This talk examines the “equipmentification” (setsubika) of the Japanese home starting in the 1950s, a concept first articulated in Japan by architect Ikebe Kiyoshi in 1963. During this same period, manufacturers separately began to develop standardized, prefabricated “unit baths” (yunitto basu) and “system kitchens” (shisutemu kitchin) for mass housing estates, and eventually, single-family homes. The technological and aesthetic characteristics that came to define prefabricated unit baths and system kitchens during this period drew as much from prewar water technologies as modernist architectural theory, but the trajectory of their design would ultimately be shaped as much by quotidian concerns as by theoretical ones: the dangers of gas technology, the touch-feel of plastic bathtubs, the ideal placement of a stainless-steel sink, and, even, the ability of water to cement family bonds in a rapidly changing world. 

THIS EVENT TOOK PLACE IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2023-24

 Reischauer Institute Japan Forum Lecture Series