Toyo Ito Biography and Profile
Architect / Japan / Toyo Ito & Associates / Works of Toyo Ito
www.toyo-ito.co.jp
Toyo Ito (伊東 豊雄 Itō Toyoo, born 1 June 1941) is a Japanese architect known for creating conceptual architecture, in which he seeks to express the physical and virtual worlds simultaneously. 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 his youth, Ito admits to not having a great interest in architecture. There were several early influences, however. His grandfather was a lumber dealer, and his father liked to draw plans for his friends’ houses. When Ito was a freshman in high school, his mother asked the early Modernist architect, Yoshinobu Ashihara, who had just returned to Japan from the U.S. where he worked at Marcel Breuer’s office, to design their home in Tokyo.
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 in 2012. The award to Toyo Ito is seen as recognition of a lifetime’s achievement in architecture.
Toyo Ito’s works include many successful public and private buildings, such as the White U house in Tokyo, the Tama Art University Library, or the Sendai Mediatheque.
Toyo Ito Bibliography – Recommended Books
This bibliography consists of a selective list of books relating to Toyo Ito’s Architecture.
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Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects
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| Description by publisher: Toyo Ito is known for combining a process-oriented approach to the individual peculiarities of the task of construction. Technology and tradition seamlessly come together in his firm’s conceptual work to create a dynamic relationship between the building, the environment, and the users. This monograph offers insight into Toyo Ito & Associates’ work, featuring a selection of no less than fourteen projects from the last fifteen years, from the first sketches and prototypes to the finished building. Notable works include the Brugge Pavilion, Matsumoto Performing Arts Centre, National Taichung Theatre, Museo Internacional del Barroco, and others.
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El Croquis 147: Toyo Ito
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| Description by publisher: Bringing together recent works and projects undertaken between 2005 and 2009, this collection emphasizes Toyo Ito’s consistent ability to create engaging designs for a diverse range of predominantly public facilities. Among the 15 projects featured in this issue design for the Fukuoka Island City Central Park Grin Grin, the ‘Meiso no Mori’ Municipal Funeral Hall, Tama Art University Library, the White O project, the New Deichman Main Library, Oslo, and the Market Street Tower, Singapore.
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Toyo Ito Paperback – October 15, 2014
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| Description by publisher: Toyo Ito (b. 1941) is one of the most important Japanese architects working today and has grown to be one of the world’s most influential. He is famous for ambitious and stunning projects such as the Sendai Mediatheque, TOD’S Omotesando, Tama Art University Library, and Island City Central Park, all of which demonstrate his ability to use materials in surprising and innovative ways, with revolutionary high‐tech organic geometries.
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Toyo Ito 2 2002-2014
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| Description by publisher: The second in a two-volume introduction to the extraordinary career of architect Toyo Ito, this monograph features 20 of his works in Japan and abroad since the Sendai Mediatheque, including the 2002 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, Tama Art University Library and Kaohsiung Stadium, plus ongoing projects such as the National Taichung Theater. In addition, Ito’s endeavors surrounding his Home-for-All project (featured at the 2012 Venice Biennale) are given special attention. In a conversation with Terunobu Fujimori, Ito reveals his personal insight regarding these Edited buildings and projects, which are accompanied by abundant photographs, drawings, and sketches.
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Toyo Ito: Forces of Nature
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| Description by publisher: The work of Japanese architect Toyo Ito explores the dynamic relationship between buildings and their environments. His principal focus is on developing an architecture free of the grid system, which he believes homogenizes people and their lives. Toyo Ito: Force of NatureHome for All, a response to Japan’s earthquake and tsunami disasters in March 2011.
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Other recommended Books of Toyo Ito:
- Toyo Ito: Sendai Mediatheque by Actar
- Toyo Ito: Works Projects Writing (Documenti Di Architettura, 137) by Phaidon press
- Toyo Ito 1 1971-2001 by Toto
- Ga Architect: Toyo Ito 2002-2016 Vol. 2 by Ada Edita Global Architecture
- Steven Holl / edited by Toyo Ito. Tokyo: A.D.A. Edita, c1993. (GA architect; 11)
- Tower of winds: Savvas Ysatis and Taylor Deupree. New York: Caipirinha, 1993. (Architettura; 1)
- Toyo Ito. Paris: Institut francais d’architecture: Carte Segrete, 1991.
- Toyo Ito. London: Academy Editions, 1995. (Architectural monographs; no. 41)
- Toyo Ito. Tokyo: Japan architect, 1993. (Japan architect library; 2)
- Toyo Ito: architettura per una citta argentata. [Fiesole]: Azienda Autonoma di Soggiorno e Turismo, Comune di Fiesole, [1986]
- Toyo Ito: blurring architecture, 1971-2005; rethinking the relationship between architecture and the media. Milan: Charta; London: Art Books International, 1999.
- Catalog of an exhibiton. Roulet, Sophie. Toyo Ito, l’architecture de l’ephemere = Toyo Ito : architecture of the ephemeral. Paris: Editions du Moniteur, c1991. (Monographies d’architecture)
- Arquitectura japonesa de vanguardia: conferencias magistrales, exposicion fotografica, taller de composicion arquitectonica; con comemoracion del primer centenario de la emigracion japonesa a Mexico, abril a mayo de 1997, Ciudad de Mexico. Mexico City: UAM, 1997.
