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in a hospital the environment will have the characteristics of a room in a hospital ward, and it must satisfy the requirements for three qualities: that of a temporary living environment, that of an interchange environment in which the patient interacts with family and visitors, and that of a medical treatment environment. Formerly, for rooms with multiple beds in particular, the emphasis was on having the quality of a temporary residence. In the future, however, the important thing will be the degree to which a balance can be achieved among these three qualities with respect to the nature of the treatment, the duration of stay and other factors. For this reason, in a health care and social welfare facility the quality of the individual environments will be more important than the quality of the common areas. It is the same in the case of Shisei Daichi Children’s Home, for example. The facility revolves around the environment in which the children go to bed and wake up. I think the quality of the sleeping environment is important in the case of a home as well. In this respect, I think in many cases the instantaneous value of current apartments for sale is still based on the quality of the living room and dining room rather than the quality of the bedrooms. Specifically, I don't think we'll be able to create comfortable bedrooms until we reduce the ratio of the living area to the number of rooms from nLDK to (n-1)LDK or (n-2)LDK. In contrast, at the guest house in City Tower Shinagawa that I saw today, there was a large bedroom on the window side, like in a hotel. I think this type of configuration, with a large bedroom and the minimum necessary size for household facilities, is perfectly acceptable for a residence. On the other hand, some aspects should be considered together. One example is the position and specifications of the bed and water fixtures. Leaving aside the problem of manpower that makes in-home care difficult in this country, another factor is the divergence between the standards of facilities that conduct treatment and the specifications of environments constructed using residential standards. Even only in terms of the bathroom, in almost all cases the bathroom is a bath unit that only permits bathing assistance to be provided from one direction. Although it has become less common to place the toilet right next to the entrance to the residence, there are still many cases in which it is very far from the bedroom. Seen from this perspective, despite the fact that the sleeping environment is standard across many different building types, I've realized that there has been no comprehensive discussion of nature and quality of the sleeping environment, and I'm currently making preparations for the holding of a seminar with specialists in ergonomics and so on, for the purposes of expanding the architectural possibilities around the sleeping environment. Another major issue is the cultural durability of the building. I touched on this a moment ago. There are three types of durability: physical durability, functional durability, and cultural durability. You could also combine functional durability and cultural durability and call it social durability. From this perspective, only physical durability is considered to have monetary value in the case of a condominium, for which the highest priority is given to the instantaneous value at the time of sale.Cultural Durability of ArchitectureInterviewer: In Europe, facilities like the Hospital de la Sant Pau*2 in Spain are rated highly as works of architecture, and there is a movement to preserve them as world heritage sites. Sasaki: That's true. In general, the major issues in planning hospital architecture as well are physical durability and the functional durability that will enable the facility to accommodate future changes in facility standards and use. Currently there's almost no discussion in Japan regarding the cultural durability of not only hospitals but also other public facilities, as there is in Europe. Only rarely do you see cases such as St. Luke's Hospital in which the old building is used. In Japan, both residences and hospitals are examples of areas in which scoring and quantification have been promoted to the utmost degree. Health care is also basically an area in which everything revolves around the treatment score, and the results are reflected in the systems and facility construction. If this kind of total emphasis on scoring is pushed too far, everything that doesn't meet the score will be excluded. In terms of residences, pretty much the same thing could be said of the "Eco Point" system here in Japan. Whether you're talking about stand-alone equipment or things that are integrated with the building, there's a real possibility that the size of the score will end up being linked directly to the value of the building. On the other hand, I think there's another school of thought that says that we should see if it's be possible to replace the scoring method with cultural attributes. Even buildings that in qualitative terms have an outstanding atmosphere or historical significance are not treated that well in Japan. So it's important for designers to promote this idea by citing specific numerical evidence. If this isn't done, I think it will be difficult to firmly instill the concept of cultural durability in this country.Interviewer: What aspects do you think are important about this idea of cultural durability when considering the sustainable value of a building?Sasaki: For the past few years, I've been involved in renovation projects and seminars, and recently I've been using the term "rehabilitation of value." In Japan's period of high-level economic growth, many buildings of a certain level of quality were constructed all at once, and these combined with one another to form a city. Even now, when growth has stopped, they continue on as a routine. I think there's a problem with building homogenous things of homogenous quality and then, when you've built all you can build and wonder what to do from that point on, attempting to substitute these things with other homogenous things. There are three main considerations with regard to rehabilitating buildings. The first is that there are various methods of treatment. The second is that the time involved may be different, and that's OK. And the third and most important thing is that the point at which the objectives of treatment are achieved may be different, and that's OK as well. In other words, it may not be necessary for the building to recover completely; it's enough to fix the building to the degree that matches the person's standard of living. In the past few years, I've been working with the City of Yokohama on an "Arts Properties" project. In this project, buildings that were constructed several decades ago and are no longer usable and have been left idle will be renovated and leased as centers for creative activities by artists and other creative types. We've already achieved several successes. For example, a 50-year-old dilapidated wooden home that had been idle for twenty years was renovated by students, and two unused floors in an 80-year-old building were renovated by the occupants themselves, who went on to rent them. I figured that even if these places were still works-in-progress, if we got them to a certain level, the occupants would work on the place themselves as they use it. The state of the building at that point, just before it is handed over to the occupants, constitutes the renovated state. There's no need to fix it any more than that; from that point on, it will heal itself naturally. I think that's the natural way that both buildings and cities are sustained little by little.Interviewer: Lastly, is there anything you hope for from Takenaka Corporation?Sasaki: My father once worked under the architect Isoya Yoshida. Yoshida once said that technology narrows things and design broadens things. And it's true that, when you look at his residential works in particular, even though the design is nuanced, the skeleton itself is by no means delicate, and that determines the quality of the overall space. I think that this is the type of approach that will lead to cultural durability. Takenaka Corporation systematizes state-of-the-art technologies, but at the same time it also carries on traditional construction methods. I'd like for the cultural durability of companies like Takenaka Corporation themselves to be employed to shape Japan.Interviewer: Thank you very much.(Interviewers:Noboru Sakou, Satoko Miyamoto, Shinichi Kaku, Nobuhito Manabe, and Nozomi Tamura)*1 Collective housing: A residence style for apartment buildings that originated in Northern Europe. Ensures the privacy of individual residences while providing common spaces in the form of extensions to create a type of residence in which some of the living spaces are shared.*2 Hospital de la Sant Pau: Constructed from 1901 through 1930 and still in use as a hospital. Designed by the architect Lluis Domenach i Montaner and his son. The facility is a complex made up of 48 Mudejar-style pavilions. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997.Tatsuro Sasaki / Architect1964Born in Tokyo1987Graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan University, College of Engineering, Architecture Department1989Received Master's Degree from Tokyo Metropolitan University1992Completed coursework for doctoral program of Tokyo Metropolitan University1992Joined Design Studio Architectural Design Office1994Joined Sasaki Design Office (currently president)CurrentlyPart-time instructor at Kanagawa University, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Tokai University, Tokyo Denki University and Yokohama College of Commerce; Landscape advisor for Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo; Director, e-hama ClubPublications / Co-author“Community Redevelopment through Conversion and SOHO” (Gakugei Shuppansha)“101 Proposal Cards for Community Design” (Kohga Communication Products Inc.)Design worksNH-HOUSESmart Minami-AoyamaSanboenMy Way YotsuyaOne Room in IchikawaInterview