This study attempted to describe detailed observations of the actual process of ar-
chitectural design, which have been performed by a professional architect in Japan.
The observations were made on the basis of two surveys: a document survey and an
interview survey. The following results were obtained.
First, a proposal was composed of multiple modifications that emerged simultane-
ously under the different constraints. Second, the emergence of one modification could
lead to another, which was called the ‘linkage between modifications’. Third, the link-
age was observed not only at the level of the modifications, such as ‘making the ceiling
form like steps’ to the next modification ‘changing the ceiling height’, but also at the
level of proposals which were made at intervals of few days. The linkage at the proposal
level, which was called the ‘coupling of the modifications’, tended to include qualitative developments.
These results show that understanding the activities involved in architectural design
can be one method to pick-up and realise the potentialities of developing architectures
that are intrinsic to the building site and not merely a reflection of the architects ’
aesthetics,self-centredness or calculating activities. This issue might be worth dis-
cussing in connection with the concept of ‘dwelling perspective’, which was presented
in anthropology with an ecological perspective by Tim Ingold (2001).
