Kunio Funahashi

Transactional Perspective, Design, and “Architectural Planning Research” in Japan

People in Western cultures may have some curiosity about the phrase “architectural planning,” since the concept of “architecture” has not generally been associated with that of “planning.” However, the term “architectural planning” is the literal equivalent ofkenchiku keikaku, which has been a strong research field in Japanese architecture for some time now. Unlike in Western society, the concept of architecture and its studies in Japan have technological characteristics because kenchiku (architecture) belongs to the field of engineering rather than to art and design.1 The “Architectural Planning Research” (APR) organization has mainly been developed in the academic circles of the Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ, established in 1886), and has the same attributes. The term “planning” was preferred to “design” because of the former’s scholarly sound. By the terminology of the Western architectural society, the concept of keikaku (planning) in Japan seems to be rather similar to “programming.”2