Sou Fujimoto Biography & Bibliography

Sou Fujimoto portrait

Sou Fujimoto Profile

Architect Index / Japan / Works of Sou Fujimoto
www.sou-fujimoto.net

Sou Fujimoto was born in Hokkaido, Japan, in 1971 and studied architecture at Tokyo University. He established Sou Fujimoto Architects in Tokyo in 2000. The firm has designed many private residences in Japan and Europe, including the Primitive Future House in Basel, Switzerland (2008). In 2010, Fujimoto completed in Tokyo the Musashino Art University Museum and Library, based on the concept of a single spiral bookshelf, and the “132 5” store for Issey Miyake. In 2010, he designed the exhibition space for the acclaimed exhibition of Japanese fashion, “Future Beauty,” at the Barbican Gallery in London.

The firm has garnered many awards, including the 2010 Rice Design Alliance Prize; the 2009 Wallpaper* magazine Design Awards for the Best New Private House (for Final Wooden House, Kamakura, Japan); and the winning award in the 2008 World Architectural Festival, Private House Category (also for Final Wooden House). The work of the firm was represented at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010.

Fujimoto is currently a Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. His 2008 book Primitive Future was the year’s best-selling architecture book.

Sou Fujimoto Bibliography – Selected Books 

Sou Fujimoto Architecture Works 1995-2015

Sou Fujimoto Architecture Works 1995-2015

  • Toto, Tokyo, 2010, English and Japanese book
  • Nonfiction, Architecture, 376 pages
  • ISBN: 4887063490
Attempting to form an overview of the experimentation that has gone into his efforts over the past two decades, Sou Fujimoto compiles a multifarious and richly illustrated collection of works concepts, new ideas, and unrealized projects that is remarkable both for its sprawling diversity and for its consistency in the pursuit of an ideal. As Fujimoto writes in his introduction, Beneath even the boldest, most daring proposals lie many years of patient trial and error. Each project description contains index numbers of other projects that bear a resemblance to it, enabling readers to trace an interconnected web of interrelated concepts through his entire body of work.

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musashino-university-art-museum

Sou Fujimoto: Musashino Art Museum University & Library

INAX, Tokyo, 2010, English and Japanese book
Nonfiction, Architecture
ISBN: 9784872751642
 The Musashino Art University Library is Fujimoto’s largest building to date and his first major institutional project. The library’s users criticized Fujimoto’s original concept for lacking functionality. This led to an improved redesign that delighted Fujimoto himself. The tranquillity, clarity, and structural force with which Fujimoto completed his “forest of books” is captured by photographers Daici Ano, Naoki Ishikawa, and Keiko Sasaoka, complementing the building’s plans and Fujimoto’s textual analysis.

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Sou Fujimoto Primitive Future

Sou Fujimoto: Primitive Future

INAX, Tokyo, 2008, English and Japanese book
Nonfiction, Architecture
ISBN: 9784872751482

Fujimoto’s manifesto for architecture—based on an approach that returns to a primordial moment—along with the architect’s works and projects to date. With contributions from Toyo Ito, Terunobu Fujimori, and Taro Igarashi.

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sou-fujimoto-sketchbook-300px

Sou Fujimoto: Sketchbook

Lars Müller Publishers, Zurich, 2012, English and Japanese book
Nonfiction, Architecture
8.3 x 5.3 inches, hardcover, facsimile, 240 pages
ISBN: 9783037783276

The works of Sou Fujimoto resist any form of conventional categorization. This young Japanese architect stands for unconventional buildings that cannot be described by standard criteria and definitions such as inside/outside or public/private. Clear divisions such as between floor levels and rooms are shattered by his complex ground plans and interlocking structures, which—about the idea of the cave—he describes as “Primitive Future.” With this approach, he creates forms that are committed to a playful interaction between user and space. Alongside private residences, such as the well-known N House, his library for Musashino Art University has achieved particular recognition. Besides, he was represented at the 2010 Venice Biennale with a design for a house.

In his personal sketchbook, Sou Fujimoto offers insights into his design process. Through the sketches, drawings, and notes, readers can trace how his complex concepts manifest and develop on paper.

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Other recommended Books of Sou Fujimoto

Sou Fujimoto Hardcover – May 23, 2016, by Naomi Pollock (Author)

2G 50 Sou Fujimoto International Architecture Review (Spanish and English Edition) 1st Edition by Sou Fujimoto (Author), Toyo Ito (Author), Julian Worrall  (Author)

Sou Fujimoto: Futurospective Architecture (WALTHER KONIG) Paperback – September 30, 2013, by Jörg Gleiter (Author), Günter Küppers (Author), Friedrich Meschede (Editor)Sou Fujimoto (Artist)

Sincere by Design: The Architecture of Sou Fujimoto Kindle Edition by Sou Fujimoto (Author), Noriko Takiguchi (Author) 

Sou Fujimoto: Towards a Non-Intentional Space, Vol. 1: About Sou Fujimoto’s Architectural Design for Mirrored Gardens Paperback – March 22, 2016, by Hu Fang (Author, Editor), Wang Xiaoyu (Editor), Sou Fujimoto (Artist)

Av Monographs 226: Sou Fujimoto Architects 2000-2020 Paperback – January 9, 2020 

Sou Fujimoto – Recent Project (2013-09-25) Paperback – January 1, 1656