Sou Fujimoto (1971, Japan) is considered to be one of the most influential architects of his generation. In 2013 he became the youngest architect to design the annual pavilion of the Serpentine Gallery. His work takes us back to the origins of architecture to arrive at a new assertion: architecture must behave like a landscape.

In a conversation moderated by Justin Jaeckle (curator of the Barbican Centre and Architecture Foundation’s "Architecture on Film" programme), the Japanese architect will discuss the artificial / natural dichotomy in architecture and new ways of inhabiting the future. Definition of the "artificial" generally involves a pejorative meaning – something which is false or concealed. But for the architect – who views the city as a forest, and a housing block as a tree – it is urgent to strike a new balance, to ensure that the relationship between the body and space becomes intuitive: “I want to create a place for people which is poised between nature and the artificial world. The future for me is where these natural and artificial geometries come together, their complexity as well as their simplicity”. Using a concept that he terms “Primitive Future”, Fujimoto looks back at the primordial past, in order to reinvent modernity for tomorrow, seeking to offer new solutions that will encourage new forms, freedoms and behaviour. Architecture as an engine of change – a new form of inhabiting the world that will deliver a new way of life.

Simultaneous interpretation