Prefab Renovation by Koji Asako
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 03.14.08
In Japan, modern prefabs have been around so long that they are into their second life as renovations. Dwell shows an interior retrofit by Koji Asako of Geneto, a Japanese architecture firm, of a 25 year old unit. Audrey Tempelsman writes "Japanese prefab became popular at the end of the 1970s, when the economic boom began to slow. Relatively cheap and easy to construct, prefabs filled the suburbs of Tokyo and Osaka, giving the suburban landscape its aesthetic identity. For Koji, the preservation of this prefab’s exterior in the Shiga province near Kyoto was a nod to its historical and social significance."
I love the stair, of course completely illegal in North America. ::Dwell
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I love the Japanese prefabs, but onto your last point "I love the stair, of course completely illegal in North America" - why is that? Why has our country, the one founded on ingenuity and creativity, become such a coddled nation of babies? Why is it we have rules telling us how we live and what we can live in? If an individual wants to build a staircase like the one above, why can the government tell you "no"? Doesn't that seem backwards? We have really grown from a nation of inspiration to a nation of insurance claims and lawsuits. Sad really.
Well whether or not it's illegal to do so, it's a bad idea. Americans are much heavier than the Japanese, so if you had any heavier friends over, they might just break your stairs. It's pretty clear that these stairs are not intended to carry a significant amount of weight. I think you can do it in America, but only if you made the stairs out of logs, microlams, or beams, not 2x10s.
Well whether or not it's illegal to do so, it's a bad idea. Americans are much heavier than the Japanese, so if you had any heavier friends over, they might just break your stairs. It's pretty clear that these stairs are not intended to carry a significant amount of weight. I think you can do it in America, but only if you made the stairs out of logs, microlams, or beams, not 2x10s.