For architects, visiting well-known buildings is never about sightseeing or checklist tourism.
It is a form of lifelong professional training.

What we “see” in a building is only the surface.
What truly matters is what we understand, dissect, and internalize.

1. Clarify Your Motivation

Before going, ask yourself three simple but essential questions:

• Why do I want to see this building?
• How does it relate to my current projects or design thinking?
• What am I hoping to verify or learn?

Your motivation may relate to:

• A similar building type (residential / public / educational / commercial)
• Comparable site conditions (high density / hillside / historic context)
• A specific design issue (daylighting, structural logic, material strategy, or design under policy constraints)

2. Do the Minimum Necessary Research

You don’t need to memorize every drawing or article, but you should understand at least:

• The building’s background and era
• The design team’s core ideas
• The city’s planning and regulatory context

With this foundation, every design choice you observe on site becomes a decision with reasons, rather than a visual impression without meaning.

1. From City to Building — Not Directly to the Façade

• How is the building found?
• Is the approach clear, or deliberately ambiguous?
• Is the relationship with the street, the neighborhood, and nature tense or restrained?

Truly successful architecture often begins its work before you arrive at the building itself.

2. Experience Space Through the Body

• Don’t rush to take photographs. Walk slowly first.
• Does the spatial scale create a rhythm with your pace?
• Are moments of turning, compression, and release intentional?
• Does light guide you, or does it keep its distance?

Architecture is not an enlarged drawing. It is a response to the body.

3. Observe What Is “Not Meant to Be Seen”

• What is most worth learning is often not the carefully framed view.
• Are service and back-of-house spaces well considered?
• Are mechanical systems and structure treated honestly?
• Have material edges, junctions, and aging been anticipated?

Details reveal the depth of professional judgment.

1. Photographs Are Only a Supplement

When taking photos, ask yourself:

• Is this image recording form, or recording logic?
• When I look at it later, will I be able to recall the spatial experience?

2. Handwritten Notes Matter More Than You Think

Even a few lines are enough:

• Why did a particular space make me stop?
• Why did a certain detail make me feel uncomfortable?
• If this decision were mine, what would I have done differently?

These notes become some of the most valuable material for your future design work.

1. Actively Reflect on the Experience

The review does not need to be complex. Ask yourself:

• What is the most successful aspect of this building?
• Where was the greatest compromise made?
• Which approaches can be translated, rather than copied?

2. Don’t Ask “Can I Use This?” — Ask “What Did I Learn?”

Truly mature architects do not replicate form. They absorb:

• The sequence of decision-making
• The logic of trade-offs
• The attitude toward constraints

Visiting architecture is not about establishing aesthetic superiority. It is about developing judgment.

Over time, you begin to notice:

• Some buildings look beautiful in photographs, but feel exhausting in person.
• Some buildings appear unremarkable at first, yet become calmer and more grounded the longer you walk through them.
• Some designs, while thoughtful and well executed, are simply not suited to your current stage.

All of this is normal. It is part of growth.