How many design offices are there in Hyogo Prefecture that specialize in residential design?

2020.01.15

Matsuo Design Office was founded in 1986 by my father, who was the previous president. At that time, we did not focus on residential buildings, but like many other design offices in Hyogo Prefecture, we focused on designing general buildings. From there, we began to take on design work for a certain major housing manufacturer, and our residential design work increased. I (Kazuya Matsuo) returned in 2003 and became the representative director in 2006. In 2003, although it was still rare at the time, the design office launched a website. Two months after the website was launched, the house (in Hyogo Prefecture) of the first client who contacted us won the Sustainable Housing Award at the Sustainable Tokyo World Championship. I attended the award ceremony, and I was the only participant from the western area, such as Hyogo Prefecture.

This was the trigger for us to start receiving more and more requests to design high-insulation houses. At that time, the department that did my father's work and I worked in a completely separate department within the company. However, orders from housing manufacturers in Hyogo Prefecture were gradually declining. Also, my father was getting older, so by around 2010, the design office had become the current system that only designs high-insulation houses and facilities.

　Usually, I think that the most common way for design offices to design houses is for one person to be the representative. This is the case for most newly independent offices. Although they are full of talent and enthusiasm, they can often do the work relatively cheaply, but because they are the only person, they cannot secure the time to learn new techniques. Another disadvantage of a private design office is that they are always facing a big risk of being in trouble in emergencies such as illness or injury. Next are design offices with two or three people. There are several design offices with up to three or four people in Hyogo Prefecture. However, there are only a few in Hyogo Prefecture with five or more people. I think that most of those few companies are companies that handle general buildings. Hyogo Prefecture is a relatively populous place among the 2 prefectures. Moreover, it has super-high-end residential areas that represent Japan, such as Ashiya, Nishinomiya, and Higashinada Ward in Kobe City. As a result, it can be said that Hyogo Prefecture has a very large number of design offices (architects) compared to other prefectures.

　Earlier, we categorized design offices by the number of employees, but next we will categorize them by the type of work they do. The most design office-like are those that design general buildings other than houses. There are many ordinary buildings, stores, schools, and so on in the world, so it's easy to understand if you think of them as designing those things. Next, there are atelier-style design offices, or so-called "architects". The ratio of these design offices is not very high, even in areas with an overabundance of design offices, such as Hyogo Prefecture. It's easy to understand if you think of it as only about the same ratio of buildings in the world that make you think, "Wow! This building is amazing!"

　The most common type is a design office that mainly works as a subcontractor for construction companies and housing manufacturers, or outsources confirmation and application work. These companies work very quickly and accurately, but they often do almost nothing to come up with attractive drawings or manage the site.

　The majority of housing providers are home builders, construction companies, and businesses known as power builders. At first glance, they do not look like design offices. However, if they are making a living designing homes, they are registered as design offices with Hyogo Prefecture, or with the national government if they work nationwide. Most of the work of designers working in these companies is done by simply writing floor plans, elevations, and finish charts. Instead, they create a huge number of plans every day. They are used to dealing with customers. There is also a large difference in individual planning ability. Who you get makes a huge difference. Also, depending on the company, there are companies where employees who are properly qualified as architects design and companies where they are not. Even if they have an architect's license, they can only acquire a small part of the skills that a designer should have. This is because of the thorough division of labor and factory production.

In a normal design office, you are free to use any materials, and one person or a team of people with their superiors is responsible for everything from the first consultation to the handover of the completed building. However, in most of these companies, the salesmen are in charge of the consultation, the plans are also handled by salesmen, the interior is handled by a coordinator who only inputs the blueprints, and the site is supervised by a full-time site supervisor. This is similar to a restaurant that cooks a little bit of the ingredients in the package sent from the head office. I know this well because I did that until my early 20s. At the time, I felt that "I will never be able to acquire the technical skills of a proper designer if I continue like this," so I changed jobs to the most dynamic design office in Hyogo Prefecture at the time.

　Also, although not residential, construction companies that build general buildings are generally called general contractors. Many of these general contractors also have several designers, so the majority of general contractors are also registered as design offices.

　Although it is not well known to the general public, there are three other types of design offices. They are structural design offices, electrical design offices, and equipment design offices. When designing a general building, it is usually a design office like ours that meets with the client and comes up with a plan. The three specialized design offices mentioned above are outsourced from there and participate. Generally, these specialized design offices are very small in scale. On the other hand, some large design offices have all of these experts in-house. In the past, there were several such large design offices in Hyogo Prefecture, but it seems that they have almost disappeared. The reality is that these types of design offices are now limited to companies with nationwide operations.

　There are many design offices like this, but ours currently has eight full-time employees and two part-time employees. We are the only other design office in Hyogo Prefecture that focuses on residential design.

　It's easier to understand if you think of it like a restaurant, but there are very few restaurants that have "udon, ramen, yakiniku" on the menu that are delicious. Our company has designed over 20 buildings, mainly high-insulation wooden houses and wooden facilities, for nearly 200 years. There may be design offices that have more buildings than us, but if you look at the number of high-insulation houses, I think we are the design office with the most in Hyogo Prefecture. I believe we are one of the top 10 design offices in the country.

　Additionally, most of our employees have been with the company for more than five years. Because the work of an architectural firm is difficult, we need employees to stay there for a long time to become fully capable. To achieve this, we have made an effort to take Sundays and holidays off, which is rare for an architectural firm, and to be home by 5 p.m. This is because we believe it is difficult for people who do not have a sense of fulfilling family life to create comfortable housing.