LAB #2(41) 2008

same time it is obvious that one can find his shelter there. And we feel as if in the outer world all of us are mentally distressed children, we do not know how to stop ourselves, or how to follow the code of honour. But this place is home. And a home is a place, which one accepts completely, and which accepts the person in turn. Things are easy here, and you let yourself be free. And you gain the same courage as that person who gave you this place. And you change. Why have you chosen the profession of architect? What’s the most interesting thing in it for you? It was purely by accident that I chose the pro- fession of architect. However, I think it was defi- nitely influenced by the fact that I was always interested in making things and thinking about the new formation of things like in physics. I think the most interesting part of architec- ture, as mentioned above, is in discovering the ways in which things can take new forms. Additionally, I find it very interesting to make

novel observations of relationships amongst objects, people, society, and Earth as a whole, and creating something new out of those con- siderations. Have your idea about the profession been changed through the time? No, I don’t think so. Lebbeus Woods has such a phrase: “one should draw and not to think about whether the project will be implemented or not, and built in such a way as if there were no technical drawings”. Is this idea close to your way of thinking? I agree inasmuch as the important meaning of ideas and images, but I also believe that some new idea may arise as a result of think- ing technically. Likewise, clients’ demands and trivial fault that may be found on site can give birth to new ideas. The remarkable thing about architecture is that those above-mentioned and other things remotely connected to architecture become a hint in thinking about new architec- ture. I think it would be a petty to limit something

SOU FUJIMOTO _ ARCHITECTURE IS A POW- ER TO REVOLUTIONIZE DAILY LIVES | prepared by Evgenia Bakhturova | Photo Daici Ano, Sou Fujimoto | Photos provided by Kaz Yoneda, Sou Fujimoto Architects | Sou Fujimoto is a Japanese architect who the Americans and the Europeans suddenly fell in love with; for four years in a row they name him as one of the most promising young architects. Sou’s young age is rather conventional, it is both biological and metal youth; he graduated from university in 1995 and has become a lecturer since then. Well, the Japanese should be fine with that – they are long-livers, so they have enough time to think, to do, and to peacefully watch something. It is obvious that the renowned architect has retained his young vigour and is still going through the stage of trying to perceive certain important issues. Having implemented several projects with archetype pat- terns, he suddenly found courage to make this step, turned everything upside down and put houses with sloped roofs one over the other. Without feeling shy about taking up projects that other architects would rather think longer about, like the Treatment Centre for Mentally Disturbed Children, he manages to run the project in such a way that would not disturb participants even more. Yes, he walks on the edge, so what? He is not the only one who does so. He belongs to a movement that could be referred to as “the new courageous” – and this is what makes him so interesting. Courage of these people is not about designing utopias, as it happened a while ago, not about opposing the regime or destroying the shape. Their courage is the courage of people who live in this world, in the world oversaturated with information, the amount of which turns it into a disaster, in the world oversaturated with goods and services. And these courageous people try to give some structure to all this chaos. One calms down looking at Sou’s projects. Since the architect is not particularly concerned with creating a context, his buildings look complete, monolith, and at the

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