William Powrie Gina Hara
I'm sure you have all heard of "Reduce Reuse Recycle",
●in Japan where people are much more likely to demand new and flawless. You can imagine that this is even more true when it comes to making a major investment such as a house.
Sekisui has developed a process that addresses these market barriers to sustainability, and at the same time, has potential to drastically reduce the material inputs and waste from housing industry.
●They have done this by developing a factory based unit production system that increases the reliability and quality of re-usable units, thus making re-used and re-cycled material homes more attractive to consumers.
● The Sekisui Heim system uses pre-fabricated units to assemble and disassemble a house on location, these are then transported to and from a factory where they undergo intensive refurbishment and inspection to ensure that the units are as high in quality as new units. Parts that can not be reused, such as plumbing, front door, and kitchen are replaced with new units in the factory. After undergoing another intensive inspection the unit is returned to the original owner for a home renewal, or sold to a new customer.
●Whats interesting?
is not so much focused on offering new "eco-materials" as it is offering a new "ecological business model" that focuses on reducing the overall amount of materials, and reusing the existing materials.
people's life-stage changes, so do their housing needs, and with this system, so does their home. For ex When they have children, they can add a unit to their existing home. Later when the kids are gone, and they don't need as much space, that unit is returned to Sekisui for refurbishment and sale to some other family. When the couple ages, and climbing a stairs becomes a problem, the top floor can be placed on the ground level, or sold back to Sekisui, and the money used to refurbish their existing ground floor to meet their changing needs.
