Like young architects everywhere, Japanese designers often get their first job from a family member or friend. Rarely, though, does the assignment involve a mental hospital in the middle of a remote, northern island buffeted by Siberian winds. But Sou Fujimoto's psychiatrist father runs a residential facility on Hokkaido. And when the hospital needed an additional building, the doctor turned to his 20-something son, even though the ink on his undergraduate diploma from Tokyo University was barely dry. Earmarked for occupational therapy, the 1,938-square-foot building was realized with the aid of a local architect.

After this debut, Fujimoto hit a five-year dry spell. But instead of closing up shop, going to graduate school, or joining an established firm, he bided his time with competitions and conceptual explorations. "My goal was to create a completely different way to design architecture," he explains. Forsaking standard columns, slabs, and stairs, he envisioned a single, multipurpose element that could play all three roles. This idea coalesced in Primitive Future House, a theoretical project made entirely of stacked slabs that can serve as structure, stairs, fenestration, even furniture.