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Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects

Japanese Architects Practice – Tokyo Design Studio News + Information

post updated 26 Feb 2020

Toyo Ito News

18 Mar 2013

Pritzker Prize Winner 2013
The 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner is Toyo Ito of Japan
Toyo Ito, a 71 year old architect whose architectural practice is based in Tokyo, Japan, will be the recipient of the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize, it was announced today by Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation which sponsors the prize. Ito is the sixth Japanese architect to become a Pritzker Laureate — the first five being the late Kenzo Tange in 1987, Fumihiko Maki in 1993, Tadao Ando in 1995, and the team of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa in 2010.

This famous Japanese architect was the Pritzker Prize architects Winner in 2013.

Toyo Ito Architect : more information about the Pritzker Architecture Prize winner
Dome in Odate, Japan architecture in Akita by Toyo Ito
photo : Mikio Kamaya

Recent Major Toyo Ito Buildings

Porta Fira Hotel, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Design: with b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos
Porta Fira Hotel
photo from FCC
Porta Fira Hotel
Gold Emporis Skyscraper Award 2010 – announced 8 Aug 2011
The building was chosen from over 300 skyscrapers around the world. The Emporis Award for the Best New Skyscraper, is the world’s most renowned prize for high-rise architecture. The jury is made up of architecture experts from 67 countries.
Hotel Porta Fira is a 26-floor hotel tower, 113 metres high and located in one of Barcelona’s busiest areas. Porta Fira belongs to the Hoteles Santos chain, which also owns several other landmark hotels.
The hotel is visible from a distance due to its striking red colour and its tube-like structure widens as it rises. b720 Arquitectos also designed the Agbar Tower in Barcelona.

Toyo Ito Architecture Museum, Omishima, Japan
Design: Toyo Ito & Associates
13 Dec 2011 – Building located in Imabari, Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan. It is the first museum in Japan dedicated to the work of an individual architect. The museum is situated on a site overlooking the Seto Inland Sea, on an island south of Tokyo.

TOD’s, Omotesando, Aoyama district, Tokyo, Japan
TOD'S Omotesando Building
photograph © Robert Day
The facade is formed from of a skin of criss-crossed concrete braces. This decorative elevation reinterprets the silhouettes of the elm trees lining the street.
The Tod’s building is located on Omotesando, the famous tree-lined avenue in Tokyo.
The seven-story building was built for Tod’s, an Italian shoe and handbag brand. The lower levels are used as a shop, with the middle and upper levels containing offices and a multi-purpose space.

Mikimoto Building, Tokyo, Japan
Mikimoto Building Mikimoto Building Tokyo
photographs © Robert Day
Japanese Architecture Tour including Tokyo buildings by this design firm, added 2 Jun 2011

Praemium Imperiale

The architect was awarded the Japanese Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale architecture laureate for 2010.
Praemium Imperiale architecture laureate 2010.

Serpentine Pavilion 2002, London, England – designed with Arup
Serpentine Pavilion 2002 Toyo Ito
photograph © 2007 Stephen White
Serpentine Pavilion

Show by the architect at Venice Biennale 2010, Italy
Venice Biennale Toyo Ito
photograph © Adrian Welch
Venice Biennale Arsenale Pavilion

Key Projects by Toyo Ito

Sendai Mediatheque, Miyagi-Sendai, Japan
Dates built: 1995-2001
Sendai Mediatheque Japan
photo : Nacasa & Partners Inc.
Sendai Mediatheque
Architecture Competition
Multi-purpose cultural centre made with steel tubular lattice structures. The building appears light by day, and also at night when the structure glows artificially from within. The Sendai Mediatheque contains a library, art gallery, audio-visual library, film studio, and cafe.
Michael Webb in AR 1256 states that the architect “thought of the enclosed space as liquid, likened the columns to strands of seaweed drifting through an aquarium….a concept that was as audacious as the Pompidou Centre”.

Serpentine Pavilion, Kensington Gardens, west London, UK
Date built: 2002
Design: with Arup
Serpentine Pavilion 2002
photograph © 2007 Stephen White

Serpentine Pavilion Toyo Ito
photograph © 2007 Deborah Bullen
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion

Tower of Winds, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa, Japan
Date built: 1986
Tower of Winds Japan
photo : Tomio Ohashi
Tower of Winds
By day the tower reflects the city through the reflective perforated aluminum panels covering the steel core. By night the Tower of Winds translates sound and wind into light through two computers sensing the varying wind and noise levels and accordingly powering 1300 lamps, 12 neon rings, and 30 flood lights at its base.

Museum of Architecture
Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture
photo : Daici Ano
Museum of Architecture, Imabari-shi, Ehime, Japan

Taichung Metropolitan Opera House, Taiwan
Date: 2008-
Taichung Metropolitan Opera House
image : kuramochi+oguma
Metropolitan Opera House Building in Taiwan
Design competition win

Toyo Ito Buildings

Designs by Toyo Ito architect, chronological:

VivoCity – shopping mall, Singapore
Date built: 2007

Library, Green Avenue, Tokyo, Japan
Date built: 2007

Crematorium, Kakamigahara, Japan
Date built: 2007

Mikimoto Building, Tokyo, Japan
Date built: 2005
see link at top of page

TOD, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
2004
TOD’S Omotesando Building by Toyo Ito – see link at top of page

House in Sakurajosui, Japan
1997-2000

Ota-ku Resort Complex, Chisagata-gun, Japan
1995-98

Hall in Odate, Odate Jukai Dome Park – Odate Sports Dome, Japan
1997

Oita Agricultural Park, Hayami-gun, Japan
1997

Library, Paris, France
1992

Silver Hut house, Tokyo, Japan
1984

House, Kasama, Japan
1980-81

White U house, Japan
1976

PMT Building, Nagoya, Japan

Yatsushiro Municipal Museum, Japan

Grin Grin, Island city Central Park, Fukouka, Japan

Meiso no Mori – funeral hall, Gifu, Japan

More architecture projects online soon

UK Architecture Project

Plans by this architecture practice for Glasgow Selfridges store: revised following Selfridges’ July 2003 takeover.
TIA have not been able to release proposals despite requests.

The architect is one of the world’s most revered architects and along with Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield, Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, would clearly bring yet more attention to Glasgow Architecture (ref. Future Systems Selfridges Store in Birmingham). Selfridges Scotland would be the group’s fifth UK store.

News excerpt from Mar 2003 re Selfridges Proposal:

Toyo Ito Architecture in UK

Japanese Architect to design Selfridges Glasgow store

Department store Selfridges is close to appointing this Japanese signature architect to design its £90m Glasgow store. Selfridges has already appointed local architects the Building Design Partnership, whose Glasgow architect office will help Toyo Ito Associates in designing the store.

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, London

The only Toyo Ito building created in the UK was the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion: annual temporary exhibition, built next to the Serpentine Gallery, London – designed with engineer Cecil Balmond with Arup, July to September 2002. It is a truly radical design, like a Wyndham Lewis painting with its angular asymmetric patterns of solid and void.

Toyo Ito Architecture: Glasgow Selfridges
Selfridges Glasgow bosses confirmed it was desperately looking for a site in the city centre. Sep 2002

More projects by this Tokyo architectural firm online soon

Location: Fujiya Bldg., 1-19-4, Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-0002, Japan

Tokyo Architect Practice Information

Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects are based in Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

Japanese Architects

Toyo Ito Arquitectos Asociados En España Sl are located at L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Toyo Ito is one of the world’s most innovative and influential architects

Toyo Ito Architect Background

Born in Japan in 1941, he graduated from Tokyo University,
Department of Architecture in 1965.

He started his own architecture studio, ‘urban robot’ (urbot) in Tokyo, 1971; it became Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects in 1979.

The architect has served as guest professor at Columbia University and is an honorary professor at the University of North London. He is one of the world’s most innovative and influential architects.

Architecture News

Toyo Ito architect – Winner of RIBA Gold Medal 2006

Architectural Design

Paris Architecture

SANAA Architects – famous Japanese design studio

Architecture Studios – design firms around the world

Buildings / photos for the Toyo Ito Architecture – Japanese Architectural Firm page welcome

Website: www.toyo-ito.co.jp