The greatest Challenge throughout the design process has always been the issue of character and can be summarized by the following series of questions. "How much of tradition can we simplify or remove before we lose connection to that tradition, and how much of that tradition is really appropriate". In some ways this is a catch. Too much tradition and it becomes mimicry, too little and the connection to the tradition is lost.

The intention of this thesis was to distill from traditional Chinese and Japanese architecture its most important principles, and to apply them in the design of a School for Martial Arts.

In this respect the design was successful. The primary principles distilled were:

-Axial organization and hierarchy

-Inward focus

-Organization around a courtyard

-Layering of spaces

-Creating a union between exterior and interior spaces

-A garden as a major element

The final design was not a traditional Chinese nor Japanese temple. Nor was it a modernist structure devoid of any allusion to the past. It was a brutalist architecture that strove to be of both worlds.