In this Japanese name, the family name is Ito.

Toyo Ito

Ito, at a lecture in April 2009.

Born 1 June 1941 (age 76)

Keij, Japanese Korea

(now Seoul, South Korea)

Nationality Japanese

Occupation Architect

Awards Pritzker Prize (2013)

Website www.toyo-ito.co.jp

Practice Toyo Ito & Associates

Tower of Winds, Yokohama (1986)

Sendai Mediatheque, (2001)

Toyo Ito ( It Toyoo, born 1 June 1941) is a Japanese architect known for
?

creating conceptual architecture, in which he seeks to simultaneously express the physical

and virtual worlds. He is a leading exponent of architecture that addresses the contemporary notion
of a "simulated" city, and has been called "one of the world's most innovative and influential
architects."[1]
In 2013, Ito was awarded the Pritzker Prize, one of architecture's most prestigious prizes.[2] He was a
likely front-runner for the Pritzker Prize for the previous 10 years. A recent trend has seen less
experienced and well-known winners, for example Chinese architect Wang Shu in 2012, and the
award to Toyo Ito is seen as recognition of a lifetime's achievement in architecture.[3]

Contents
[hide]
 1Early life and education
2Career
o 2.1Critical vision
o 2.2Exhibitions
o 2.3List of works
o 2.4Gallery of works
o 2.5Honors and recognition
o 2.6Professorship
3References
4External links

Early life and education[edit]

Ito was born in Seoul, Korea to Japanese parents on 1 June 1941. In 1943, he moved to Japan with
his mother and two sisters living until middle school age in rural Shimosuwa, Nagano Prefecture. Ito
attended Hibiya High School in central Tokyo and graduated from the University of Tokyo's
department of architecture in 1965.[4]

Career[edit]
After working for Kiyonori Kikutake Architect and Associates from 1965 to 1969 (alongside Itsuko
Hasegawa), in 1971 he started his own studio in Tokyo, named Urbot ("Urban Robot"). In 1979, the
studio name was changed to Toyo Ito & Associates.[4]
Throughout his early career Ito constructed numerous private house projects that expressed aspects
of urban life in Japan. His most remarkable early conceptual contributions were made through
projects of this scale, such as White U (1976) and Silver Hut (1984).[1]
With the Pao for the Tokyo Nomad Girl projects in 1985 and 1989, Ito presented a vision of the life of
an urban nomad, illustrative of typical lifestyles during the bubble economy period in Japan.[5]
Tower of Winds (1986) and Egg of Winds (1991) are interactive landmarks in public spaces,
resulting from a creative interpretation of contemporary technical possibilities.[1] Whilst their function
is in fact exhaust air outlets for the underground system below, their significance lies in Ito's
treatment of their opacity, one of the hallmarks of his work. Whilst appearing solid during the day, the
perforated aluminium structures "dissolve" at night through the use of computer-controlled light
systems which form an interactive display representing measured data such as noise levels in their
surrounding vicinity.
Toyo Ito's office is known as a training ground for talented younger architects. Architects who
previously worked for his office include Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA), Astrid
Klein and Mark Dytham (KDa), Katsuya Fukushima, Makoto Yokomizo, and Akihisa Hirata.[6]

Critical vision[edit]
Ito's work is often said to have affinities with the ideas of philosophers such as Munesuke
Mita and Gilles Deleuze.
Ito has defined architecture as "clothing" for urban dwellers, particularly in the contemporary
Japanese metropolis. This theme revolves around the equilibrium between the private life and the
metropolitan, "public" life of an individual.
The current architecture of Toyo Ito expands on his work produced during the postmodern period,
aggressively exploring the potentials of new forms. In doing so, he seeks to find new spatial
conditions that manifest the philosophy of borderless beings.
Exhibitions[edit]
Ito's work has been exhibited widely. In 1991, Ito used 130 video projectors to simulate the urban
environment of Tokyo for the Visions of Japanexhibition at The Victoria and Albert
Museum in London.[7] Later, in 2000, his Vision and Reality at the Louisiana Museum of Modern
Art also became a traveling exhibition.[8] Ito similarly exploited the effect of video projection as a
medium with which to exhibit architecture in his Blurring Architecture exhibition, initiated at
the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen and traveling to four other cities (Tokyo, Antwerp,
Auckland, and Wellington between 1999 and 2001).[9]
Ito designed the Berlin-Tokyo/Tokyo-Berlin Exhibition (2006) at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. The
design featured a smooth, undulating landscape that occupied almost the entirety of the museum's
main exhibition space. This exhibition, in collaboration with the Mori Art Museum, was one of the
largest undertakings in the museum's history.[10] A major retrospective of Ito's work was shown at the
Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery in 2006 as Toyo Ito: The New "Real" in Architecture.[11]

List of works[edit]
Source:[12]

1976 The U House (house for his sister)

1984 Silver Hut (Ito's own house, adjacent to White U)
1986 Tower of Winds, West Exit, Yokohama Station, Nishi-ku, Yokohama
1991 Yatsushiro Municipal Museum
1994 Old People's Home in Yatsushiro
2001 Sendai Mediatheque: a multi-function complex accommodating a mixed programme of
library, art gallery, audio-visual library, film studio and caf. It was a competition winning scheme
chosen in 1995 from amongst 235 competing proposals.[13] Widely recognised as one of Ito's
seminal works.
2002 Temporary Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, in Kensington Gardens, London
2002 Bruges pavilion
2004 Matsumoto Performing Art Center, Matsumoto
2004 Tod's Omotesand Building, Tokyo
2006 First Prize "Taichung Opera International Competition" in Taiwan
2006 Meiso no Mori Municipal Funeral Hall Kakamigahara-shi, Gifu, Japan
2006 VivoCity Singapore at HarbourFront
2007 Library of Tama Art University, Tokyo
2008 World Games Stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
2008 Villa for Chilean architectural project Ochoalcubo.
2008 Huge Wine Glass in Pescara (broken after 64 days from unveiling)
2009 Suites Avenue Building, Barcelona, Spain
2009 Torre Realia BCN and Hotel Porta Fira, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
2009 Za-Koenji Public Theater, Kenji, Suginami, Tokyo
2011 Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture, Imabari, Ehime, Japan
2011 Ken Iwata Mother and Child Museum, Imabari, Ehime, Japan
2014 National Taichung Theater, Taiwan
2016 Barroco Museo Internacional, Puebla, Mexico
Gallery of works[edit]


Nagaoka Lyric Hall (1994, Nagaoka)

Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2002)

Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre (2004)

TOD's Omotesando Building, Tokyo, Japan (2004)

Mikimoto Ginza 2, Tokyo, Japan (2005)



VivoCity, Singapore (2006)

Library of Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan (2007)

World Games Stadium, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2008)

Torre Realia BCN and Hotel Porta Fira, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain (2009)

Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture, Imabari, Ehime, Japan (2011)

Honors and recognition[edit]

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Ito's awards and honors include:

1986 Architectural Institute of Japan Award for Silver Hut

1992 33rd Mainichi Art Award for Yatsushiro Municipal Museum
1997 IAA 'interach 97' Grand Prix of the Union of Architects in Bulgaria Gold Medal
1998 Education Ministers Art Encouragement Prize in Japan
2000 Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in architecture from the American Academy of Arts
and Letters
2001 Gold prize of the Japanese Good Design Award
2006 RIBA Royal Gold Medal
2008 Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts
2009 Asahi Prize
2010 Praemium Imperiale
2013 Pritzker Prize for Architecture
2014 - Mathew Art Award in Berlin
Professorship[edit]
Ito holds a professorship at the Japan Women's University. He is also an honorary professor at
the University of North London and has served as guest professor at Columbia University. He
teaches at Tama Art University as a Visiting Professor.

References[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:a b c "Toyo Ito, interview". Designboom. Retrieved 18 November 2009.
2. Jump up^ Francescani, Chris (17 March 2013). "Japanese architect Toyo Ito awarded 2013 Pritzker
prize". Reuters. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
3. Jump up^ Christopher Hawthorne (17 March 2013). "Japanese architect Toyo Ito, 71, wins Pritzker
Prize". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
4. ^ Jump up to:a b "Toyo Ito - Biography". Pritzker Architecture Prize. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
5. Jump up^ Idenburg, Florian. Relations in the architecture of Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa.
Retrieved 18 March 2013.
6. Jump up^ Ravenscroft, Tom (17 March 2013). "Toyo Ito wins 2013 Pritzker Prize". Architects Journal.
Retrieved 18 March 2013.
7. Jump up^ Richards, Brent. New Glass Architecture. p. 150. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
8. Jump up^ "Architectural Wonder". Shanghai Daily. 2 January 2005. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
9. Jump up^ Toyo Ito. Blurring architecture 19712005. Charta. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
10. Jump up^ "Berlin-Tokyo/Tokyo-Berlin. The Art of Two Cities". Neue Nationalgalerie. Retrieved 18
March 2013.
11. Jump up^ "Toyo Ito: The New "Real" in Architecture". Opera City. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
12. Jump up^ "Projects". Toyo Ito & Associates. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
13. Jump up^ "Sendai Mediatheque (Actar, Barcelona)". Actar. Retrieved 18 March 2013.

External links[edit]