"Sou Fujimoto describes his haphazard architectures as ‘notes without staves,’ and trying to interpret his forms through conventional composition is a futile effort. Escaping both the cartesian grid of regularity and the hierarchical pyramids of subordination, his pieces are scattered in space with a spontaneous order, evoking at once the processes of organic growth in nature and the mechanisms of adjustment in the social sphere. Reconciling the laws of biology laws with collective practices, this architecture disappears into the natural or urban landscape to crystallize suddenly in geometric jewels that extract their shine from the mist, and their poetic form from their functional indifference. Avoiding bold assertions, the works harvest a translucent fragility that is the base of their lyrical strength, and even the more solid projects are excavated or eroded to free the notes from the bars of the stave and the discipline of the metronome. Even though he is indeed a free verse in Japan’s architectural panorama, it is hard to imagine Fujimoto outside the social climate, the technical context, and the artistic scene of the country: a luminous, exact, and calm atmosphere where being in harmony with nature is inseparable from civic courtesy and the low-profile of affirmative individuality"(éd.)