Sou Fujimoto on the Origin and Future of Architecture: Towards Architecture that Connects Like a Forest (Interviewer: Hitoshi Motohashi)
Architect Sou Fujimoto discusses his core architectural philosophy, centered on the concept of a "forest," spanning from early psychiatric facility designs to the Osaka Expo.Summary
Architect Sou Fujimoto, featured in the major exhibition "Sou Fujimoto: Architecture—Primitive Future Forest" at the Mori Art Museum, discusses his core philosophy with interviewer Hitoshi Motohashi. Fujimoto traces the origin of his work back to designing psychiatric facilities, where he grappled with balancing individual dignity within a communal setting—a challenge mirroring his concept of a "forest," where individual trees coexist through interconnected relationships. He emphasizes that whether designing small residences or massive projects like the "Great Roof Ring" for the Osaka-Kansai Expo, he consistently strives to connect the large scale back to the human scale. Fujimoto admires Le Corbusier's Modulor system and the Golden Ratio, believing that proportional systems create harmony between overall order and human dimensions. Ultimately, he views architecture as needing to embrace contradiction and diversity, like a forest, focusing on creating spaces that organically connect people and places, a sense of connection he has felt increasingly strongly over the last decade.
(Source：Tokyo Art Beat)