Image credit: Sou Fujimoto
Fujimoto explores the relationship between humans and space in all of his work. In the one-room T House the angles of the walls were measured and calculated meticulously, providing at once privacy and openness. Depending on where you stand, the boundary between these two seemingly opposing features becomes obscured.
Image credit: TRÉDIR
A strong echo of this tension between intimacy and exposure can also be found in House O. Fujimoto’s one-room house offers different views and angles of the coastline giving the occupant a variety of images of the ocean, while the back of the house is completely closed off to provide intimacy and privacy. This design beautifully highlights how architecture can play the role of ‘intermediary’ as it displays to the occupants of the house the most favourable facets of the surrounding environment. (Funnily enough, as Fujimoto conceded during his speech, he forgot to assign a clear entrance to the house, so that the client was initially lead to the rocky shore to enter…)
Image credit: Daily Icon
With the opportunity to design the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013, Fujimoto appears to have gone back to the basics and back to his first concept of Primitive Future (used as chairs, chairs as tables). At the same time the minimalistic style avoids intrusion upon the surroundings; the seemingly delicate structure appears to float like a cloud above the patch of grass in Hyde Park, true to the pavilion’s temporary nature. Delimitations between nature and architecture break away and disappear as both seem to merge into one, giving people a startling feeling of freedom.
Image credit: Photo by George Rex
The cloud-like installation was transformed into an ‘electric light show’ through a series of flashing LED lights, by British studio United Visual Artist, for a performance at the Serpentine Gallery for its 2013 Summer Party. Imitating lightening in a night sky, this simple and striking effect was by no means easy to create. Combined with thunderous audio, the installation created a very different feel, reminiscent of the changeability of nature.
Sou Fujimoto Serpentine Pavilion Intervention from United Visual Artists on Vimeo
I personally see many messages in Fujimoto’s work. ‘Less is more’, his designs seem to say, shining in their ingenious simplicity rather than through any cutting-edge technology or overwhelming size. Maximizing spaces challenges us to interact with them, encouraging us to review our preconceived notions of objects. Entering into a soothing and harmonious relationship with surrounding nature, rather than trying to keep it out and away, provides a stark contrast to the heavy and monotonous style of much of our modern architecture. Fujimoto’s architecture seems to allow us to breathe and reboot through its clarity and purity.