Sou Fujimoto: “Openness in Architecture Does Not Mean the Absence of Boundaries”

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Have we passed peak globalization? In architecture, several decades ago, big-name architects were routinely invited to import their aesthetic brand to regions around the world. Nowadays, however, the best designers are responding directly to local conditions, drawing together the programmatic brief and the cultural context with site-specific conditions, allowing all of these factors to inform their architectural approach.

Sou Fujimoto’s Baccarat Residences Saadiyat is a case in point. Developed in partnership with developer and investor Aldar and the legendary French crystal Maison Baccarat, the project marks Fujimoto’s first residential commission in the UAE — and his first sustained encounter with the realities of designing for a desert climate. Rising in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Cultural District alongside The Louvre Abu Dhabi and the under-construction Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the Japanese architects’ latest building’s most distinctive feature is not only aesthetic, but also practical: a deep system of projecting balconies and canopies that creates a genuinely inhabitable threshold between conditioned interior and open air.

Throughout his career, Fujimoto has explored the dissolution of boundaries between interior space and the outer world. Yet, Abu Dhabi is a climate that typically enforces the hardest possible boundary between the two. As the best architects tend to do, the design responds to this obstacle by turning it into a central tenet of the design. What emerged from that encounter is what Fujimoto calls “a stack of front porches or gardens”: a new spatial type for this environment, with an implicit argument that architecture can expand what feels possible in a place, rather than simply responding to it. This is a fascinating shift in approach.

In the following interview, Suji and I discuss how the project came together, what the desert demanded of him and what it means to design somewhere for the very first time.

Hannah Feniak: Saadiyat Cultural District is rapidly becoming one of the most concentrated cultural masterplans in the world. How did you position this project architecturally among institutions like the Guggenheim and Louvre without competing with them?

Sou Fujimoto: It is an extraordinary context, with institutions such as the Guggenheim and the Louvre forming a network of major cultural landmarks as part of Aldar’s masterplanning. Together with Aldar, we wanted to ensure that Baccarat Residences Saadiyat would not compete with these institutions as an object but instead contribute to the overall spatial experience of the district. Rather than positioning the building as another monumental statement, we approached the design from the perspective of the residents and their everyday relationship with this unique setting.

The proximity to the sea and to these remarkable cultural institutions naturally offers extraordinary views, so the architecture focuses on framing and amplifying those experiences. The undulating façade creates constantly shifting perspectives toward the Guggenheim, the Louver, and the coastline, while deep canopies act as framing devices that shape moments of view, shade and spatial depth. At the urban scale, the building massing was carefully sculpted to preserve existing sightlines and urban axes that connect the district’s key cultural landmarks.

In this sense, the architecture aims not to compete with these cultural icons, but to participate in the larger composition of the district — offering a softer, more inhabitable counterpart to the monumental cultural buildings around it.

Interiors led by StudioPCH, reinterpreting neoclassical language through bespoke Baccarat crystal and lighting elements, balancing heritage with contemporary spatial expression.

Your architecture frequently dissolves edges between interior and exterior. In a project characterized by exclusivity and security, how do you reconcile openness with controlled access?

Openness in architecture does not necessarily mean the absence of boundaries. It is more about how those boundaries are experienced and the ability to blend them together into experiences. Even in a project that requires a high level of privacy and security, architecture can still create a sense of continuity with the surrounding environment.

At Baccarat Residences Saadiyat, we approached this through layers rather than hard divisions. The deep balconies, canopies and transitional spaces create a gradual threshold between the private interior and the larger landscape of the sea and the cultural district. These elements allow light, air, and views to flow through the building while still maintaining the necessary level of control and privacy for the residents.

In this way, the envelope is presented as a spatial composition rather than expressed as a barrier. Residents experience openness through framed views and shaded terraces, while the building quietly maintains its protective envelope. The goal is to create an architecture where exclusivity does not feel closed, but instead feels calm, generous, and connected to its surroundings. The intent is to make the building feel like a porous cloud lacking any hard edges.

In previous projects, you’ve explored modular repetition and grid-based systems. What structural or organizational logic underpins these curves; is there an invisible order beneath the fluid geometry?

In this project, the apparent freedom of the curves is grounded in a strict underlying logic. The structural grid is dictated by practical factors — particularly the parking layout and the organization of the residential unit types. These elements establish a clear framework for the building’s structure. Within this framework, the undulating balconies and canopies represent a degree of controlled freedom. The curves are not arbitrary gestures, but variations that occur within the limits defined by that grid.

For me, this relationship between strict order and gentle freedom is always an opportunity I look to explore. The grid provides clarity and efficiency, while the undulations allow the architecture to respond to views, light and the surrounding landscape, giving the building a more human character.

Projects of this scale in Abu Dhabi must respond to intense solar exposure and environmental performance standards. What passive or envelope strategies were embedded into the design to ensure longevity beyond aesthetic impact?

At this scale and in this climate, environmental performance is critical. We sculpted the building’s formal characteristics to directly improve its passive environmental impact. The deep balconies and extended canopies are the most important elements. They act as a continuous shading system that significantly reduces direct solar exposure on the façade and interiors while creating comfortable outdoor spaces for residents. This layered envelope also introduces depth to the façade, allowing light to enter in a more controlled and diffused way rather than as direct heat gain.

The undulating geometry further contributes to performance by creating self-shading conditions across different parts of the façade throughout the day. As the sun moves, the projecting forms provide protection to the glazing behind them, helping to moderate thermal loads. The same elements that give the building its character also function as long-term climatic devices.

Looking across your recent international projects, do you see this building as a continuation of an existing trajectory in your work, or does it mark a shift in your approach?

It is a continuation of ideas that have been present in my work for a long time, but expressed here within a new cultural and geographic context. Many of my projects explore the relationship between architecture, nature and human experience, often seeking to soften the boundaries between inside and outside. What makes this building different is that these ideas are manifesting for the first time in the cultural and geographic landscape of the UAE.

The proximity to the sea, the intensity of the desert climate, and the remarkable cultural setting of Abu Dhabi all shaped the way these concepts are translated into architecture. In particular, the extreme need for sun protection in this environment led to the development of the building’s unique type of deep balcony space — more pronounced than they might normally be, providing generous vertical shaded spaces, like a stack of front porches or gardens.

What interests me most is also how this building may, in turn, influence the way people inhabit this environment. By providing this new type of space, the architecture encourages a different relationship with the exterior climate. It raises questions about whether this could inspire new patterns of living — perhaps new ways of using outdoor spaces or experiencing daily life between inside and outside. In that sense, it explores how architecture can gently expand the possibilities of living in this region.

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