Toyo Ito

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.

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.[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]

Source:[12]

• 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.[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 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
• 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

• 
  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)
• 
  Koo Chen-Fu Memorial Library, College of Social Sciences,National Taiwan University, Taiwan (2014)
• 
  National Taichung Theater, Taichung, Taiwan (2014)

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 Arts
• 2009 – Asahi Prize
• 2010 – Praemium Imperiale
• 2013 – Pritzker Prize for Architecture
• 2014 – Mathew Art Award in Berlin
• 2016, 2017 – Prix Versailles World Judge[14]
• 2017 – UIA Gold Medal
• 2018 – Person of Cultural Merit

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.