Toyo Ito

{{Infobox architect

| name = Toyo Ito

| image = Toyo Ito 2009.jpg

| image_size = 150px

| alt =

| caption = Ito, at a lecture in April 2009

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1941|06|01|df=y}}

| birth_place = Keijō, Japanese Korea

| death_ Billydate =

| death_place =

| nationality = Japanese

| awards = Pritzker Prize (2013)

| practice = Toyo Ito & Associates

| significant_buildings =

| significant_projects =

| significant_design =

| website = {{URL|http://www.toyo-ito.co.jp/}}

| alma_mater = University of Tokyo

}}

File:Tower of Winds2.jpg

File:Sendai Mediatheque 2009.jpg, (2001)]]

{{Nihongo|Toyo Ito|伊東豊雄|Itō Toyō|extra=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."{{cite web|url=http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/ito.html|title=Toyo Ito, interview|publisher=Designboom|access-date=18 November 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090222233911/http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/ito.html|archive-date=22 February 2009}}

In 2013, Ito was awarded the Pritzker Prize, one of architecture's most prestigious prizes.{{cite news|url= http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-massachusetts-prize-idUKBRE92G0EU20130317|work=Reuters|access-date=17 March 2013|date = 17 March 2013|title=Japanese architect Toyo Ito awarded 2013 Pritzker prize|first=Chris|last=Francescani}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} 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.{{cite news|author=Christopher Hawthorne|url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-japanese-architect-toyo-ito-71-wins-pritzker-prize-20130312,0,3484272,full.story|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130320022748/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-japanese-architect-toyo-ito-71-wins-pritzker-prize-20130312,0,3484272,full.story|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 March 2013|title=Japanese architect Toyo Ito, 71, wins Pritzker Prize|date=17 March 2013|access-date=17 March 2013|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}

Early life and education

Ito was born in Keijō, Japanese Korea (today's Seoul, South 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. His father was the chairman of a textile subsidiary of Mitsui & Co. His father returned to Japan just before the end of the Second World War to live with his family. Ito has stated that his experience of living by Lake Suwa and the stillness of its waters had a great impact on him as an architect later in life.{{Cite web |date=2023-07-02 |title=伊東豊雄（建築家）私の履歴書（２）諏訪湖 |url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOCD163RU0W3A510C2000000/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=日本経済新聞 |language=ja}}

Ito attended Hibiya High School in central Tokyo, where he was a member of the baseball team. His first application to the University of Tokyo was unsuccessful and Ito spent a year as a ronin student.{{Cite web |date=2023-07-04 |title=伊東豊雄（建築家）私の履歴書（４）上京 |url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOCD1648Z0W3A510C2000000/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=日本経済新聞 |language=ja}} He matriculated at the University of Tokyo in 1961, and chose architecture as his field of specialisation in his second year only because his grades for the first year was not good. He originally intended to study either mechanical or electrical engineering.{{Cite web |date=2023-07-05 |title=伊東豊雄（建築家）私の履歴書（５）東大建築学科 |url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOCD1716O0X10C23A5000000/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=日本経済新聞 |language=ja}} At the time, Kenzo Tange was among the faculty of the university's architecture department, while Arata Isozaki, Sachio Otani, and Kisho Kurokawa were his students.{{Cite web |date=2023-07-05 |title=伊東豊雄（建築家）私の履歴書（５）東大建築学科 |url=https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOCD1716O0X10C23A5000000/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=日本経済新聞 |language=ja}} Ito graduated from the University of Tokyo's department of architecture in 1965.{{cite web|url=http://www.pritzkerprize.com/2013/biography|work=Pritzker Architecture Prize|title=Toyo Ito - Biography|access-date=18 March 2013}}

Career

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.

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 period in Japan.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=60wKZnngKcAC&pg=PA8|access-date=18 March 2013|title=Relations in the architecture of Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa|first= Florian|last=Idenburg|isbn=9788874900480|year=2010|publisher=Postmedia Books }}

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 and Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA), Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham (KDa), Katsuya Fukushima, Makoto Yokomizo, and Akihisa Hirata.{{cite web|url=http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/toyo-ito-wins-2013-pritzker-prize/8644270.article?blocktitle=Most-popular&contentID|title=Toyo Ito wins 2013 Pritzker Prize|first=Tom|last=Ravenscroft|access-date=18 March 2013|date=17 March 2013| publisher=Architects Journal}}

=Critical vision=

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=

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 in London.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EgwxpcDRxKEC&pg=PA150|access-date=18 March 2013|title=New Glass Architecture|first=Brent|last=Richards|page=150|isbn=9781856693769|year=2006|publisher=Laurence King }} Later, in 2000, his Vision and Reality at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art also became a traveling exhibition.{{cite news|url= http://english.eastday.com/eastday/englishedition/features/userobject1ai840061.html|title=Architectural Wonder|access-date=18 March 2013|date=2 January 2005|newspaper=Shanghai Daily}} 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).{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ISBN8881582317|title=Toyo Ito. Blurring architecture 1971–2005|publisher=Charta|access-date=18 March 2013}}

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.smb.museum/smb/kalender/details.php?objID=9380&lang=en&typeId=10|title=Berlin-Tokyo/Tokyo-Berlin. The Art of Two Cities|publisher=Neue Nationalgalerie|access-date=18 March 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023061411/http://www.smb.museum/smb/kalender/details.php?objID=9380&lang=en&typeId=10|archive-date=23 October 2013}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.operacity.jp/ag/exh77/index_e.html|title=Toyo Ito: The New "Real" in Architecture|publisher=Opera City|access-date=18 March 2013|archive-date=23 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023055959/http://www.operacity.jp/ag/exh77/index_e.html|url-status=dead}}

=List of works=

Source:{{cite web|url=http://www.toyo-ito.co.jp/WWW/Project_Chronology/p_c_en.html|publisher=Toyo Ito & Associates|access-date=18 March 2013|title=Projects}}

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, 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 café. It was a competition winning scheme chosen in 1995 from amongst 235 competing proposals.{{cite web |url=http://www.actar.com/index.php?qid=2&idllibre=2360|title=Sendai Mediatheque (Actar, Barcelona)|publisher=Actar|access-date=18 March 2013}} 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 Omotesandō Building, Tokyo
2006 – First Prize "Taichung Opera International Competition" in Taiwan
2006 – VivoCity Singapore at HarbourFront
2007 – Library of Tama Art University, Tokyo
2008 – World Games Stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
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, Kōenji, Suginami, Tokyo
2009 – White O, Marbella, Chile
2011 – Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture, Imabari, Ehime, Japan
2011 – Ken Iwata Mother and Child Museum, Imabari, Ehime, Japan
2013 – College of Social Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
2013 – Taipei New Horizon Building, Taipei, Taiwan
2014 – National Taichung Theater, Taiwan
2014 – CapitaGreen, Singapore
2015 – Meiso no Mori Municipal Funeral Hall Kakamigahara-shi, Gifu, Japan
2016 – International Museum of the Baroque, Puebla, Mexico
2019 – The Tokyo Toilet project - Three Mushrooms, Tokyo, Japan{{Cite web |last=Toyo |first=Ito |title=The Tokyo Toilet |url=https://archello.com/project/the-tokyo-toilet}}

=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 Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan (2007)

File:World Games Stadium and National Sports Training Center 2022 02.jpg|World Games Stadium, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2008)

File:Barcelona 2010 August 005 Hotel.JPG|Torre Realia BCN and Hotel Porta Fira, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain (2009)

File:Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture Steel Hut.jpg|Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture, Imabari, Ehime, Japan (2011)

File:National Taichung Theater aerial view 2019.jpg|National Taichung Theater, Taichung, Taiwan (2014)

=Honors and recognition=

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 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
2008 – Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Artshttps://www.kiesler.org/en/kiesler-prize-2008 Frederick Kiesler Foundation, Vienna. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
2009 – Asahi Prize{{Cite web |title=people - Sharjah Art Foundation |url=http://sharjahart.org/sharjah-art-foundation/people/ito-toyo |access-date=2022-04-28 |website=sharjahart.org}}
2010 – Praemium Imperiale
2012 - Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the Venice Biennale of Architecture{{Cite web |last=Basulto |first=David |date=2012-08-29 |title=Venice Biennale 2012: Awards ceremony, big winners: Alvaro Siza, Japan and Urban Think Tank |url=https://www.archdaily.com/268392/venice-biennale-2012-awards-ceremony-big-winners-alvaro-siza-japan-and-urban-think-tank?ad_medium=gallery |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=ArchDaily |language=en-US}}
2013 – Pritzker Prize for Architecture
2013 – Asahi Prize{{Cite web |title=[Jury Citation] TOYO ITO. 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize {{!}} The Strength of Architecture {{!}} From 1998 |url=https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/jury-citation-toyo-ito-2013-pritzker-architecture-prize |access-date=2022-04-28 |website=metalocus.es |date=17 March 2013 |language=en}}
2014 – Mathew Art Award in Berlin
2016, 2017 – Prix Versailles World Judge[http://www.prix-versailles.com/world-jury-2017 Prix Versailles website]{{Cite web |date=2017-06-18 |title=Prix Versailles Celebrates 12 Projects for Their Outstanding Commercial Architecture |url=https://www.archdaily.com/873613/prix-versailles-celebrates-12-projects-for-their-outstanding-commercial-architecture |access-date=2022-04-28 |website=ArchDaily |language=en-US}}
2017 – UIA Gold Medal
2018 – Person of Cultural Merit
2020 – Design Educates Award, Jury member{{Cite web |title=Prof. Toyo Itō |url=https://designeducates.com/portfolio/prof-toyo-ito-2022/ |access-date=2022-04-28 |website=Design Educates Awards |language=en-US}}
2023 – Honorary Royal Academician (HonRA){{Cite web |title=Toyo Ito {{!}} Artist {{!}} Royal Academy of Arts |url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/toyo-ito-hon-ra |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240511180642/https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/toyo-ito-hon-ra |archive-date=11 May 2024 |access-date=11 May 2024 |website=Royal Academy of Arts}}

=Professorship=

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 Graduate program as a professor.{{Cite web |title=Tama Art University Graduate Program |url=https://graduate.tamabi.ac.jp/en/master/ews.html |access-date=2024-07-03 |website=graduate.tamabi.ac.jp}}

References

External links

[http://www.architectureweek.com/2007/0110/culture_1-1.html Ito interviewed by C.B.Liddell at Architecture Week] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150322095053/http://www.architectureweek.com/2007/0110/culture_1-1.html |date=22 March 2015 }}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090504205407/http://www.cosasqueverenbarcelona.com/2009/03/toyo-ito-arquitectura-japonesa-del-s.html Toyo Ito, Japanese architecture for the 21st century]
[http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/i/toyo_ito/index.html The New York Times works on Ito's impact]
Thomas Daniell, [http://www.dnp.co.jp/artscape/eng/focus/0611_02.html "Toyo Ito: The New 'Real' in Architecture"]. Artscape, 2 November 2006.
Nicolai Ouroussoff, [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/arts/design/12ouro.html?em "Inside the Exteriors of Architect Toyo Ito"]. The New York Times, 8 July 2009.

Category:1941 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Seoul

Category:People from Nagano Prefecture

Category:University of Tokyo alumni

Category:Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal

Category:Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale

Category:Pritzker Architecture Prize winners

Category:Compasso d'Oro Award recipients

Category:20th-century Japanese architects

Category:21st-century Japanese architects

Category:Persons of Cultural Merit