Sou Fujimoto: Futures of the Future

JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles is proud to present “SOU FUJIMOTO: FUTURES OF THE FUTURE,” a showcase of over 100 models and large-scale photographs of past and current projects by the celebrated Japanese architect. Named the Wall Street Journal’s Architecture Innovator of The Year in 2014, Fujimoto has designed public and private buildings around the world since establishing his atelier in 2000.

A reoccurring theme in Fujimoto’s work is the “primitive future.” This apparent contradiction refers to the primordial, intuitive moments that reconnect us with our own humanity, and open us up to new possibilities. Japan House’s “FUTURES OF THE FUTURE” exhibition seeks to share this empowering experience with viewers—it invites them to participate in Fujimoto’s thought experiment surrounding the possibilities of architecture, and as a result, be inspired to reimagine the future in any shape or form.

Fujimoto addresses many opposite concepts in addition to the “primitive future.” His designs often feature juxtapositions of outside and inside, nature and urbanity, objects and spaces, public and private. His projects feature unexpected transitions, such as “Museum in a Forest” (Taoyuan, Taiwan 2013) where a path gradually leads visitors from a lush, green woods to the white walls of a gallery. Or “Toilet in Nature” (Chiba, Japan 2012), where public and private are brazenly mixed. Or his many private houses, where twists and turns reveal new paths and spaces, and gardens extend through walls and roofs.

Fujimoto’s work considers the macro and micro: when does an object become a space? What is the distinction between a building and a city? In “House NA” (Tokyo, Japan 2011) an accumulation of small, modular spaces forms a visually arresting family house, which pours directly out into the Tokyo street. In Fujimoto’s break-out piece, “Serpentine Pavilion” (London, UK 2013), hard-edged white poles descend onto a London park in a pattern that is simultaneously natural and mechanical. The result is a piece that somehow manages to be part of the landscape, functional furniture, and an enclosing building at once.

Through these quiet yet ostentatious, organic yet structured, public yet private works, we see the graceful strength and poetic aesthetic of one of Japan’s most interesting architects. In a nation in which architecture has been embraced as a symbol of development, categorization and modulation, Fujimoto’s work turns instead to examine our personal relationship to architecture and spaces, and how it affects our feelings and perception.

The exhibition also includes several works from “Architecture is Everywhere.” This series presents miniature models created by placing small-scale human figures next to ordinary, everyday objects. The whimsical installation focuses on how architecture must be found (sometimes by chance) before it can be created with intent.