Helping to open people's minds

WHY do architects do what they do? For some, designing a building could be their way of leaving their mark on society, and in the process change the world.

But not for Sou Fujimoto, the Hokkaido-born, and now Tokyo-based award-winning architect. "My role as an architect is to propose new ways for people to live or behave, in both the private and public realms," he says. "History will decide how society makes use of my proposals."

Mr Fujimoto, 44, was in town recently to lecture on Futures of the Future. But changing the world is far from his mind. "I respect the world, and I'd like to be a part of history, but it is not my ambition to change the world," he says. "I'd just like to be able to add one precious stone to it; that in itself is amazing enough."