Introducing American Neighborhoods Onto the Island of Japan The American construction industry has discovered the fast growing opportunity in Japan to supply housing design and construction materials from the United States. Recent estimates show Japan needs 1.5 million houses a year. A Seattle-based design firm-- Kobayashi & Associates (KAA)-- is quietly guiding community design of several major projects in Japan-- revealing the extent of local Seattle professional involvement in the emerging business of housing design in Japan. In late November 1996, Koichi Kobayashi presented concepts for thirty-six acres of annexation area to the town of Mikawa, located in Ishikawa Prefecture near Osaka, Japan. The plan prepared by KAA included traditional Japanese housing designs, Western style housing and standard plan variation floor plans for home buyers with an eye for progress as well as a respect for tradition. Key concepts include affordable designs, a mixture of designs, transitional areas between Japanese and strictly Western style houses, and community amenities. The Mikawa project organizes the residential community into an unfolding system of streets, walks, pocket parks and distant mountain views radiating from a central community open space with a community center building. The open space features a water garden area, stormwater/amenity ponds and bioswales for water quality improvements, all contemporary Western design ideas we would find in Seattle area residential projects. There are seven different street cross sections, consistent with the latest thinking in neotraditional urban village planning. (Seven street types in a thirty-six-acre residential development would be unusual in Seattle.) The Mikawa project is the latest of several planning and design projects located in Japan prepared by Kobayashi & Associates, a firm founded in 1981. The firm is well known for the design of Seattle area projects such as Bellevue Square Shopping Mall landscape design, and several assignments for King County, Seattle and Boeing. Today, over thirty percent of the KAA firm workload constitutes projects and clients in Japan. Prior to the 1990's, however, most of the KAA workload was located in the Puget Sound; in 1993, a big break came with the Washington Village demonstration housing project. Along with well-known housing architects Mithun Partners, KAA provided community and landscape design services for this project to show Japanese homebuyers that American land planning, building designs, products and systems could be exported from the state of Washington successfully. Together with Huogo Prefecture of Japan, the Department of Trade and Economic Development (now CTED) sponsored a development, now fifty percent complete and occupied, under then Governor Booth Gardner. Washington Village featured open space, cul-de-sac street layout, drives aligned with topography, instead of strict grid layout and American suburban houses. With more and more American firms participating in Japan housing projects, we would judge the Washington Village project a success. The true measure will be the extent to which American housing concepts help the people of Japan achieve housing which meets immediate and long term needs. Affordable housing is a major issue, along with retention of long term value. Most people are concerned with only the shock of how much it costs today, rather than the results of a long-term investment. Design for Japan is a challenge in many regards. Travel is expensive, trips are long, the language and culture could pose a barrier to some who might want work in Japan. Design critics are now concerned about American sprawl patterns transplanted to a tiny island without the vast land supply to afford American-size open spaces between buildings. In many areas of Japan, American experts are consultants, along with Japanese planning and design consultants. Professionals such as bilingual Koichi Kobayashi, ASLA, JILA are meeting the need for guidance on complicated issues like how to export American planning, building materials and architectural services, without the sprawl. Koichi explains, "It has been said that it is not a matter of density of the project, rather how density is made to fit into available lands, sites, existing towns and infrastructure. It is true in Japan as well as Seattle. In the Mikawa housing project, we achieved goals for usable, organized open space as well as density goals which are responsible, respectable." LASN ***LASN publishes exclusive material only. If you are going to reproduce any article, you must cite the publication volume and month, which are provided on the heading of each article. Back issues of magazines and reprints of individual articles with full graphics may be available by calling the LASN Editorial Staff at 714-979-5276 for availability and pricing. All illustrations provided courtesy of Kobayashi & Associates. Editorial Contributors to this Article: Matt Mathes, ASLA, Kobayashi & Associates Some lots and homes in Washington Village will exceed $1 million each in a market that considers affordable housing starting at $400,000-500,000 per lot, without the home cost. Some estimates show American style Western homes can cost as much as thirty percent less than traditional Japanese homes for detached single family residences. The long term land value will result from street trees, street layout, site amenities, views, gatehouse entry features and common area pedestrian improvements, according to Koichi Kobayashi. While market factors dictate initial home cost, design factors controlled by Landscape Architects and planners influence long-term community property values.