Primitive future: The Improvised spaces of Sou Fujimoto
Nest or Cave?
Sou Fujimoto recently posed this question at the opening of his lecture at the GSD Harvard. He eloquently explains his concept of a ‘nest’, which implies a space that has been specifically prepared for human habitation. A cave is the opposite of this: a naturally formed space, which to be used for dwelling requires a creative act on behalf of a human. The cave alters the behaviour of its occupant by offering no clear way in which to use the space. Although to some degree this ambiguity is inherent in all spaces, the cave is completely undefined. He calls these creative acts of appropriation the beginning of architecture.
Within the cave the body needs adapt to the space to meet its needs. As the body adapts, the space takes on a new subjective and temporal definition, unique to each occupant. A harmonious relationship is established between the body and space. The ambiguity of the cave offers a surprisingly flexible architecture, and it is this idea that Sou Fujimoto has explored in much of his conceptual and built work.
His buildings and experimental homes create spaces within spaces that blur into one another and have no definite boundaries or pre determined routes through them, requiring the user to create their definition through use - akin to the cave or a natural setting. In Primitive Future house Fujimoto explores an architecture that begins to relinquish prescribed spaces.