ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Yoshihiko Kawauchi, an architect and professor, is a "fractal person", who mediates between the global flows of ideas and materials that make up universal design, and thereby comes to act as a source of influence in his field, building on anthropological theory. It addresses the geographical complexity of universal design by demonstrating that tracing the mobility of this concept "requires exploring more than simply the diffusion or circulation of a self-contained policy or planning model; it entails examining the milieu or factual terrain through and in which it has been shaped". The chapter discusses a case study for a European Research Council funded project, which involved extensive fieldwork with Kawauchi, including in-depth interviews and participant observations during site visits and meetings in London and Tokyo. It describes how Kawauchi, as a mediator between the travelling entities that make up universal design, engages in the "universalization of particularism and the particularization of universalism".
