First for a Japanese Company: Sekisui House Happiness Research
First for a Japanese Company:
Sekisui House Happiness Research
Happiness in a Post-COVID-19 World
Yumiko Kawasaki
Joined in 1987. Ms. Kawasaki spent 12 years living overseas until she entered high school. She has also raised children herself, and so she is applying her varied life experiences to her work at the Comprehensive Housing R&D Institute (Kyoto), where she is involved in research and development covering all areas closely connected with daily life, including design for kids, living with pets, storage, and dining spaces. Ms. Kawasaki was appointed to her current position in April 2018. She is a qualified First-class Architect.
The Sekisui House Human Life R&D Institute opened in August 2018 as the first institution of its kind run by a Japanese company, and one that is dedicated to researching happiness. The research there is focused on the importance of building homes with a sense of time, in the era of the 100-year lifespan. Through R&D, the Institute scientifically and theoretically clarifies the know-how of “houses where the more you live there, the happier you will be,” and makes specific proposals on how to build such homes. 2020 was a year of immense change in the way people live and their values. Sekisui House is sharing what we consider to be happiness in the coming era, and the new initiatives we will take to realize it.
Issues That “Stay-at-home” Lifestyles Revealed
The Human Life R&D Institute conducted a “Stay-at-home Lifestyle Survey” in May 2020, to investigate how the spread of COVID-19 infections is changing the way people live. Over 60% of respondents overall said they felt more stressed by having to spend more time at home. Viewed by gender, the response rate of women who felt more stressed was 20 points higher than that of men; this suggested an increase in housework tends to affect the stress level of women. There were also quite a few respondents who felt dissatisfied by the lack of exercise and less free time for themselves, which was because of staying at home more than usual. There were also positive responses, such as 86.4% of people wanting to continue working from home, and that staying at home has given them more flexibility in terms of time, as well as improving communication with their family.
Stress felt by spending more time at home
Evolving Our Popular Happy Homes Concept
Family Suite Home Premium is an open-style living space, which can span over two floors with no pillars or beams
Family Suite is a new design proposal for an open-style living space without partitions, which combines Sekisui House’s advanced technologies with our research results on “houses where the more you live there, the happier you will be” at the Human Life R&D Institute. Since its launch in October 2018, many customers have chosen the Family Suite living space layout in their homes. I believe many customers resonate with our easy-to-understand concept of “family happiness that comes from connectedness and togetherness with enough personal space,” and the clear evidence from our happiness research. In August 2020, we launched the new model concept, Family Suite Home Premium. This new model incorporates our lifestyle proposals to address the post-COVID-19 issues that have surfaced, and includes the option to extend over two floors an open-style living space spanning up to 10 meters.
Society Needs Happiness Research
Part of the living space can be used for working from home
Family Suite Home Premium is an open-style living space that can flexibly adapt to families as they evolve, and let them easily and better enjoy outside activities while indoors. The spacious living area layout can be arranged to suit a range of activities, from working and exercising at home to setting up your own at-home bar. Family Suite Home Premium is a new lifestyle design proposal for the happy homes needed in the post-COVID-19 era. It combines our research so far with the 5 Tips for a Happy Stay-at-home Family, which we have compiled based on the results from the Stay-at-home Lifestyle Survey.
Building On Our Happiness Research
Work space set up in the rental housing, Sha Maison
It has been two years since the launch of the Human Life R&D Institute, and there are now more areas where happiness research is needed. Although our research is mainly focused on the custom detached houses business, we are working with the rental housing and remodeling businesses to bring Sekisui House happy homes proposals to many more customers. Since announcing the Sekisui House Global Vision of “making home the happiest place in the world,” our direction forward has become much clearer. Moreover, having an institution dedicated to happiness research is certainly something all employees can be proud of, and I think also helpful in their personal pursuit of happiness. I feel that happiness is likely to become an increasingly important keyword in building homes from hereon. I will keep working on enhancing the research and analysis skills of each researcher, and conducting joint studies with universities and other organizations. Sekisui House will continue to make proposals for happy homes in the era of the 100-year lifespan.
Chief Manager, Human Life R&D Institute