “distance information.”
 2) Design elements (Table 4, Fig. 7)
 Nine signs selected using the Latin square were presented by differing the font, background color, and graphical illustration.

 Results
 1) Positive and negative factors on signs
 All of the user evaluation items expecting the quality of “attractive” had a similar trend. Tables 5 and 6 summarize the negative and positive factors from the evaluation. Although these positive factors are actually used on official signs, additional signs adopting these positive factors (such as Fig. 11) would also have high evaluations.
 2) Particular evaluation structure on evaluation item of “attractive”
 The effect of background color on user evaluation (Fig. 9) suggests that the evaluation item “attractive” would have a different evaluation structure than the other items. This result supports the finding of a previous study^9)* that there are the two different factors, “attractive” and “easily understood destination direction,” that are essential for additional signs for smooth movement about the station.
 3) Tolerance of old generations of additional signs
 Although handwriting is an especially negative factor of signs (Fig. 8), the older generations (50s and 60s) evaluated this factor slightly more highly than the other generations. Regarding the other factors, they also had tolerance for the signs that had typical characteristics of additional signs.
 Conclusions
 The study revealed positive/negative signs and evaluation tendencies by generation on elements of additional signs. Further study needs to address the effects of sign location to collect additional information for the planning of additional signs.

View full abstract

 1.Objective
 This study verifies that the outgoing distance to hospitals for elderly people has changed as a result of the re-organization/ re-allocation of public hospital facilities closer to the central point of a local city's elderly population. We considered the effects of the re-organization/re-allocation on a district with the city's largest elderly population as well as a densely populated elderly district that is part of a relatively rapidly aging middle mountainous spa town.

 2.Study Method
 We ran simulations based on comparisons between survey findings on the actual outgoing distance to hospitals for elderly people before re-organization and additional survey findings after re-organization.

 3.Results and Discussion
 When a public hospital was relocated from the old city center area to the new city center area, around 90% of the outpatients followed. When a public hospital in the middle mountainous spa town was converted to a public clinic, about 30% of the outpatients changed their routine to go to the new public hospital in the new city center area. We also saw an increase in the eight-district weighted average of the outgoing distance to hospitals for care-requiring seniors. The scanty number of subjects sampled, however, casts doubt on the reliability of the fact-finding results.
 Next, we simulated variations in the outgoing distance to hospitals for care-requiring seniors surveyed before and after the re-allocation of public hospital facilities. When it was postulated that all of the people in the middle mountainous spa town who had attended the old public hospital regularly would go to the new public clinic, a significant decrease was seen in the eight-district weighted average of the outgoing distance to hospitals. But when it was postulated that all of the people who had attended the old public hospital regularly would change their routine to go to the new public hospital, the eight-district weighted average of the outgoing distance to hospitals increased.
 Accordingly, we judge the re-organization as appropriate since some functions of the old public hospital in the middle mountainous spa town carried over into the new public clinic. Furthermore, when it was postulated from the fact-finding results that 30% of the regular attendants at the old public hospital in the middle mountainous spa town would change their routine to go to the new public hospital in the new city center area, the eight-district weighted average of the outgoing distance to hospitals showed significant decreases as well as scattered increases within an error range.
 From the above, we have concluded that the rate of change in the eight-district weighted average of the outgoing distance to hospitals depends on the concentration of care-requiring people attached to the old city center area and on the proportion of outpatients from the old public hospital in the middle mountainous spa town who switch to the new public hospital in the new city center area.

View full abstract

 James J. Gibson's ecological approach to perception and action has had a major influence on not only the psychology but also the study of design. In the studies on architectural design, Gibson's approach has been applied to the study of the activities of users in daily life, such as the studies of environmental behavior. In contrast, architects' design activities have not been considered from his approach, even though Gibson argued that it is possible to understand from his approach not only the activities of users but also the creative activities of designers such as planning or creative imaging. If, as he argued, users' activities in daily life as well as architects' design activities have fundamentally common foundations, his argument will go a long way toward an ecological understanding of the architectural environment.
 Based on the above, this paper attempts to examine architectural design activities using Gibson's approach through a detailed examination of his argument on the human–environment relationship in both published and unpublished materials. It also confirms the validity of this discussion from the perspectives of architectural design studies and knowledge.
 First, this paper examines Gibson's unpublished memorandum, which argues the possibilities of using his approach to understand creative activities such as planning or creative imaging. Second, to confirm these possibilities, this essay investigates his unique argument on the relationship between humans and the environment, focusing especially on various concepts of environment including “cluttered environment,” “enclosure,” “texture,” and “surface.” Third, to validate these investigations, this paper discusses the affinity between architectural studies and Gibson's arguments by examining studies of “the building elements”, which were some of the classic studies of architectural design presented by Uchida et al.. As per the second and third stages, the paper re-examines the possibilities of understanding design activities on the basis of Gibson's approach.

View full abstract

 Introduction
 We developed the turn-by-turn voice navigation system for blind people with high accuracy and using their smartphone. Many navigation tools have been proposed so that visually impaired people can walk independently in unfamiliar places, but they did not have sufficient accuracy and required specialized devices. We verified the effectiveness of our voice navigation system in the environment with few physical clues

 Method
 We conducted 2 types of test: A) walking skill test and B) walking test using the navigation, with 10 blind and low vision participants.
 A) Walking skill test: we measured their walking skill such as distance sense, direction sense, walking speed and veering of straight line walking.
 B) Walking test using the navigation: we measured their walking path, walking distance and duration time in 2 areas with few landmarks (Piloti and Lobby in Fig. 2).

 Result
 The test results are as follows:
 1) The more error they had in direction sense test, the more error they had in straight line walking test (Fig. 7). It is presumed that the relation between veering and direction sense error. The more error they had in straight line walking test, the longer distance they walked in Piloti (Fig. 11). Most of the low vision participants got to the entrance directly because they found the doormat in front of the entrance. Meanwhile, some participants who tend to veer off the route, walked meanderingly although the system tried to correct their position. This result suggests the voice navigation is hard to correct their veering.
 2) When the turning point was deviated from the route, low vision participants corrected their position, confirming visually. Fig. 13 shows the low vision participants stopped walking in a short time to look for the stairs when they turned. Meanwhile, most of the blind participants corrected their position, using cane technique, but some participants didn't because turning point was too deviated to cane reach. Therefore, we consider that localization error has to be within about 1 meter that one's cane reaches.

 Discussion
 All participants succeeded in walking in the environment with few landmarks by using the voice navigation system. However, some participants missed turning or walked meanderingly because the system didn't correct their wrong positon or direction perfectly. It is assumed that we should improve not only localization accuracy but also usability by personalization based on user's walking skill.

View full abstract

 In recent years, local cities in Japan have problems such as the deterioration of the living environment, the increase in CO₂ emissions, and the inefficiency of maintenance and management of infrastructure, due to the declining population. One of the solutions for solving such problems is the idea of “compact city”. For designing the compact city, it is necessary to understand population change factors in the city. Consequently, in this research, focusing on Higashihiroshima City in Hiroshima Prefecture, authors aim to understand the population change factors in the all city area and to design the future compact city scenarios.
 First, authors investigated the spatial patterns of population change in Higashihiroshima for every five years from 2000 to 2010 using the 500 m meshes data of the census. As a result, it is found that rapid population increase due to housing development occur in urbanization control area. It is thought that the relatively loose regulation of housing development permission in the urbanization control area issued by the local government is the reason why many housing developments are done. Actually, as a result of decision tree analysis on the factors of population change, "distance to elementary school" is extracted as a population increase factor in Higashihiroshima. This factor is one of the items in the housing development permission standard.
 Subsequently, the increase potential values and the decrease potential values are calculated for each mesh using the decision tree analysis results of population increase and population decrease, respectively. Then, by adding these values to the present population for every five years, authors estimated the future population distribution as of 2040 which is “BAU scenario”. In addition, as a result of calculating the total of urban facilities costs and CO₂ emissions as the evaluation index of the scenario, it is found that the costs and CO₂ emissions per person are larger in the outside of urban areas with less population.
 Next, in Higashihiroshima, authors made scenarios that are thought to be more efficient than “BAU scenario” as follows:
 Development control scenario: A scenario assuming that population in-crease in urbanization control area is disappeared by stopping the development permission standard.
 Current trend and compact scenario: A scenario in which population is concentrated into efficient meshes of each evaluation in the BAU scenario.
 Development control and compact scenario: A scenario in which population is concentrated into the "meshes within 1.01 km from elementary schools" in addition to efficient meshes in the development control scenario. In these areas, the population increase potential is high from the decision tree analysis results.
 As a result of comparative evaluation of each scenario from the viewpoint of evaluation indexes, urban facilities costs and CO₂ emissions by concentrating the population are expected to be greatly reduced. In addition, it is also found that even in the "development control scenario", in which the population is not concentrated about 1 billion JPY will be reduced in urban facilities costs in the year as of 2040.

View full abstract

 In Leipzig, a city in former East Germany, the number of abandoned lands increased due to the massive population decline in the 1990s. In 2000, Urban Development Plan (STEP W+S) was redacted in order to cope with rapid shrinkage and "The Perforation City" was announced, aiming to convert abandoned built-up areas into green spaces. STEP W+S was followed by Conceptual District Plans (Konzeptioneller Stadtteilplan : KSP), formulated in severely affected inner-city districts East in 2002 and West in 2004. In these plans, areas designated for de-densification were prescribed by New Green Spaces Concepts. At the same time, the city of Leipzig has been concluding Use Permission Agreements (Gestattungsvereinbarung) with the owners of abandoned lands and the regeneration towards “temporary greens” was induced. This research clarifies the generation and subsequent developments of “temporary greens” in Leipzig and reveals the role of “temporary greens” in spatial reorganization in cities with a future of high uncertainty.
 In total 16.7ha of “temporary greens” have been created from 1999 till 2012 in Leipzig. The peak of the number of newly established temporary greens was in 2002 and thereafter the number has decreased. Based on the Use Permission Agreement, land owners create and maintain the “temporary greens” in exchange for subsidy for demolition and improvement costs and exemption from property tax during the period of agreement. Budgets for urban development of both States and Federal Government and European Funds have supported the subsidy for inducement of “temporary greens”. Nearly 50% of the owners who agreed in converting abandoned lands into green spaces are private persons.
 Almost 50% of “temporary greens” were concentrated in the inner-city districts East and West. The survey was conducted in all 64 (total area 8.08 ha) “temporary greens” created in these districts till 2008 and their subsequent developments till 2016 were explored. As a result, it revealed that the 1/4 of them shifted to permanent use after eight years. However, the difference in their use is observed between district West and East. In the district West, in which a population increase had already occurred when the KSP was formulated in 2004, new housings have been rebuilt in “temporary greens”. The “temporary greens” came to serve as preparation for the next construction development. In contrast, in the district East, in which the population remained stagnated after the KSP formulated in 2002, the “temporary greens” have been turned into permanent green spaces and public facilities, therefore playing a part in the implementation of the New Green Space Concept shown in the KSP. It is concluded that the “temporary greens” have been playing a significant role in inducing flexible spatial reorganization in a city with a highly uncertain future.
 Meanwhile, it turned out that more than 3/4 in terms of area ratio of “temporary greens” in district West and East are left in the provisional status and the uses are not fixed as of 2016. It is necessary to make further research which explores the meaning that the considerable amount of lands with provisional use are remained in a city without clear vision for the future.

View full abstract

 Although the standards on which the local plans are formed are stipulated in the Planloven (Planning Low), specific and detailed value criteria are not specified, therefore it is operated by the city's discretion. In Copenhagen, when there are new developments in and around the area specified by the local plan, the development is not restricted, instead the plan its self is modified. In which case, the local plan enacts specific projects while the municipal plan is supplemented accordingly and be tails are finalized.
 Insight into a land use review system involving the public, shown below, was gained through individual case analysis of the method for public involvement used in the formulation process of the local plan in the city of Copenhagen.
 1) A system operated with various opportunities for public involvement by the city's discretion.
 In addition to the basic obligatory public hearing, in Copenhagen, as an original process, unstipulated in the Planloven, citizen meetings are also held during the public hearing period. This discussion involves briefing the public of the specifics of the project and exchanging of opinions with the sponsorship of the local committees accordingly. The obligatory Neighbor Orientation, in which exchange of public opinions regarding the departure from regulations of existing local plans are conducted, may also be held during the heavy editorial period of unfinished plans.
 In this way, the process is operated with various opportunities for public involvement by the city's discretion.
 2) The repetition of the involvement process to achieve consensus.
 After the public hearing, the city discusses a proposal for the local plan which reflects the opinions of the public. As a result, when sizable changes occur, additional hearings may be held independent from the original public hearing. When minor changes occur, subsequent public hearings are held.
 This process insures public consensus, through separating minor and major issues efficiently and repetition in this manner.
 3) Opinions from varied participating bodies and the function of local committees.
 Participating bodies considered to be public institutions are, local committees, the local council, the museum of Copenhagen, and electricity, gas and railroad companies. Landowner associations comprised of homeowners, public associations for each housing complex, and the developer themselves may also give their opinions. Especially legally appointed local committees play an important role, not only as sponsors for the citizen meeting, but during the formulation of the local plan as well.
 4) Revision of the plan based on accumulated various public opinions.
 The contents of the accumulated opinions consisted of various topics not only specific plan details such as applications for land and buildings, building scale etc, but approval and disapproval of the formulation of the plan its self, on the lack of public involvement in the formulation process and so on.
 Opinions which led to the modification of the local plan were, concerns regarding their living environment such as building height, shade, exposure of privacy, sound etc, demands regarding the maintenance of existing structures and increase of parking space, proposal of design changes from the developer and local committees, on the resolution of restrictions on environmental preservation and corrections on building plans.

View full abstract

 In Japan, a housing plan has been established involving mainly high-rise housing and standardization. However, there have been few analyses and studies of the relationship and harmony between people and the natural environment based on the relationship between the residence and the surrounding environment. This paper aims to grasp the environmental perception of residents by focusing on dwelling unit location and residential floor, and to understand the characteristics and formation of environmental cognition. It can be used as a fundamental reference in the planning of groups of high-rise residences.

View full abstract

 In recent years, issues on vacant homes have become socially serious in Japan, and the number of vacant homes whose owners are unknown or inheritance abandoned is increasing. This paper clarifies issues on vacant homes and municipal measures to survey and cope with owner-unknown homes through the nationwide questionnaire survey to 180 municipalities (Municipality with DID area of 300ha or more) and the case study on Maebashi city that has the experience of using inheritance property manager system to the owner-unknown vacant homes.
 Regarding the issues on vacant homes survey by municipalities, the trend differed depending on the population size of municipalities, such as the organizational structure, the target area of survey, and the method of grasping the information for contacting each owner.
 Despite using taxation information on property tax, there were already 14.3% of municipalities that could not grasp the information for contacting the owner more than 10% of the surveyed vacant homes. 76.6% of municipalities that have owner unknown homes, and 72.5% of municipalities have inheritance abandoned homes, but only 15.7% of municipalities have applied the inheritance property manager system.
 The problems are as follows. The first, it is important to take detailed measures to support for funds and human resources from government and prefecture depending on the scale of each municipality. For example, it is necessary to consider professional support to small municipalities.
 The second, it is necessary to establish a new system to allow exemption of advance payment when municipalities use inheritance property management system.
 And finally, we need to clarify concrete countermeasures to unknown-owner homes and inheritance abandoned homes as soon as possible to stop the reduction of tax revenue such as property tax and the deterioration of the living environment.

View full abstract

 This article considered the building of the Nagoya Post Telegraph Office which suffered by the Nobi earthquake of 1891, and it is following points that become clear.
 The Yuubin Yakusyo Office was established under the modern system for the first time at Nagoya in 1871 and the Nagoya Telegraph Office was installed in the neighboring site in 1882. And both stations were merged in 1886 and become the Nagoya Post Telegraph Office and are the Office which the building built in Sakae-mati in 1888 considered at this time. In addition, the building was considered to be completion by an estimate conventionally in January, 1888.
 There was not the established theory conventionally about time of the construction start of the Nagoya Post Telegraph Office to treat in this report. But, according to the newspaper report, in the Nagoya Post Telegraph Office, the preparations for reconstruction have already begun in July, 1884. And the falsework had been already started in December, 1886, the completion ceremony was held on January 28, 1888. The designer of the Nagoya Post Telegraph Office was considered to be Sadati Sitijiro conventionally. But as for the employment to Ministry of Communications and Transportation of Sadati from February, 1887, Judging from progress of the construction, it is proper to think that the design of the Nagoya Post Telegraph Office was accomplished before the employment of Sadati. In addition, Sadati was concerned with construction control, but it can be determined to have been engaged in the construction for a long time with Noguti Yosinobu. The construction form of the Nagoya Postal Telecommunications Bureau has not been clear before, but it became clear that this work was done at the contract of the Okura-gumi. J. Condor reported with the Nagoya Kentiku Kaisya in “AN ARCHITECT’S NOTES ON THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF OCTOBER, 1891.”, and I confirmed the construction of the company from a newspaper article. Condor did not mention the brick used for the Nagoya Post Telegraph Office, but it becomes clear that this used the brick made from the newspaper report in the Gifuken Kangoku. 1 million bricks and 200,000 pieces of roof tiles were delivered to the Nagoya Post Telegraph Office by the Gifuken Kangoku. The construction cost of the Nagoya Post Telegraph Office was 29,260.165 yen, and the tsubo unit price was 71.55 yen, this was low price of 6-7000 yen than the original budget.

View full abstract

 The relations to the Diet building by J. Condor are being elucidated by research of Fujimori T., Horiuti M., Shimizu H., and so on. Horiuti pointed out the possibility of the research of the stone materials for the Diet building by Condor in the time after the establishment of the Rinzi-kentiku-kyoku, but there has been no report that Condor actually carried out the stone survey in various parts of the country. Therefore, this article considered the timing, the region and the companions of the investigation of building materials for the Diet building carried out by Condor. The stone survey for the Diet building by Condor can be seen in pieces newspapers issued in various places around the year 1887. Together with those information, it is clear that Condor has conducted the survey twice. The first survey was mainly in Aiti and Gihu prefecture in September 1887, the second was held around December 1887 to January 1888, Yamaguti, Ehime, Hyogo prefecture and others. As a result, the building stones to use for the Diet building were decided to the Aoki-isi of the granite produced at Hirosima in Kagawa prefecture, it was reported at newspaper that the transportation of the stone will be done by Senzaki-gumi of Kobe Port. Kato K, accompanied Condor in the whole process in two investigations, and partly Wada Y, and Sato T, who was the expert of architectural. Kato's career was recorded as Osaka Prefectural Police Officer, Kaisei-gakko, Kyoiku-Hakubutukan, Kobu-daigakko, Rinzi-kentikukyoku, Mitsubishi Company, Takusyokumu-syo, Nousyoumu-syo, the director of the Kougyou-kai. Among them, I have confirmed the backgrounds of the University of Tokyo Faculty of Science, Rinzi-kentikukyoku, Mitsubishi company, Takusyokumu-syo, Nousyoumu-syo, the director of the Kougyou-kai. Kato accompanied this survey can be thought that he was recognized socially as the mineral and geological expert. In other words, it can be thought that the stone survey by Condor was the full-fledged one accompanying experts.

View full abstract

 L'architettura della città, published by Aldo Rossi (1931-1997) in 1966, received a worldwide audience in the age of postmodernism. However, in this acceptance, less attention has been paid to the original context in which the book was written. In this respect, it is useful to refer to three published documents of the course entitled “Caratteri distributivi degli edifici” held by professor Carlo Aymonino and other assistants, including Rossi, at Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia between 1963 and 1966, because in the same period as this course, Rossi was writing his book. This article aims to investigate closely these materials, and clarify what Rossi's book owes to the collaboration in the course.
 In 1960's, when the course was held, Italian cities faced several problems, including large number of urban migrants in search for work, the decay of functionality of the historic center and the phenomenon of urban sprawl. The overview of the course documents makes clear that the instructors of the course were interested in the specific issues for architecture such as the failure of the national housing supply program (INA-Casa), the exploration of new concept of facilities in relation to the city, and the necessity to establish a new discipline for urban study from view point of architecture. Rossi's book also shares these interests, while not clearly referring to them.
 It was Carlo Aymonino who offered the general framework for research and discussion in the course. In the lectures, he set the main theme for the course as study of the cities from the point-view of “urban morphology and building typology.” In his lectures, Aymonino developed the arguments about this framework. At first, he pursued the history of the formation of the modern concept of building typology from Enlightenment culture to the modern movement. In parallel, he investigated the evolution of proposals of urban forms during that period. Although in his book Rossi assumes the viewpoint of the urban form as main approach to the city and the concept of building typology as analytical tool, he only refers to the course materials of Aymonino, and did not precisely explain these two ideas. This shows that Rossi's book is based on Aymonino's general framework for urban study.
 In contrast to Aymonino's arguments, in the course Rossi's lecture played the role of establishing a methodology for urban study. His lectures had mainly three directions of methodological discourses: clarification of the architectural particular approach to the city in comparison with other disciplines (economy, politics and sociology), identification of the city as research object, and description of the city including criticism of functionalism. The same discussions about the methodology for urban study can be found in introduction and first chapter of Rossi's book.
 In conclusion, the relation between the course at Venice and Rossi's book, L'architettura della città can be summarized in three following points. Firstly, the course and Rossi's book share the same interests for the urban issues at that time, which the former shows clearly while the latter does not refer to directly. Secondly, Rossi's book borrows its general framework of discussions about the city from the lectures of Aymonino and numerous references from the ones of other assistants. Therefore, it can be said that Rossi's book is a fruit of the collaboration in the course at Venice. Finally, the distinctiveness of Rossi's book can be identified with his contribution to the course at Venice, in other words, establishment of the methodology for urban study.

View full abstract

 Social and spatial issues during the transitional period from the early modern period to the modern period in Atami where ideas of public, common and private interplayed will be discussed through [I] changes of a controlling system of hot spring resources and [II] a process of development of hot spring resources and lands in this report. A process of disorganization of traditional societies or a spatial configuration and an establishment of a modern suburban city were described.
 In order to discuss on above mentioned issues, this study focused on following topics: [i] disorganization of a society and its customs of traditional communities managing hot spring resources, [ii] a controlling policy of Atami and Shizuoka prefecture government on hot spring resources in the Meiji period, [iii] a shift of rights of hot springs from owners in the local community to the national authority and [iv] owning hot spring resources or rights to use them handled by people outside the community and a developing process of real estate developments as villas or residential lots.
 Throughout above mentioned topics, an urban history of Atami where became a city before the WWII due to an inflation in number of travelers and citizens in accordance with a process of subdivisions and private owning of so to speak ground-origin-resources, such as hot springs and lands, will be clarified.
 There was no distinction between a right of using “oh-yu” hot springs which was called “yu-kabu” and a right of running hotels during the early modern period. In addition, such rights were linked with specific parcels. Such connections between rights, business and land or space were untied after the Meiji Restoration. Since “oh-yu” was not a private property, it became under control of the Department of the Imperial Household. Although the local community kept the rights of using hot resources “yu-kabu” by virtue of their political movements even after the government started controlling the land, a traditional relationship between the business and “yu-kabu” was lost at the moment. The right thereafter starts belonging to not only to the Department but also to aristocrats and some representative businessmen of Japan. Nevertheless, there was no big change in a way of managing hot spring resources even though its owners have changed. Many cases that the local society or communities still lead controlling “yu-kabu” and hot spring resources were found during the Meiji period.
 However, such a new local system of controlling hot springs was overtaken by a modern idea of private ownership of real estate. Developments near around “oh-yu” turning land into private estates kept proceeding. Developments of villas and hot spring resource developments inside each lot which threatens the local common management system resulted in depletion of hot spring water at the end of the Taisho period. Furthermore, developments of land and hot springs still kept growing after the beginning of the Meiji period exploding to the fringe of the old city towards a completion of huge infrastructures connecting the local society and the external society such as the Tanna tunnel. The development however sprawled outside of the restricted district around “oh-yu” during the Meiji period by a local society. This was because the district was returned to a local government and served for the public benefit.

View full abstract

 When Sun Yat-sen died on March 12, 1925, there were various memorial activities developed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) throughout the Republic of China. The purpose of this paper is to examine how such memorial activities were carried out in Beijing. This paper focuses particularly on discussion of three aspects of the commemoration: the remodeling of urban spaces, portraits, and the building of monuments.
 First, the remodeling of urban spaces. After Sun Yat-sen's death, throughout China 309 existing urban parks were renamed "Zhongshan Park" and 548 streets were renamed "Zhongshan Road", and in some cases there was remodeling work done. In Beijing, the old Central Park was reopened under the new name of Zhongshan Park, while Zhongshan Road was established by naming the previously unnamed road that ran east-west in front of Tiananmen gate. Both were established just after the KMT occupied Beijing in June 1928. The naming of Zhongshan Road was led by officials of the Beijing Municipal Government appointed by the KMT, and the road also was paved with asphalt in 1929 and 1930.
 The second aspect, portraits of Sun Yat-sen, were placed in various public spaces as mandated by KMT party regulations. In Beijing, a portrait appeared on the wall of Tiananmen in August 1928. According to the text and photographs newspaper articles, the Tiananmen portrait was painted directly using blue and white paint.
 The third aspect, monuments, refers to bronze statues of Sun Yat-sen. In Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities where the KMT planned large-scale urban remodeling, a bronze statue of Sun Yat-sen was conceived as a symbol that would decorate the center of the new urban district. In Beijing, it was planned to place it in front of Tiananmen located at the heart of the city center, namely on Zhongshan Road. In February 1929, the Beijing Municipal Government organized a ground-breaking ceremony of the bronze statue. The detailed design of Sun Yat-sen's statue is unknown, but it is known that the foundation stone was reused from the old one made in 1926.
 As mentioned above, this paper clarified that all the memorial activities for Sun Yat-sen carried out in Beijing were developed intensively in Tiananmen and the area in front of it. The east-west road in front of Tiananmen was renamed to Zhongshan Road and was paved, a portrait was painted on Tiananmen, and furthermore a bronze statue was built in front of it. The causal relationship between these three memorial activities is not certain from the historical material. But we can at least say that, as a result, it was intended for the space in front of Tiananmen to holds a meaning somewhat like a memorial space for Sun Yatsen. In this respect, the quality of the space in front of Tiananmen is similar to Xinjie-kou which is a new city center planned for Nanjing Zhongshan Road and intersection of Sanmin Road, Minzhu Road and Minquan Road where a bronze statue was planned in Hankou.
 However, there never was to be a moment when all three memorial activities came together in the space in front of Tiananmen. Although there was a groundbreaking ceremony, the bronze statue was never built, and the portrait was removed by the mid-1930's. It is highly possible that the name of Zhongshang Road also disappeared by the late-1930's because the road was renamed to Zhongyang Road in the Beijing Map printed in 1938. It can be said that Sun Yat-sen Memorial Space in Beijing ended in incomplete.

View full abstract

 Legal protection of tangible cultural property was established in Europe from the mid-19th century to the beginning of the 20^th century, and in Japan in 1897. Intangible cultural heritage on the other hand, received legal protection in Japan in 1950, making it the earliest establishment of formal legal protection for intangible cultural heritage in the world. Under international law, UNESCO established the Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention in 2003, approximately 50 years after the intangible heritage legislation was established in Japan. The Cultural Properties Protection Law was created under the occupation of GHQ, but it has not been proved why such extensive laws, including intangible cultural property, were developed in Japan under occupation.
 Before WWII, the Imperial Household in Japan played an important role in the protection of intangible cultural properties, for example by granting subsidies to the arts under its patronage, and employing performers of classical arts and rituals. Therefore, in this paper, while focusing on the changes the Imperial Household went through following the end of the war, we analyzed the process of the intangible heritage protection system shifting from the patronage of the Imperial Household before WW II to the legal protection after WW II, following a decision made by the Diet.
 First, we analyzed the discussion in the Diet concerning Gagaku, which was the responsibility of the Imperial Household before WW II, and therefore treated as public affairs. The problem of the future protection of Gagaku, due to the change in the political position of the Emperor of Japan and the dissolution of Kunaifu (Imperial Household Agency), was raised at two times during the Diet discussion. Although the Ministry of Education recognized the importance of the protection of classical arts, such as Gagaku, the proposed method of protection was not legal protection, but rather promotion or documentation.
 Regarding intangible cultural heritage that was not treated as public affairs before WW II, the necessity of the protection Nohgaku was also discussed in the Diet. Since Nohgaku has influenced many classic Japanese arts, it was recognized as a “dynamic national treasure”, as opposed to tangible cultural properties which were recognized as “static national treasures”, for example architectural and art works. At that time, the idea of tangible and intangible cultural properties being equal, was born. Although the Ministry of Education confirmed the importance of Nohgaku, it only insisted on an individual subsidy system and documentation. After this, voices were raised for the protection of folk cultural heritage as well, such as festival events and local arts, which brought a new perspective on heritage protection, widening the view from classical arts to local arts. But in terms of protection, the Ministry of Education only proposed for the creation of local promotion councils.
 The creation of the Cultural Property Protection Law was triggered by the fire of Horyu-ji temple kondo mural paintings. In the creation of this Law, legislators considered the protection of intangible cultural properties as being parallel with the protection of tangible cultural properties. The adopted protection methods included subsidies and the requirement to hold performances open to the public, but the designation system was not introduced until later. Therefore, it is necessary to proved the process leading to the introduction of the designation system of Living National Treasure in 1954 and intangible folk-cultural properties in 1974.

View full abstract

 Kamiura is a traditional and natural village with about fifty households and one of thirty-nine districts consisting of Odaka-ku, Minami-Soma City, Fukushima Prefecture. As the area of Kamiura is located within twenty kilo-meters from the nuclear power station accident, it was influenced not by Tsunami but by the evacuation order. Local residents could not live in their hometown for six years after the East Japan Great Earthquake.
 The paper makes it clear how houses and barns in such a disaster area, were kept, renovated and reused through the interviews of local residents and filed survey. The situations can be classified into four types other than demolition.
 1) A main house is kept and maintained without much repair. When a building was not so damaged by earthquake, its owner could select this choice.
 2) A main house is renovated. On this type, many residents have returned or prepare for return. Because they could not use their own house ordinarily, they required to repair them for residential reuse.
 3) A main house is rebuilt. This type is also selected when its owner wants to return. As many local residents have strong affection to their original house, they tried to make them renovate. But when buildings were too damaged, they had to rebuild. It means that new houses are under the building code and they may require change from the original one.
 4) Only a kind of barn and warehouse is kept in a plot. Those owners often commute from their new residences for agriculture. This activity means that the sufferer can continue one aspect of their original life and that they can contribute to maintain their hometown environment.
 The history of Kamiura showed that the social transformation had already happened and influenced each family before the disaster. They started to change their houses and use of their fabrics. Many returners utilized the disaster as an opportunity to customize their house to their current and future lifestyle.
 The radioactive pollution especially made young generations lost their will of return. As a result, the ordinary family sometimes divided into some households. Moreover, the radioactive pollution required more than six -year evacuation term. With those backgrounds, intension of return and situations of each family affected how they dealt with their own houses in a way among four types.
 Because the public support has been directed to demolish broken houses and has focused on return, the commute activity has been taken place by self-help efforts of afflicted people without official assistance. If we consider the meaning of the commute, our society have to propose the appropriate social system for commuters.

View full abstract