is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

known for creating

conceptual architecture Conceptual architecture is a form of architecture that utilizes conceptualism, characterized by an introduction of ideas or concepts from outside of architecture often as a means of expanding the discipline of architecture. This produces an essentia ...

, 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." In 2013, Ito was awarded the Pritzker Prize, one of architecture's most prestigious prizes. 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 Wang Shu (, born 4 November 1963)Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

to Japanese parents on 1 June 1941 when Korea was part of Japan. 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 is a Japanese high school founded in 1878 as the . It was well known in the 1950s and 1960s for the large proportion of graduates who gained admission to the prestigious University of Tokyo; though it suffered a decline in the 1970s, as of 2005 ...

in central Tokyo and graduated from the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...

's department of architecture in 1965.

Career

After working for

Kiyonori Kikutake (April 1, 1928 – December 26, 2011) was a prominent Japanese architect known as one of the founders of the Japanese Metabolist group. He was also the tutor and employer of several important Japanese architects, such as Toyo Ito, Shōzō Uc ...

Architect and Associates from 1965 to 1969 (alongside

Itsuko Hasegawa is a Japanese architect. Biography Itsuko Hasegawa was born in Yaizu City, Japan in 1941. She studied at the Department of Architecture at Kanto Gakuin University, graduating in 1964. From then until 1969, she worked with Kiyonori Kikutake an ...

), in 1971 he started his own studio in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, named Urbot ("Urban Robot"). In 1979, the studio name was changed to Toyo Ito & Associates. 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). 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 An economic bubble (also called a speculative bubble or a financial bubble) is a period when current asset prices greatly exceed their intrinsic valuation, being the valuation that the underlying long-term fundamentals justify. Bubbles can be ...

period in Japan. ''Tower of Winds'' (1986) and ''Egg of Winds'' (1991) are interactive landmarks in public spaces, resulting from a creative interpretation of contemporary technical possibilities. 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 is a Japanese architect and director of her own firm, Kazuyo Sejima & Associates. In 1995, she co-founded the firm SANAA (Sejima + Nishizawa & Associates). In 2010, Sejima was the second woman to receive the Pritzker Prize, which was awarded j ...

and

Ryue Nishizawa is a Japanese architect based in Tokyo. He is a graduate of Yokohama National University, and is director of his own firm, Office of Ryue Nishizawa, established in 1997. In 1995, he co-founded the firm SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associate ...

(

SANAA Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Gover ...

), Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham (KDa), Katsuya Fukushima, Makoto Yokomizo, and Akihisa Hirata.

Critical vision

Ito's work is often said to have affinities with the ideas of philosophers such as

Munesuke Mita
was one of the most famous sociologists in Japan. Mita has studied about modern society at

< ...

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

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 Japan'' exhibition at The

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Later, in 2000, his ''Vision and Reality'' at the

Louisiana Museum of Modern Art The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is an art museum located on the shore of the Øresund Sound in Humlebæk, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is the most visited art museum in Denmark, and has an extensive permanent collection of modern and cont ...

also became a traveling exhibition. 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 The Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum is an art museum in Aachen, Germany. Founded in 1877, its collection includes works by Aelbrecht Bouts, Joos van Cleve, Anthony van Dyck, Otto Dix and Max Beckmann. History The ' (Aachen museum association) was created ...

in Aachen and traveling to four other cities (Tokyo, Antwerp, Auckland, and Wellington between 1999 and 2001). Ito designed the ''

Berlin-Tokyo/Tokyo-Berlin Berlin-Tokyo/Tokyo-Berlin. The Art of Two Cities was presented by the Neue Nationalgalerie, New National Gallery in Berlin, Germany 7 June - 3 October 2006 On the occasion of the Germany Year in Japan 2005/2006, the Mori Art Museum Tokyo and the Ne ...

'' Exhibition (2006) at the

Neue Nationalgalerie The Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building and its s ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. 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. 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.''

List of works

Source: * 1976 – White 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 is a major interchange railway station in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. It is the busiest station in Kanagawa Prefecture and the fifth-busiest in the world as of 2013, serving 760 million passengers a year. Lines Yokohama Station is served by the ...

, Nishi-ku,

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

* 1991 – Yatsushiro Municipal Museum * 1994 – Old People's Home in

Yatsushiro is a city located in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Geography Located at the geographic center of Kyushu, Yatsushiro City is situated on the aptly named Yatsushiro Sea in between Kumamoto and Ashikita City. Climate Yatsushiro has a humid subtro ...

* 2001 – Sendai Mediatheque: a multi-function complex accommodating a mixed programme of library, art gallery, audio-visual library, film studio and café. It was a competition winning scheme chosen in 1995 from amongst 235 competing proposals. Widely recognised as one of Ito's seminal works. * 2002 – Temporary Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, in Kensington Gardens, London * 2002 –

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population. The area of the whole city a ...

pavilion * 2004 – Matsumoto Performing Art Center, Matsumoto * 2004 – Tod's

Omotesandō is a zelkova tree-lined avenue located in Shibuya and Minato, Tokyo, stretching from the Meiji Shrine entrance to Aoyama-dōri (Aoyama Street), where Omotesandō Station can be found. History Omotesandō was originally created in the Taishō er ...

Building, Tokyo * 2006 – First Prize "Taichung Opera International Competition" in Taiwan * 2006 –

VivoCity VivoCity is a shopping mall located in the HarbourFront precinct of Bukit Merah, Singapore. It is the largest shopping mall in Singapore, with of net lettable area and of gross floor area spread over a three-storey shopping complex and t ...

Singapore at HarbourFront * 2007 – Library of

Tama Art University or is a private art university located in Tokyo, Japan. It is known as one of the top art schools in Japan. History The forerunner of Tamabi was Tama Imperial Art School (多摩帝国美術学校, Tama Teikoku Bijutsu Gakkō) founded in 1935. ...

, Tokyo * 2008 – World Games Stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan * 2008 – Huge Wine Glass in

Pescara Pescara (; nap, label= Abruzzese, Pescàrë; nap, label= Pescarese, Piscàrë) is the capital city of the Province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 119,217 (2018) residents (and approxim ...

(broken after 64 days from unveiling) * 2009 – Suites Avenue Building,

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, Spain * 2009 –

Torre Realia BCN Torre Realia BCN (also Torres de Toyo Ito with Hotel Porta Fira) is a skyscraper on the Plaça d'Europa in the district of Granvia l'Hospitalet in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, a city of Barcelonès, Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; A ...

and

Hotel Porta Fira Hotel Porta Fira (also Torres de Toyo Ito with Torre Realia BCN) is a 28-storey, skyscraper hotel designed by Toyo Ito on the Plaza de Europa in the district of Granvia l'Hospitalet in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, a suburb of Barcelona, Cataloni ...

, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain * 2009 – Za-Koenji Public Theater, Kōenji, Suginami, Tokyo * 2009 – White O, Marbella, Chile * 2011 –

Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture, Imabari The is a museum of contemporary architecture and design located in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture. The two small museum buildings, named Steel Hut and Silver Hut, both designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Toyo Ito, are located on a promont ...

, Ehime, Japan * 2011 – Ken Iwata Mother and Child Museum, Imabari, Ehime, Japan * 2014 – Koo Chen-Fu Memorial Library, College of Social Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taiwan * 2014 – National Taichung Theater, Taiwan * 2015 – Meiso no Mori Municipal Funeral Hall Kakamigahara-shi, Gifu, Japan * 2016 – International Museum of the Baroque, Puebla, Mexico * 2019 – Three Mushrooms, Tokyo, Japan

Gallery of works

File:Nagaoka Lyric Hall 001.jpg, Nagaoka Lyric Hall (1994, Nagaoka) File:Serpentine Pavillion 2002.jpg, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK (2002) File:Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre 2010.jpg, Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre (2004) File:TOD'S.jpg, TOD's Omotesando Building, Tokyo, Japan (2004) File:Mikimoto Ginza2.JPG, Mikimoto Ginza 2, Tokyo, Japan (2005) File:VivoCity 106.JPG, VivoCity, Singapore (2006) File:Tama Art University Library.JPG, Library of

, Tokyo, Japan (2007) File:World Game 2009 Stadium completed.jpg, World Games Stadium, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2008) File:Barcelona 2010 August 005 Hotel.JPG,

and

, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain (2009) File:Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture Steel Hut.jpg,

, Ehime, Japan (2011) File:國家表演藝術中心-臺中國家歌劇院外觀.jpg, National Taichung Theater, Taichung, Taiwan (2014)

Honors and recognition

Ito's awards and honors include: * 1986 –

Architectural Institute of Japan The Architectural Institute of Japan, or AIJ, is a Japanese professional body for architects, building engineers, and researchers in architecture. The institute was founded in 1886 as an institute for architects. It was renamed the Architectural ...

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 Minister's 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 The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture. It is gi ...

* 2008 – Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts * 2009 –

Asahi Prize The , established in 1929, is an award presented by the Japanese newspaper ''Asahi Shimbun'' and Asahi Shimbun Foundation to honor individuals and groups that have made outstanding accomplishments in the fields of arts and academics and have greatl ...

* 2010 –

Praemium Imperiale Prince Takamatsu The Praemium Imperiale ( ja, 高松宮殿下記念世界文化賞, Takamatsu-no-miya Denka Kinen Sekai Bunka-shō, World Culture Prize in Memory of His Imperial Highness Prince Takamatsu) is an international art prize inaugur ...

* 2013 – Pritzker Prize for Architecture * 2013 –

* 2014 – Mathew Art Award in Berlin * 2016, 2017 – Prix Versailles World Judge * 2017 – UIA Gold Medal * 2018 – Person of Cultural Merit * 2020_ Design Educates Award, Jury member

Professorship

Ito holds a professorship at the

Japan Women's University is the oldest and largest of private Japanese women's universities. The university was established on 20 April 1901 by education reformist . The university has around 6000 students and 200 faculty. It has two campuses, named after the neighb ...

. He is also an honorary professor at the

University of North London The University of North London (UNL) was a university in London, England, formed from the Polytechnic of North London (PNL) in 1992 when that institution was granted university status. PNL, in turn, had been formed by the amalgamation of the No ...

and has served as guest professor at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He teaches at

as a visiting professor.

References

External links

Ito interviewed by C.B.Liddell at Architecture Week

* Thomas Daniell

''Artscape'', 2 November 2006. *

Nicolai Ouroussoff Nicolai Ouroussoff (russian: Николай Владимирович Урусов; born October 3, 1962) is a writer and educator who was an architecture critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The New York Times''. Biography Born in Cambridg ...

"Inside the Exteriors of Architect Toyo Ito"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', 8 July 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ito, Toyo 1941 births Living people University of Tokyo alumni Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale * Pritzker Architecture Prize winners Compasso d'Oro Award recipients 20th-century Japanese architects 21st-century Japanese architects Persons of Cultural Merit