The Spirit of Nobuo Ishibashi The Construction Revolution | The History of our Innovations Our Innovation | Daiwa House Group

REVOLUTION 1

The Construction Revolution

Mr. Ishibashi was strongly spurred on to become an entrepreneur by the war-battered state of Japan and the hardships that its people were enduring. Looking at this, he asked himself: "What does Japan and Japanese society need? What do the people need?"

A steel-frame structure, imitating the strength of nature

In 1950 a super typhoon struck Japan, destroying nearly 20,000 wooden-frame houses and making many thousands of people homeless, and at the same time there were many landslides caused by over-logging of the hillsides in the immediate postwar years. What Japanese society needed was a revolutionary new construction material to replace wood. At just about that time, Mr. Ishibashi noticed that rice plants and bamboo bent but did not break in the face of gale-force winds. "That's it!" he thought. "Why don't we try making houses using steel pipes? Just like these plant stems, they are circular in cross-section, strong but light."

Company founded with just 18 staff; Pipe House invented

In 1955 Nobuo Ishibashi founded Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd. with only 18 employees. Within three months of the start of the company, he and his workforce had developed the Pipe House, a house made from steel pipes processed at their factory and erected at building sites. This first product was the foundation stone of the "industrialization of housing" for which Daiwa House would become known, and created a Japanese construction revolution.

Pipe House helps development of Japan's nationwide railway network

Nobuo Ishibashi decided to market his steel-pipe structures to the Japan National Railways (JNR, now JR). The management of this mammoth organization was initially reluctant to deal with Daiwa House – a tiny company with only 18 employees – but Ishibashi persuaded them that they needed the Pipe House as a "new type of warehouse for a new era in the history of the JNR." His enthusiasm for his company's first product helped force open the doors to acceptance by the JNR, and the Pipe House went on to play a major part in the railway organization's development.

Pipe House sells well, company moves into steel-structure construction

Following Mr. Ishibashi's success in selling the Pipe House to the JNR, the product was also adopted by the predecessor of today's NTT, as well as public sector organizations, and rapidly spread throughout Japan. Then, in response to calls for similar but larger structures, he developed Japan's first steel-pipe-structure construction method. This drew praise for the astonishing speed of erection, leading Mr. Ishibashi to issue his dictum: "Speed is the greatest service of all, and maximizes a company's profits."

Groundbreaking movable classroom helps solve social problem

The postwar Baby Boom caused a nationwide shortage of school classrooms, and Nobuo Ishibashi employed the technology used in the Pipe House to solve this social problem with the groundbreaking development of the "Movable Classroom," which could be easily dismantled and reused elsewhere. These classrooms could be erected in the grounds of elementary schools, and when the students moved on to the local junior high school, they could be dismantled and re-erected there.

Today's Daiwa House Group owes its existence to the construction revolution initiated by our founder Nobuo Ishibashi. Click here to take a look at the Group's current business operations. Business Fields Business

The Construction Revolution Top
A steel-frame structure, imitating the strength of nature
Company founded with just 18 staff; Pipe House invented
Pipe House helps development of Japan's nationwide railway network
Pipe House sells well, company moves into steel-structure construction
Groundbreaking movable classroom helps solve social problem
Business Fields:Business