This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Japan's population peaked around 2008 and has been steadily declining since. But construction hasn't stopped.
Ongoing construction alongside steady population decline has left Japan with more than 9 million vacant homes and an urgent need to change tactics. Governments have historically associated economic growth with progress, and new construction is treated as a sign of a healthy economy. More people mean more activity, more jobs, more money and more homes to be built.
But is this growth sustainable or even desirable? This question was raised most famously in The Limits to Growth, a 1972 report that became a bestseller and helped bring the idea of planetary limits into the mainstream. Its thesis is simple—and still relevant today.
Growth must end in a controlled way, since population, industry and resource use can't expand indefinitely on a finite planet. The effects are most visible across parts of East Asia. Demographic decline is becoming visible in rising housing vacancy, abandoned farmland and shrinking urban and rural communities.
Now, a growing number of architects throughout the region are shifting focus. They are moving away from new construction and toward using existing buildings and materials, sharing labor to cut costs and improvising with what's already on hand. Kyoto architect Kanji Wada is among many now focused on renovating vacant houses rather than building new ones.
His own home and office rework a 90-year-old house, reconstructed incrementally over three years by more than 100 people. Wada embraces a wide range of sustainable methods. He even dug a hole in the living room for extra volume, then fermented the excavated soil on-site to build new walls.
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