TOYO ITO
Honorary Fellowship of AIA
Honorary Fellowship of RIBA
Commissioner of Kumamoto Artpolis
SUBMITTED BY:
VARUN KUMAR SINGHANIA
B. ARCH IV
061026
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
2006
XX ADI Compasso d’Oro Award for “Ripples” (furniture design)
2008
Royal Gold Medal from The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
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.
•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
Pictures showing the shuttering work.
•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.
•An advantage this is that, displays can be rearranged and put
virtually anyway.
Stairs are placed in the
extreme ends of the
retail space.
On the roof is a glass encased meeting room as well as a mixture
of grass patches and travertine paving.
SENDAI MEDIATHEQUE
THANK YOU