FOB Homes: Brand Recognition

Abstract

A significant portion of contemporary residential construction in Japan consists of mass-produced, prefabricated houses. This is the world of “housemakers”: enormous marketing/design/construction companies such as Misawa Homes, Sekisui House, or Panahome, which are themselves often divisions of even larger corporations. The housemaker houses are based on a set of modular plan typologies, wherein every detail, fitting, and finish may be selected from huge catalogs. Their marketing brochures invariably show Western-style houses isolated among lush gardens. In reality, they are likely to be framed by narrow yards, with windows facing directly into their neighbors’ walls. Replacing Japan’s traditional extended-family dwellings, they were first marketed after the Second World War as the modern home for the nuclear family. With an intended life span of only three decades, this is house as consumer item—conventional, convenient, and disposable.