Faced with the postwar housing shortage,Gropius pioneered the idea of prefabricated houses using factory-made parts. Contemporary Japanese avand-garde archtects,who ware very responsive to Europian movements, immediately tried to build some such houses in Japan.

It was not until after the Second World War that mass production of housing started in earnest. War damage and the wartime lack of resources had created a housing shortfall of around four million homes. A variety of problems affected building sites,including increase in carpenters' and othe building workers' wages,a shortage of timber,and noise disturbance.

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