I like to look around google street view about different places on earth. When I look at the houses in okinawa, it sounds like the houses are mainly concrete and are taller than the house in mainland Japan, where most houses are made from wood.
Completely and utterly different. Even the traditional architecture if you look at preserved homes…its more similar but still quite different.
Even where traditional houses are wood and tatami, the need to design for typhoons and the hot season and for okinawan farming…makes designs fundamentally different.
It’s not just because of the typhoons. Reinforced concrete was the main building system post-World War IIÂ worldwide due to its cost-effectiveness, speed of construction and ability to be mass-produced, besides its durability. The americans introduced this technology when they took over the government of the island for almost 30 years immediately after the war, when around 90% of its buildings were destroyed. Many of the early post-war concrete buildings were characterized by simple and functional designs due to the urgency of the situation, but you can also find some pretty expressive and innovative brutalist designs that, to me tell, a lot more about the time period and context they were built in than just addressing plain necessity.
Yes, they’re all made of concrete. I moved here right when a strong typhoon hit in 2023 and we didn’t feel a thing. We were in a hotel on Kadena AFB and we honestly wouldn’t have noticed there were strong winds outside unless we looked out the window.
Cheap Panasonic homes (timber framed, precast panels) exist but are replaced every 15-20 years. Concrete houses are better in so many ways. Typhoons and termites.
Most houses are concrete, but there is an uptick in cheaper wood houses from companies like Panahome, Tamahome, and others. If you build enough of them, close together, they have some resistance to the wind. All of them say they are built to withstand termites and typhoons.
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Yes, most houses are made from concrete due to the number of typhoons that hit here. Concrete is sturdier.
Built to withstand more frequent typhoons.
Google images of Okinawa houses
Life where I’m from on YouTube did a few videos about homes and the architecture of Okinawa.
https://youtu.be/Ukqb9dHbjkg?si=x1qs6er22e46B16Y
Completely and utterly different. Even the traditional architecture if you look at preserved homes…its more similar but still quite different.
Even where traditional houses are wood and tatami, the need to design for typhoons and the hot season and for okinawan farming…makes designs fundamentally different.
It’s not just because of the typhoons. Reinforced concrete was the main building system post-World War IIÂ worldwide due to its cost-effectiveness, speed of construction and ability to be mass-produced, besides its durability. The americans introduced this technology when they took over the government of the island for almost 30 years immediately after the war, when around 90% of its buildings were destroyed. Many of the early post-war concrete buildings were characterized by simple and functional designs due to the urgency of the situation, but you can also find some pretty expressive and innovative brutalist designs that, to me tell, a lot more about the time period and context they were built in than just addressing plain necessity.
Yes, they’re all made of concrete. I moved here right when a strong typhoon hit in 2023 and we didn’t feel a thing. We were in a hotel on Kadena AFB and we honestly wouldn’t have noticed there were strong winds outside unless we looked out the window.
Cheap Panasonic homes (timber framed, precast panels) exist but are replaced every 15-20 years. Concrete houses are better in so many ways. Typhoons and termites.
Most houses are concrete, but there is an uptick in cheaper wood houses from companies like Panahome, Tamahome, and others. If you build enough of them, close together, they have some resistance to the wind. All of them say they are built to withstand termites and typhoons.
I’ll build a reinforced concrete house.