SOU FUJIMOTO
ARCHITECT
With several large projects underway, both in his native Japan and abroad, Fujimoto has been busy; which made his input all the more valuable for this year’s Wallpaper* Design Awards. Having received his own fair share of accolades since he started Sou Fujimoto Architects in 2000 (including several Wallpaper* Design Awards), Fujimoto believes these recognitions are vital to an architect’s career. So what was he looking for this year? ‘Something inventive, something new,’ he says. ‘I like it when something might help to define a new kind of beauty or bring joy to people using the building or product.’ From this year’s nominees, he picked out Studio Plastique’s tiles (page 105) as an example of something he considers to be good design. ‘Reinterpreting something as basic as a material is very important. And these tiles are very beautiful,’ he says. Fujimoto was also keen on the recycling process: changing mindsets through environmental or architectural design is something he hopes to explore more in the near future. sou-fujimoto.net