Leading research target areas and viewpoints
To answer these questions from the perspectives, the current object of the research is a region that has strongly affected the formation or the design and the planning of artifacts: architecture, dwellings, settlements, and cities. For instance, plains, basins, mountains, peninsulas, and islands are tested.
Leading projects in the past few years since 2014 are a comprehensive study on coastal settlements at the Kii Peninsula in Japan and mountain settlements in the Swiss Alps.
The Kii Peninsula
The Kii Peninsula holds numbers of old coastal settlements related to fishing and shipping. It was chosen as a research theme on account of following reasons:
a) The peninsula is estimated to be damaged by a huge tsunami whose scale of which is comparable to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake in the near future.
b) Although the Japanese academic community has being researched a lot on farmer villages and farmhouses, there are few studies on historic fishing villages and fisherfolk's houses.
The Swiss Alps
There are two motivations to research the Swiss Alps.
The first one arose while researching the relationship between cities and the water's edge. A contrastive landform, that is a mountainside village, became an object of interest. Investigating controversy sites must lead us to better understanding of the history and form of buildings and settlements.
Next motivation was the ambiguity of the Alps. While collaborating with several researchers in Europe, the Alps can be seen not only as a huge barrier but also seen as a space for trading and transportation.
In addition to the above-mentioned concepts and questions or perspectives of the research, interrelationships between topographical, cultural, and political boundaries of mountains and form of buildings are expected to be discussed.