ABSTRACT
European cities, including Lisbon, experienced dramatic population growth during the sixteenth century, which led to the erection of apartment buildings with upwards of four and five stories. The Japanese actually took just three or four days to erect a house, and this is still true today. A carpenter spends most of his days at home planing, marking, cutting and otherwise preparing parts for assembly. This approach to construction may make sense in a country with earthquakes, typhoons, and monsoon rainfall, which do not respect half-built buildings. Sliding doors save space and do not push in or pull out air, which is why they increasingly are choice for modern buildings. Japanese windows, whether door-size or occasionally small, likewise slide on sills. Europeans lock their trunks with iron locks; Japanese close their baskets with cords, paper seals, or padlocks from China. The potted plants that most Japanese kept outside, and the inner gardens of the wealthy, all would suffer from multi-story dwellings.
