Jun Aoki

Every starchitect has their little quirks. You know: Zaha Hadid's latticework bulges and pointy bits, Frank Gehry's twisty funhouse warping, Richard Rogers' inside-out schtick - it's hard to get to the top of the architectural pile unless you've got a feature, a little visual tic, a distinctive style that makes a particular building unmistakably you.

So it's a little bit of a shock to hear a highly acclaimed architect declare that 'I have no style of my own' - but that's exactly what Japan's Jun Aoki does. And in a way, he's right. Powered by a belief that the physical and cultural context provides the one and only basis for designing a building, Aoki's work is notably diverse. He started his career working at the office of acclaimed architect Arata Isozaki, before established his own practice in 1991 with the intention of doing 'anything that seemed interesting'.

Things that have seemed interesting to him since then include a whole lot of homes (usually identified by just a single letter), offices and public spaces such as galleries. His work is characterised by geometric lines, an airy vibe and a rigorous approach to lighting, as well as a playful quality, full of visual tricks and lacunae between interior and exterior appearance.

At first glance, his buildings may typically blend in with their surroundings, but many - such as the lip-like Mamihara Bridge or the SIA Aoyama Building with its spatter-pattern windows - come with a few surprises when viewed up close.

Aoki has also created a number of retail properties, in particular for luxury brand Louis Vuitton. He designed the facade of the LV store in Central's The Landmark, and has done both exteriors and interiors for several of the brand's outlets in Japan and New York. His work is featured, along with that of several other leading architectural names, in a lavish new coffee table book published by the brand, Louis Vuitton Architecture and Interiors.

'I started designing for Louis Vuitton 14 years ago, when the brand was changing its design strategy,' he says. 'They wanted to control every store from Paris, and they needed to update their image. At that time, almost every store they had was in a department store, and in 1998 I had almost the first chance to design an independent store for them, in Nagoya,' winning a competition to do so.