toyo ito
Toyo Ito portraits (inclusive of image on the homepage): ©Kai Nakamura
Toyo Ito is a Japanese Architect. After graduating from the University of Tokyo, he worked in the office of Kiyonori Kikutake. In 1971, he founded his own office Urban Robot (URBOT), which was renamed Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects. His representative projects include Sendai Mediatheque (Japan), Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2002 (UK), Tama Art University Library (Hachioji Campus, Japan), ‘Minna no Mori’ Gifu Media Cosmos (Japan) and National Taichung Theater (Taiwan R.O.C.). He is the recipient of The Royal Gold Medal from The Royal Institute of British Architects, The 22nd Praemium Imperiale in Honor of Prince Takamatsu, The Pritzker Architecture Prize, The UIA Gold Medal, among others. In 2011, he established a private architectural school, Ito Juku, which focuses on the future of cities and architecture. He has been engaged in a variety of activities to revitalize the island of Omishima in Imabari, Ehime, where the Toyo Ito Museum of Architecture, Imabari is situated, with Ito Juku members and the local community.
LUCIJA ŠUTEJ: What was your introduction to architecture, and what initially drew you in? Were you interested in pursuing a different career path as a child?
TOYO ITO: I played baseball in high school and wanted to continue in university. Knowing that university students in the humanities course typically have more free time, I applied to the humanities course. However, I didn’t pass the entrance exam. I applied to the science course the following year and was accepted to university. There was no need to choose a major immediately, and we had 1.5 years to decide. I wanted to attend the M&E course but my grades were not good enough. Instead, I chose architecture, a course I could enter with my grades. As you see, my architecture career began with a rather negative outlook.
LŠ: Through your studies, you were exposed to the Metabolist movement, championed by architects - Kenzo Tange, Arata Isozaki, Kisho Kurokawa, and Kiyonori Kikutake. What about their projects exploring the future of the city appealed to you? What was the architectural, economic, and real estate landscape like back then in Tokyo?
TI: While Kenzo Tange was teaching at my university, Arata Isozaki and Kisho Kurokawa were in his lab. I saw them many times at school. In my fourth year of university, I interned at Kiyonori Kikutake’s office for one month, where I first found architecture interesting. After graduation, I worked at his office.
When I experienced the Tokyo Olympics as a student in the early 1960s, I admired the Metabolists’ visions for future cities. However, by the late 1960s, they needed to accommodate various social and economic conditions for realization, causing the projects to lose their impact.
Architecture projects in Japan during the 1960s were innovative and creative, fueled by the booming economy. However, just before the Osaka Expo in 1970, we began to see an economic downturn.
LŠ: As you mentioned, you worked for Kiyonori Kikutake Architects and Associates before establishing your own office, Urban Robot, in 1971. How have the experience and principles of Kikutake’s design shaped your own studio? Were there principles of his you wanted to go against and why? What were some of the challenges you faced in starting your own company?
TI: What excited me most at Kiyonori Kikutake's office was his belief that architecture cannot be created through logic but through physical sensations. I still treasure this idea. While working on the Osaka Expo 1970 at Kikutake’s office, I had an opportunity to visit the Montreal Expo in 1967. The dome by Buckminster Fuller and the tent by Frei Otto were truly impressive. During that trip, I also had the pleasure of traveling through Europe and visiting the works of Alvar Aalto, an architect I greatly admired.
Although I started my practice in 1971, there were no projects to work on due to the slowdown of the Japanese economy, which put me under financial pressure. The only architecture I could design was one or two houses for my family and close friends each year. The experience of creating my sister’s house, White U, had a lasting influence on my thinking, even though the house no longer exists today.
White U: ©Koji Taki
White U: ©Koji Taki
Silver Hut: Courtesy of Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects
Silver Hut: Courtesy of Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects
LŠ: You once stated that architects have made architecture too complex, and in 2011, you launched “Initiative for Tomorrow’s Opportunities in Architecture” (ITO) to create a platform for architectural education that engages future architects, children, and communities interested in shaping their hometowns. Were there other educational initiatives (NGOs, universities, etc.) that were important in shaping the work of ITO? What do you think is missing in Japan's Educational architecture system and perhaps internationally? Why do you think the communication between architects and society is limited in how we build our cities?
TI: When I taught at universities as a visiting professor, I discovered that many professors did not design architecture themselves at all and focused solely on teaching architectural theories to students. I thought this was not a proper architectural education, so I founded a small architectural school. Although things did not go as expected initially, we now host a lecture series called “What is ...?”, inviting professionals from various fields. This series is well received because it teaches us how to “think” in an era where information is easily accessible. We have been running the architecture school for elementary students aged 10-12 since the founding of this NPO. I am pleased that some of the students from the early days are now university students majoring in architecture.
Architecture School: Courtesy of Ito Juku
Architecture School: Courtesy of Ito Juku
LŠ: A lot of your recent work has been taking place on smaller islands of Japan — why? What are the challenges for architecture today? How do you think sustainability within the field can be achieved?
TI: Small atelier offices like ours are not invited to projects in major cities like Tokyo; instead, larger architectural firms dominate the development of cities with homogeneous architecture. As a result, we have to participate in competitions to design public architecture in smaller cities.
In big cities worldwide, architecture has become little more than a tool for the economy, a challenge that is difficult to overcome.
Our office recently completed two large timber architecture projects. In timber structures, I see the potential for tomorrow’s architecture in the context of sustainability.
Gaia - Nanyang Technological University: ©Kai Nakamura
Gaia - Nanyang Technological University: ©Kai Nakamura
Mito City Civic Center: ©Kai Nakamura
Mito City Civic Center: ©Kai Nakamura
LŠ: Japan currently has numerous empty buildings, a phenomenon that artists such as Rei Naito have addressed in their work. As opposed to new buildings, architects are thinking of renovation. What are some of the challenges you see for this to become a larger practice?
TI: The large number of vacant timber buildings across Japan is a significant problem. However, renovating a house's insulation system and other facilities often costs more than building a new one, which has hindered progress. In Japan, there is no emotional resistance to demolishing old buildings and constructing new ones. I believe we should pursue a different path of renovation in the future.