The article of the newspaper
Herald Tribune The Asahi Shinbun(2008/2/2)
5 KEYWORDS TO UNDERSTAND THE MILLENNIUIMCITY
1. PARADIGMSHIFT(BEING SOFT THINKING)
2. SELFBUILD
3. ENVIRONMENTAL RESUSCITATION and ENVIRONMENTAL SYMBIOSIS
4. CONNECTHOUSING
5. NETWORKCITY
The Basic Concept of 'Kurimoto Glass Village in Millennium City' (1st Phase, Tentative)
Five commitments to realize all at once - Drafted by Hiroshi Iguchi
1. About the concept of a 'Shared Second House'
You can benefit greatly if, for example, you own 3 houses with 3 people who
enjoy such places as the seaside, mountains and cities rather than to own a
house with just one person. The cost will be the same as owning only one
house yourself. In fact, if you share 5 houses with 10 people, the cost will
be about half compared to the above case. Furthermore, if you rent a lot,
the cost comes down even more to just half of the above - the cost per Tsubo
(3.3 m2) will be approximately half as much. The cost per person would
therefore be 0.5 x 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.125. Surprisingly the figure indicates that
cost per person in this case would be only 10% compared to the cost of a
house and lot owned by one person.
2. Creating a common facility you wish to share with others and keep
partial ownership for yourself as well.
For instance, you can create a school to educate children in farming and
making a cottage. And it function as a lifelong study canter for adults, or
as a cultural center, and so on.
Create a big, shared public bath, a farm complete with an instructor, a big
space for your hobby, a hiding-space from everyday life. You can also use a
self-built hut located in the glass house, with a camping van and log cabin
as your own hiding space, as you can own these places privately (see 4.
below).
3. The concept as a place of protection from the dangers of Tokyo
The statistics show that the food self-sufficiency in Japan is down to 30-40
% whereas the population density of the Metropolitan area is too high. (33
million people are concentrated in Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba area).
The growing shortage of food and water in the next 20 years will become more
serious. The place of protection will attract attention because it offers
protection against disaster and will provide a place for survival in the
face of current issues such as agricultural chemicals, environmental
hormones, dioxins and BSE.
4. The combination of the glass house for farming and tall deciduous trees
(An economical space for comfort)
The glass house for farming can now be built at a cost of less than
200,000yen per Tsubo (3.3m2), including automatic sensor-controlled windows
and a shade curtain system, and a heating system, etc. Furthermore, in the
combination of the tall deciduous trees, it will provide further more
comfortable space. The leaves on the trees work as natural
temperature-control system and 'house forestry' saves energy.
At the same cost of an ordinary house, which has an average market price of
600,000yen per Tsubo (3.3m2), it will be 2 or 3 times bigger, so you can
secure an enormous and comfortable space. You can also secure the your
favourite private spaces in the glass house, such as a self-built hut,
camping van and log cabin and so on. These huts can be moved by simply
putting on a hand truck, so you can use the space as a big event hall when
you wish.
5. Creating jobs/employment opportunities
Not only farming but other related job opportunities can be created, such as
in a school, in a teaching space, second-house management and so on. If job
opportunities can be offered, people will want to live permanently as well
as using the glass house as a second house and opportunity for farming. Also
the idea of work-sharing, with a slow and relaxing schedule would then be
possible. Kurimoto Glass Village (1)Nagako Takahashi
Contact us!
Office
The Millenniumcity 1-11-12Kamisyakuzii, Nerima-ku Tokyo, 177-0044 JAPAN
phone: (03)3929-4663 fax:(03)3929-7188
e-mail: info@npo-mc.com URL: http://www.npo-mc.com
NPO The Millenniumcity