Sou Fujimoto TOTO Lecture - 3 life lessons from an architecture superstar you might not have heard of

Sou Fujimoto is a young architect born in Hokkaido, based in Tokyo, famous for his 2013 Serpentine Pavilion and permeable private houses and currently working on competition projects his firm won in Paris, Budapest, Taichung, among other locations.


“You can feel a constant, gentle breeze,” marvelled Fujimoto-san at how the architects managed to regulate natural ventilation at The Star, where he addressed an audience of 3,000 at a lecture organised by TOTO, the leading bathroom brand from Japan.

His architecture lessons are best learned directly from him - conveniently he has a new book out titled simply "Sou Fujimoto Architecture Works 1995-2015."

But what struck me listening to Fujimoto-san was how articulate he was, even in English. When I was at MIT in 2007, I had the luck to listen to famous architects and designers including Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Cecil Balmond (Arup), Ai Weiwei and Olafur Eliasson. Possibly with the exception of Eliasson, almost no one else was that gifted in speech. I had thought along the lines of “God is fair”, since he had already blessed them with the talents of expression and execution in architecture.

So here are three life lessons I learned this evening:

1. Be your own spokesperson and salesperson
Sou Fujimoto not only knows how to design, he understands how to communicate his designs in words. His stage performance (including constant remarks with the word “Amazing!”) reminded me of the ultimate speaker of our times - Steve Jobs. He made a few deliberate half-joking comments of “I’m looking for a client in Singapore. You can just send me an email.”  You have to be willing and able to be your own spokesperson and salesperson. Your method might differ, but this should never be a job beneath you.

2. Be endlessly positive
On his failed “Souk Mirage” project, he humorously lamented that he had proposed such an audacious design because he thought “anything is possible in the Middle East.” He also poked fun at his own “public toilet” project in Japan (it got so popular it required porta-loos to service the crowds). His positive energy was infectious and made him very likeable. And never underestimate the importance of likability.

3. Recognise that money matters
A lot of criticism directed at starchitects is about how they are obsessed about form making and creating the next spectacle while not caring about the commercial outcome. Fujimoto-san specifically discussed how he was grateful at how well the Montpellier residences he designed is almost sold-out. Some might think of their architecture (or their profession / work) as art. Again, making sure your works succeed commercially should never be beneath you.


Image copyright:
1) Serpentine Gallery (c) Iwan Baan
2) Souk Mirage (c) Sou Fujimoto Architects

Read my other posts about career tips or head over to check out my project on architecture-focused walking tours in Singapore.

The Tanjong Katong

My submission to the FiveFootWay "Magical Spaces" project in 2007, writing about the porch in my old Katong home.

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"But what was in the space?"

"All things," the young man answered.

"Our dog under Pa's car, the dog bowl, Ah Ma's and Ma's plants competing all over the place, last year's Ang Paos still fluttering on them in shades of red, wind chimes, the overhang of our neighbour's mango tree, slippers that revealed who's home."

"When the car is out, Mimi the dog would stretch and run - fill up the space. Sometimes mangos fall ripe, sometimes they fall because mynahs pecked at them. Their fragrance fills up the night air, and bats - yes eventually I realized they were bats - swooped around. At least that's my memory of it."

"But what else? Surely there was more?"

"Small pools of wax, filed even smoother by shoes skating by. The wax from the Lantern Festival candles. Ma was always worried we would set the house on fire, so we were only allowed to play there. Mimi wouldn't come close to the flames. He's actually male, but we got him when he was already eleven - we didn't get to name him. When we wanted him to sound macho, we called him 'Ah Mi', like 'Army.' Haha, imagine that. He's a great dog. People always asked me what breed he was. You know, that's what people care about - the breed. I have endless stories but they just want to know the breed."

"I guess he's just another dog, Pavlovian and all. Even before I took Psychology 101, I tried to trick him into running towards me for a photo. Of course, tapping the dog bowl worked."

"How's he doing?"

"Well that must be more than ten years ago. I wonder how he liked to be under the car. We had a kennel that we never used it much. I hate to admit this, but sometimes I played those skipping games with my two sisters. A kid neighbour always spied on us jealously, and we nicknamed him "Pong Pong" after that buoyant fruit. We also gave the mynah with recurring baldness from fights a nickname that is too embarrassing to tell you. We would yell 'Pong Pong' and that confused Mimi. He would bark at us, thinking it is a game."

"You guys weren't kind - to neighbour or animals."

"Well I guess my compulsive e-mail checking habit came from running to the mailbox every half an hour to see if there is any new mail, although we would see the postman pause at our door when cycling by if there really was. But partly because my Ah Ma would randomly comment that she thinks she saw or heard the postman. Thinking back, perhaps she knew that we liked to dash to the mailbox. It probably took us just ten seconds, the dash - that was how small the space was."