- Honorary Fellowship of AIA
- Honorary Fellowship of RIBA
- Commissioner of Kumamoto Artpolis
| BIOGRAPHY | |
| 1941 | Born in Seoul Metropolitan City |
| 1965 | Graduated from The University of Tokyo, Department of Architecture |
| Worked at Kiyonori Kikutake Architects and Associates | |
| 1971 | Started his own studio, Urban Robot (URBOT) in Tokyo |
| 1979 | Changed its name to Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects |
| AWARDS AND PRIZES | |
| 1986 | Architecture Institute of Japan awards for “Silver Hut” |
| 1992 | 33rd Mainich Art Award for Yatsushiro Municipal Museum |
| 1999 | Japan Art Academy Prize for “Dome in Odate” |
| 2003 | Architectural Institute of Japan Prize for “Sendai Mediatheque” |
| 2004 | XX ADI Compasso d’Oro Award for “Ripples” (furniture design) |
| 2006 | Royal Gold Medal from The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) |
| 2008 | 6th Austrian Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts
|
LIST OF WORKS
- 1991 – Yatsushiro Municipal Museum
- 1994 – Old People’s Home in Yatsushiro
- 2001 – Sendai Mediatheque (Actar, Barcelona)
- 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 -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
- 2009 -Torre Fira BCN Building, Barcelona, Spain
VISION
- Toyo Ito is inspired from philosophers such as Munesuke Mita and Gilles Deleuze.
- Ito has defined architecture as “clothing” for urban dwellers i.e. equilibrium between the private life and the metropolitan, “public” life of an individual.
- His work are very difficult to categorize.
- He believes in lightness and transparency.
- And follows organic design.
- Explores the potentials of new forms and shapes.
TOD’s Omotesando,Tokyo, Japan
- LOCATION : Omotesando, the tree-lined boulevard of Tokyo.
- CLIENT : Tod’s, the Italian leather-goods company.
- DESIGN CHALLENGE :Only 33 feet of street front space but has to create an identiy.
About the building:
- Building is the Japanese Headquarters for the TOD’S – the Italian leather goods company.
- Only the bottom two levels are open to the public.
- The upper levels are for offices and meeting rooms.
- “Trees are organisms that stand by themselves, so their shape has an inherent, structural rationality” –Toyo Ito
- Design – Silhouettes of nine trees were overlapped to create the six walls of the L-shaped building
- The trees were designed of concrete, 12 inches thick and bear all the structures load.
- The interior is seven stories of column free space.
- As the building grows higher, the branches begin to split and thin out until they reach the top.
- “We did not use any special algorithm to determine their size, but we tried to keep the elements from getting too small.” – TOYO ITO
- The space in between all the branches turns into 270 unique openings.
- The openings grow smaller closer to the roof.
- Openings are filled with both glass and aluminum panels
- “Instead of openings cut into a solid concrete volume, transparency and opacity are on an equal footing.” – Architectural Record
- The entrance is the largest opening, – A triple height.
- Load is carried by excellent path that the concrete tree creates.
- Also the floor slabs are 20 inches deep and carry all the interior loads to the exterior walls.
- Whole of the interior is a column free space.
- Stairs are placed in the extreme ends of the retail space.
- An advantage this is that, displays can be rearranged and put virtually anyway.
- On the roof is a glass encased meeting room as well as a mixture of grass patches and travertine paving.
The Archi Blog 