First Major Exhibition for Sou Fujimoto, Designer of the Expo 2025 Grand Ring
With offices in Tokyo, Paris, and Shenzhen, Sou Fujimoto (born 1971 in Hokkaido, Japan) is engaged in projects all over the world, ranging from private homes to universities, retail premises, hotels, and multi-purpose complexes. Since his high-profile debut with The Aomori Museum of Art Design Competition Proposal in 2000, he has completed a series of celebrated projects, including the Musashino Art University Museum & Library (2010, Tokyo) and the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013 (London), and recently the housing complex L’Arbre Blanc (The White Tree, 2019, Montpellier, France) and the music-focused cultural complex House of Music, Hungary (2021, Budapest). One of Japan’s leading architects at the center of public attention, he was appointed as the Site Design Producer for Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan.
This exhibition is the first major survey of Fujimoto’s work. It provides a comprehensive overview in eight sections, covering everything from work in his early years to projects currently underway, and following his architectural journey over the past around thirty years, the features of his architecture, and the philosophy behind it. It takes advantage of the venue’s expertise as a contemporary art museum, allowing anyone, not just people working involved in architecture, to physically experience the essence of Fujimoto’s oeuvre by including exhibits such as installations and large-scale models that provide a spatial experience, as well as a mock-up. These complement conventional exhibits like scale models, plans, and photos of completed projects. The exhibition also reviews the role and potential of architecture through Fujimoto’s vision of the future city.
Today, due to the continually changing relationships between people and their lives influenced by technological developments, architecture and cities are being called on to play a bigger role than before, including consideration for the environment and the function of connecting fragmented communities. We welcome visitors to join us as we take Fujimoto’s practice as the context for considering how architecture could change our lives in times like these.
The Architecture of Sou Fujimoto: Primordial Future Forest
Exhibition Period: Wednesday, July 2 – Sunday, November 9, 2025
| Organizer | Mori Art Museum |
|---|---|
| Grants from | Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan Japan Arts Council Ishikawa Foundation    |
| Corporate Sponsors | OBAYASHI CORPORATION JINS HOLDINGS Inc. KAJIMA CORPORATION KINDEN CORPORATION NOT A HOTEL Inc. SANEI LTD. SHIMIZU CORPORATION SUMITOMO FORESTRY CO.,LTD. Ruinart TAKENAKA CORPORATION TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION SANYU CONSTRUCTION CO., LTD. Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Co., Ltd. Arup FUJITEC CO., LTD. MAEDA CORPORATION SANKI ENGINEERING CO., LTD.          |
| Curated by | Kondo Kenichi (Senior Curator, Mori Art Museum) Tsubaki Reiko (Curator, Mori Art Museum) |
| Collaborators | Haba Yoshitaka (Book Director and President of Bach Ltd.) Kurakata Shunsuke (Architectural Historian and Professor at Osaka Metropolitan University) Miyata Hiroaki (Data Scientist and Professor at Keio University) |
