Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto has created an installation in Paris’ Jardins des Tuileries composed of suspended metal cubes and plants, for the FIAC art fair.
Commissioned by Parisian art gallery Philippe Gravier, the Many Small Cubes installation features stacked boxes – some filled with plants and small trees – that are connected either just on one corner or one edge.
Together they create a structure with seemingly random cantilevers and openings on a tree-lined avenue in the Tuileries park.
A void in the centre represents the “living area”, with formal entrances at either side and lots of other access points if “one doesn’t mind lowering their head,” said a statement from Fujimoto.
The structure is intended to represent a “nomadic” house and serve partly as an architectural intervention and partly as a sculpture.
“The floating masses of Many Small Cubes create a new experience of space, a rhythm of flickering shadows and lights, as being under the trees,” said Fujimoto.
“The architecture forms one unified element whose balance and stability are carefully designed: the position of each cube and each tree participates to the overall stability, yet reaching a random-like feeling, bringing the whole architecture closer to nature.”
Supported on a steel frame, the cubes are made from sheets of anodised aluminium that have been individually hand cut to fit into place.