Toyo Ito has finally been awarded with the Pritzker Architecture Prize. And we say “finally”, because after more than a decade being a firm candidate, the jury has definitely decided that at the age of 71 and after a whole life plenty of talented creations, this Japanese architect deserves to replace his Chinese colleague Wang Shu, winner of the 2012 edition.
TOD´s Tower, Omotesando, Tokyo (2002)
The 20th century architecture has tended to an established order keeping a very specific relationships between the building and the environment or, for example, between the building and the rooms, but Toyo Ito has always gone beyond, wondering about the posibility of a building setting up relationships with things or even with people, here is where the idea of the dinamic, unstable and diverse order was born summing up into the fluidity and conceptual innovation in which is work is based.
Serpentine Gallery Pavillion , Kensington Gardens (London, 2002), Toyo Ito & Arup
For these reasons and “for his synthesis of structure, space and form that creates inviting places, for his sensitivity to landscape, for infusing his designs with a spiritual dimension and for the poetics that transcend all his works, Toyo Ito is awarded the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize”
Toyo Ito is the sixth Japanese architect awarded the Pritzker Prize after Kenzo Tange (1987), Fumihiko Maki (1993), Tadao Ando (1995) and the team formed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa in 2010.
Among his main works we may find the Aluminium House (Kanagawa, 1971), the Tower of Winds (Yokohama, 1986), the Fire Station (Yatsushiro, 1995), the Brugge Pavillion (Brugge, Belgium, 2002), the TOD´s building (Omotesando, Tokyo, 2004 or the Tama Art University Library (Hachioji, 2002)
Tower of Winds, Yokohama (1986)
Tama Art University Library (2002)
The Sendai Mediatheque is one of his most representative buildings in which the ethereal plant-like forms flow in an athmosphere pretending mainly the structures integration.
Sendai Mediatheque (2002)
Video of Sendai Mediatheque Project
Recently he has been working with a group of Tokyo-based architects to build community centers and family units for Fukushima victims.
Coming to an end, Ito’s most ambitious and big project is the Taichung House of the Opera, under construction and meant to be inaugurated next year. If you are interested, you can find further information in this article from DesignBoom.
