Rationalization and Manufacturing

We believe that the restoration work has been completed to be as close to the original as possible, by using the blueprints drawn up primarily by Condor and Sone Tatsuzo, construction documents from the time, measurements and photographs taken at the time of demolition, and remaining architectural materials. We look forward to hearing in "The Other World" what opinion Condor and Sone Tatsuzo, the founders of our firm, will give of the work.

In this construction, most of the work, including brickwork, stonework, wooden trusswork, metalwork, wood carving, plastering, and natural slate roofing, relied on the manual skills of the craftsmen involved in the construction. In recent years, construction work has become increasingly mechanized, with materials manufactured in quality-controlled factories and assembled on-site using heavy machinery. It may seem extreme, but the building is completed without any of the materials being touched by human hands. Comparing the total number of people involved in the construction of the Marunouchi Park Building and Mitsubishi Ichigokan, which were completed at the same time on the same site in a 27-month construction period, the former involved approximately 960,000 people and the latter approximately 50,000 people. The former has a total floor area of 205,000 ^m2 and the latter 6,000 ^m2, so the total number of people per square meter of floor area is 4.7 for the former, which was built using cutting-edge technology, and 8.3 for the latter. These figures also show the extent to which manual work on site has been reduced due to streamlining through mechanization. The Kojien dictionary defines rationalization as "the adoption of new technology and the restructuring of business structures in order to maximize labor productivity. In reality, it is a means of obtaining excess profits." It is true that aggressive rationalization has increased productivity and economy at construction sites, but as a result, architectural details have been simplified and simple designs that can be found anywhere, such as all-glass buildings, have become widespread. In this trend, opportunities for advanced craftsmanship have decreased and the tradition of skills is on the verge of being discontinued, but no attention has been paid to this fact. We are accustomed to playing in computer-generated virtual reality spaces and living in a daily life surrounded by artificial building materials such as stone and natural wood, so we tend to forget the importance of the invisible parts such as the process of construction and the contents of the structure and materials.

The restored Mitsubishi Ichigokan is a British Victorian Queen Anne style building with deep carvings and expressive details. Each brick, stone, and natural slate was constructed by hand by craftsmen, and the enthusiasm and warmth of the craftsmen can be felt in every corner of the building. The 15m eaves height is almost the same height as the ginkgo trees along Babasaki-dori, and the human-scale space adds vitality to the town. Seeing Mitsubishi Ichigokan appearing among the office buildings, I was reminded of the importance of utilizing the culture of handcrafting that gives a sense of human warmth, not just functionality and economy, in today's rationalized urban development in the city center.