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The mold problem reported at Toyo Ito’s groundbreaking Gaia mass timber structure for Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore appears to have been caused by exposure to rain and condensation, a late update from Global Construction Review said Friday. According to the publication, two... View full entry
The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) has just announced its acquisition of architect Toyo Ito’s early-career archive. The trove entails drawings, models, and sketches related to his practice Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects (founded as Urban Robot) from 1971 until 1989. The... View full entry
Toyo Ito has shared photo and video updates at the conclusion of his firm’s monumental academic building project, titled "Gaia," for the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. The completed mass timber design is now reportedly the largest of its kind in Asia, topping out at six... View full entry
The fictional film will be set in a public restroom that is part of the real-life urban renewal project known as the “The Tokyo Toilet project", which involves the creation of 17 public bathrooms in key locations in the Japanese capital with designs by world renowned Japanese architects, such as Tadao Ando and Sou Fujimoto.
Wenders said he was inspired by the futuristic look and unique cultural spirit of the project and decided to set his forthcoming untitled film inside one of them.
— The Hollywood Reporter
The angsty Alice in the Cities and Tokyo-Ga director said “there is something very Japanese about the idea, about the whole setting […] I almost think it’s a Utopian idea” in reference to the Nippon Foundation’s two-year-old Tokyo Toilet project, which has to date produced... View full entry
Pritzker Prize-winning architect Toyo Ito has unveiled a public bathroom in the shape of three mushrooms as part of the Tokyo Toilet project. Ito’s contribution is the 11th toilet to open out of the 17 spread and planned across Tokyo’s Shibuya district. The unique bathroom is located at... View full entry
This post is brought to you by Cal State Polytechnic University, Pomona, an Archinect School Partner The Department of Architecture, California Polytechnic University, Pomona is pleased to award Toyo Ito the 2021 Richard J. Neutra Award for Professional Excellence. The Neutra... View full entry
Architecture for Dogs, a playful collection of, well, architecture for dogs, is currently on display for an exhibition at Japan House London. The initiative was "invented by architects" and features designs by architects including MVRDV, Kengo Kuma, Toyo Ito, Ma Yansong, Sou Fujimoto, and... View full entry
Noteworthy Japanese architects, and even some Pritzker Prize laureates, are among the creators of 17 innovative public restroom designs throughout the bustling Shibuya area of Tokyo. Launched by the non-profit The Nippon Foundation, THE TOKYO TOILET project hopes to create save, clean, and... View full entry
Freed from the conventions of architecture and construction, what would this world look like?
It’s a question Japanese architect Junya Ishigami has been trying to answer for the past decade, dreaming of structures that are as light as a cloud, as vast as the sky, as random as the trees in a forest or the stars in the sky.
— The Guardian
Glass Pavilion, Park Groot Vijversburg, NL. Image: junya.ishigami+associates.The Guardian's architecture critic, Oliver Wainwright, takes a closer at the fascinating work of Junya Ishigami, the bright new star on the Japanese architecture firmament, who is catching more and more mainstream... View full entry
Many local architects complain that these high-end follies are not serious architecture, but gimmicky flash. In many cases they are right. But that’s O.K. Form, as any architect will learn, follows function. In this case it’s selling a name and a mystique. — NYT
Sam Lubell visited Tokyo for some "architectural shopping", taking in the works of many architecture stars (including Herzog and De Meuron, Toyo Ito, Sanaa and MVRDV), for global luxury brands. Thus the requisite trips to sites in Omotesando and Ginza.If you were looking for "spectacular, game... View full entry
Wood latticework, green shrubbery, sunken sports fields and temple-like touches can be seen in the two final design proposals for Tokyo’s controversial new Olympic Stadium. [...] The new proposals [...] are more understated in style and also smaller in physical form compared to the originally commissioned design. [...]
The agency has not named the firms behind the two final designs, although unconfirmed local media reports stated that they were Kengo Kuma and Toyo Ito [...].
— telegraph.co.uk
Design A - rumored to be by the office of Kengo Kuma.Design B - believed to come from Toyo Ito's firm.Which design is your immediate favorite? Who is going to finally build the Japan National Stadium? Let us know in the comment section.UPDATE: Kengo Kuma selected for new Tokyo Olympic... View full entry
From Kiev to Los Angeles, from mind-bending artist Dan Graham to stately architect Kevin Roche, the Graham Foundation has announced the 49 international winners of its 2015 Grants to Organizations. Each year, the Foundation gives out two sets of grants: one for individuals including architects... View full entry
In an era when many architects are acclaimed for impressive rhetoric or jaw-dropping computer renderings — or both — [Ito] has earned his following in purely architectural terms. He knows how to build, to shape space in a way that respects traditional craftsmanship and seems utterly contemporary. [...]
That odd and productive co-dependence of design and place, architect and site, is a relationship that doesn't really exist in any other art form.
— latimes.com
“They don’t want a foreigner to build in Tokyo for a national stadium. On the other hand, they all have work abroad. Whether it’s Sejima, Toyo Ito, or Maki or Isozaki or Kengo Kuma.”
Last month Isozaki, 83, wrote an open letter to the Japan Sports Council, the government body in charge of plans for the 2020 Games, in which he attacked the “distorted” process that has led to “a dull, slow form”.
— theguardian.com
Previously View full entry
A Mexican federal agency has denied the environmental permit to allow the construction of the $105m International Baroque Museum in Puebla, less than a month after the groundbreaking ceremony.
The project, designed by the Japanese architect and 2013 Pritzker Prize-winner Toyo Ito, was deemed “not applicable” by Semarnat’s (the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources) General Directorate of Environmental Impact and Risk.
— theartnewspaper.com
