I tried, in this research, to unfold some of the hidden concepts of Japanese architectural design and urban environment in order to comprehend the causes of these architectural varieties and tendencies. In Chapter 1, I started, as a reference point, by studying foreign reviews, done by Western critics, concerning contemporary Japanese architecture. The source was articles written by these critics in three of the most famous architectural magazines, offering a variety of levels of analysis concerning the subject. Also, they represent a western point of view, being American or European. The actual state of Japanese architecture revealed some variety and multiplicity of concepts emanating from a traditional embedded behavior and a response to the changing urban environment. In Chapter 2, I studied the actual state of Japanese urban environment, with all its fragmentation leading to confusion at first view. In order to do this, I drew some parallel concepts with the traditional Japanese understanding of urban space, which is still relevant today in many of its aspects. The main idea was to discover the hidden order behind the chaotic appearance of contemporary Japanese architecture, which responds to the city structure and environment. In Chapter 3, the study of traditional rites (the shimenawa and the Hakata Gion Yamakasa festival in Fukuoka) revealed some certainties about the Japanese conceptualization of space. This helped us to understand more the hidden order, which is embedded in the social structure and the communities' activities. This behavior shapes the perception of space and human environment in Japan and, therefore, the expression of architecture. The comparative study between the traditional concepts and the actual state clears, to a certain extent, some of the ambiguity surrounding the understanding of contemporary Japanese design. This study might help to extract meaning-generating conditions shaping the built environment of the future in Japan. Much research has been done concerning Japanese architecture, the Japanese City (mainly Tokyo) and also the festivals. Links between architecture and the city seem to be a natural outcome and to consume a considerable number of papers. The association between the city and the festivals is a logical one due to the obvious physical influence, as these festivals are held in the city. As for the comparison and similarity of architecture with the festivals and traditional rites, this doesn't seem so evident. The relation being not physically visible, it is a conceptual and spatial relation. Very little research has been done concerning this subject. The title, Ephemeral Space and Fragmented Urbanity, expresses the ambiguity of the identity of Japanese contemporary architectural design. Ephemeral space, or temporal space, is not seen in its materialistic built meaning. It is a feeling, specific to each architect, generated by various methods of design. It is also a general tendency in responding to the actual state of the city and its inhabitants. Fragmented urbanity reflects the feeling of chaos and disorder generated at first encounter with the Japanese urban environment. Throughout· this research, an attempt to reveal a hidden order behind this chaos was made; and the prevailing feeling for the temporal, or the ephemeral, was conceptualized. Throughout the paper, the quotations are of two kinds: " ... ", which quote an author or a borrowed expression, and ' ... ', which is a stress on certain expressions of my own.
Zgheib Hani Sarni (Fri,) studied this question.