Toyo Ito

Toyo Ito

Sendai Mediatheque, a building in Sendai designed by Toyo Ito

Mikimoto, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan, 2005

Toyo Ito (伊東 豊雄, Itō Toyoo; 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."

Background and education

Ito was born to Japanese parents in 1941 in Seoul, South Korea. Ito graduated from Tokyo University's Department of Architecture in 1965.

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.

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.

Critical vision

Tower of Winds

The work of Toyo Ito 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

The work of Toyo Ito 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. In 2000, the Vision and Reality at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art also became a traveling exhibition. Toyo Ito similarly exploited the effect of video projection as a medium with which to exhibit architecture. In the Blurring Architecture exhibition, initiated at the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen and traveling to four other cities (Tokyo, Antwerp, Auckland, and Wellington between 1999-2001), Ito attempted to reveal the virtual presence of architecture in the human mind.

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. 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

• 1976 - The U House (house for his sister)
• 1984 - Silver Hut (Ito's own house, adjacent to White U)
• 1991 - Yatsushiro Municipal Museum
• 1994 - Old People's Home in Yatsushiro
• 2001 - Sendai Mediatheque: a multi-function complex accommodating a mixed program 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. Sendai Mediatheque (Actar, Barcelona). Widely recognised as one of Ito's seminal works.
• 2002 - Commissioned to design a temporary pavilion adjacent to the Serpentine Gallery, in Hyde Park, London
• 2002 - Bruges pavilion
• 2004 Matsumoto Performing Art Center, Matsumoto
• 2004 TOD's Omotesando Building, Tokyo
• 2006 First Prize "Taichung Opera International Competition" in Taiwan
• 2006 VivoCity Singapore at HarbourFront
• 2008 World Games Stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
• 2008 Villa for Chilean architectural project Ochoalcubo.
• 2009 Suites Avenue Building, Barcelona, Spain
• 2009 Water Fountain in Pescara[1]
• 2009 Torre Fira BCN Building, Barcelona, Spain

• 
  Nagaoka Lyric Hall (1994, Nagaoka)
• 
  Sendai Mediatheque (2000, Sendai)
• 
  Sendai Mediatheque
• 
  Serpentine Gallery (2002, London)
• 
  TOD's Omotesando Building (2004, Tokyo)
• 
  Mikimoto Ginza 2 (2005, Tokyo)
• 
  VivoCity (2006, Singapore)
• 
  VivoCity
• 
  library of Tama Art University (2007, Tokyo)
• 
  World Games Stadium

Current projects

In September 2006, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at the University of California, Berkeley announced that Toyo Ito's firm had been selected to design a new facility for the museum and film center. The project will be his first in the United States.

Awards

Toyo Ito has won many awards, including:

• Architecture Institute of Japan Award for Silver Hut in 1986
• 33rd Mainichi Art Award for Yatsushiro Municipal Museum in 1992
• IAA 'interach ‘97' Grand Prix of the Union of Architects in Bulgaria Gold Medal in 1997
• Education Minister’s Art Encouragement Prize in Japan in 1998,
• Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2000
• Gold prize of the Japanese Good Design Award in 2001
• RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2005
• Frederick Kiesler Award for Architecture and the Arts 2008

Professorship

Toyo 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

• Alessandra Orlandoni, "Interview with Toyo Ito" - [The Plan 016, 2006 -http://www.theplan.it]
• Thomas Daniell, "Toyo Ito: The New 'Real' in Architecture". Artscape, November 2, 2006.
• Nicolai Ouroussoff, "Inside the Exteriors of Architect Toyo Ito". New York Times, July 8, 2009.

External links

• Sendai Mediatheque (Actar, Barcelona)
• Toyo Ito interviewed by C.B.Liddell at Architecture Week
• Pavilions by Toyo Ito
• Biography and works
• Toyo Ito, Japanese architecture for the 21st century