In Tachie of 7-chome of Higashishiriike-cho, Mano, where a joint housing project is underway, fire was prevented from spreading owing to frantic fire fighting by a local fire-fighting team and residents, but still 43 houses and buildings in approximately 1,600m2 were burnt down. There were typical prewar row houses, which were common in Mano, in the burnt area. The area of each building site was as small as approximately 10 tsubo (corresponding to approximately 33m2), and roads in this area were "alleys" having a width of approximately 2 m. Therefore, when individual houses are to be independently rebuilt, each building area can be only approximately 6 tsubo in most of the sites excluding a few in good conditions. Thus, it is difficult to design a usable residential building. In addition, most of the residents are elderly, and the relationship in property rights is complicated. In this joint housing project, 3 landowners (managers of rental housing) and 5 owner occupants are united to put a building site of approximately 730m2together, and they built joint housing including 12 rental units and 6 owned units, 18 units in total (two of which are combined with the space for shop) to be individually owned. Since most of the people with rights to the land or units were not well funded for the rebuilding, it was necessary to adopt a combination of several public support systems. The joint housing project was planned as a project of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation, and a "Minei Chintaiyo Tokutei Bunjo Jutaku Seido",which is a system of the Corporation, was adopted for the 12 rental units and one owned unit, and a "Group Bunjo Jutaku Seido" was adopted for the other owned units. In the units adopting the "Minei Chintaiyo Tokutei Bunjo Jutaku Seido", a "Tokutei Mokuteki Kariage Kokyo Chintai Jutaku Seido", which is a system developed by Kobe city for the earthquake disaster rehabilitation, was applied, and 3 units are leased and managed by Kobe Housing Supply Public Corporation for 20 years. In this manner, the income of the rental housing manager can be stabilized, and rental housing can be supplied at a low rent owing to the rent support by the country and the city. At present, 7 previous tenants have decided to return to the rental units in the rebuilt housing. Also, this project is supported on the basis of the "densely built-up area improvement promotion project" program of Kobe City. As a result, 5 previous owner occupants and 7 previous tenants can remain in the district where they have been living, and the landowners can rebuild their rental housing, as in the days before the earthquake.
Block plan
Image of completed joint housing
In this joint housing project, the participants thought the rebuilding of merely buildings and houses were insufficient. Therefore, they set a goal of allowing the original residents, including tenants, to live there again, and to help all the residents recover as much of their pre-earthquake life as possible. After the Housing and Urban Development Corporation took up the project with a positive attitude, there finally appeared a possibility of realization of this project. Since a "private rental system" for constructing a rental apartment house and the "Group Bunjo Seido" for supporting the joint owned housing were adopted together in this project, one building to be rebuilt includes both rental units and owned units. In addition, Kobe Housing Supply Corporation manages the rental units as an apartment house of the "Tokumokuchin". In general, two different public organizations do not participate in one project and one building does not include both rental units and owned units. In this earthquake disaster rehabilitation, however, the Housing and Urban Development Corporation and the Housing Supply Corporation judged that it was impossible to maintain these practices, and this judgement led to the promotion of this project. It is generally regarded that the "joint housing" can be realized only when it is possible to obtain the additional value that extra floor area can produce, in order to decrease the share of the construction expenses for the original participants. In this project, however, it was almost impossible to produce extra floor area. In addition, most of the owners and tenants were old and poorly funded because they had lost much in the earthquake. Still, most of the rightful persons thought the "joint housing" was almost only possible choice in order to keep on living in this district. In Mano, the residents had participated in machizukuri, and this had formed the basis for understanding and organizing joint housing. Therefore, they were more open to the idea of "joint housing", which was one of the factors in promoting the project. In addition, the neighbors regarded this project as "machizukuri" to allow them to keep on living there together, and the project was greatly supported by these people. Also, they could share a desire for rebuilding where "those who want to live here can keep on living here". Particularly meaningful, the landowners were aware that the project was not very profitable, although they do not lose their money, but still they decided to continue the management of rental housing so that the previous tenants could come back. The room arrangement and the size of the respective units were adjusted in accordance with affordability for the expense and the number of family members. The residents could easily reach a consensus that a household, which preferred to live on the first story due to the physical disability, was to be located on the first story. The planning process was rooted in neighborhood good will and aimed to reflect the previous community atmosphere of the district. This was possible by combining the various supporting systems.
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