17 Facts About Toyo Ito

Toyo Ito is a Japanese architect known for creating conceptual architecture, in which he seeks to simultaneously express the physical and virtual worlds.

In 2013, Ito was awarded the Pritzker Prize, one of architecture's most prestigious prizes.

Toyo Ito was a likely front-runner for the Pritzker Prize for the previous 10 years.

Toyo Ito was born in Keijo, Japanese Korea to Japanese parents on 1 June 1941.

Toyo Ito's father returned to Japan just before the end of the Second World War to live with his family.

Toyo Ito has stated that his experience of living by Lake Suwa and the stillness of its waters had a great impact on him as an architect later in life.

Toyo Ito attended Hibiya High School in central Tokyo, where he was a member of the baseball team.

Toyo Ito matriculated at the University of Tokyo in 1961, and chose architecture as his field of specialisation in his second year only because his grades for the first year was not good.

Toyo Ito originally intended to study either mechanical or electrical engineering.

Toyo Ito graduated from the University of Tokyo's department of architecture in 1965.

Toyo Ito's office is known as a training ground for talented younger architects.

Toyo Ito's work is often said to have affinities with the ideas of philosophers such as Munesuke Mita and Gilles Deleuze.

Toyo Ito has defined architecture as "clothing" for urban dwellers, particularly in the contemporary Japanese metropolis.

In 1991, Toyo Ito used 130 video projectors to simulate the urban environment of Tokyo for the Visions of Japan exhibition at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Toyo Ito similarly exploited the effect of video projection as a medium with which to exhibit architecture in his Blurring Architecture exhibition, initiated at the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen and traveling to four other cities.

Toyo Ito is an honorary professor at the University of North London and has served as guest professor at Columbia University.

Toyo Ito teaches at Tama Art University Graduate program as a professor.