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Thom Mayne, FAIA, the 2013 winner of the AIA Gold Medal winner and 2005 Pritzker Prize laureate, sat down (via Skype) with 2013 Pritzker Prize Laureate, Toyo Ito, Hon. FAIA. The SoCal Sculpturalist reached out across the Pacific to talk to Tokyo's post-Metabolist master about his career in design and the changing role of architectural practice in a post-digital age.
Mayne describes Ito as an "architect's architect"—and in this exclusive video for ARCHITECT, the two discuss what that means.
Toyo
Ito was born on June 1, 1941 in Keijo (Seoul), Korea (Japanese). His
father was a business man with a special interest in the early ceramic
ware of the Yi Dynasty of Korea and Japanese style paintings. He also
was a sports fan of baseball and golf. In 1943, Ito, his mother, and his
two elder sisters moved back to Japan. Two years later, his father
returned to Japan as well, and they all lived in his father’s hometown
of Shimosuwa-machi in Nagano Prefecture. His father died in 1953, when
he was 12. After that the rest of family operated a miso (bean paste)
making factory. At present, all but one sister who is three years older
than Ito, have died. Ito established his own architecture office in 1971, and the
following year he married. His wife died in 2010. They had one daughter
who is now 40 and is editing Vogue Nippon. In his youth, Ito admits to not having a great interest in
architecture. There were several early influences however. His
grandfather was a lumber dealer, and his father liked to draw plans for
his friends’ houses. When Ito was a freshman in high school, his mother
asked the early Modernist architect, Yoshinobu Ashihara, who had just
returned to Japan from the U.S. where he worked at Marcel Breuer’s
office, to design their home in Tokyo. He was in the third grade of junior high school when he moved to
Tokyo and went to Hibiya High School. At the time, he never dreamed he
would become an architect—his passion was baseball. It was while
attending the University of Tokyo that architecture became his main
interest. For his undergraduate diploma design, he submitted a proposal
for the reconstruction of Ueno Park, which won the top prize of the
University of Tokyo. Toyo Ito began working in the firm of Kiyonori Kikutake &
Associates after he graduated from Tokyo University’s Department of
Architecture in 1965. By 1971, he was ready to start his own studio in
Tokyo, and named it Urban Robot (Urbot). In 1979, he changed the name to
Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects. He has received numerous international awards, including in 2010, the
22nd Praemium Imperiale in Honor of Prince Takamatsu; in 2006, The
Royal Institute of British Architects’ Royal Gold Medal; and in 2002,
the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement for the 8th Venice Biennale
International Exhibition. All of his honors are listed in the fact
summary of this media kit. He has been a guest professor at the
University of Tokyo, Columbia University, the University of California,
Los Angeles, Kyoto University, Tama Art University, and in the spring
semester of 2012, he hosted an overseas studio for Harvard’s Graduate
School of Design, the first in Asia. His works have been the subject of museum exhibitions in England,
Denmark, the United States, France, Italy, Chile, Taiwan, Belgium, and
numerous cities in Japan. Publications by and about him have appeared in
all of those countries and more. He holds Honorary Fellowships in the
American Institute of Architects, Royal Institute of British Architects,
the Architecture Institute of Japan, the Tokyo Society of Architects
and Building Engineers, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. One of his first projects in 1971 was a home in a suburb of Tokyo.
Called “Aluminum House,” the structure consisted of wooden frame
completely covered in aluminum. Most of his early works were residences.
In 1976, he produced a home for his sister, who had recently lost her
husband. The house was called “White U” and generated a great deal of
interest in Ito’s works. It was demolished in 1997. Of most of his work
in the 1980’s, Ito explains that he was seeking to erase conventional
meaning from his works through minimalist tactics, developing lightness
in architecture that resembles air and wind. He calls the Sendai Mediatheque, completed in 2001 in Sendai City,
Miyagi, Japan, one of the high points of his career. In the Phaidon
book, Toyo Ito, he explains, “The Mediatheque differs from
conventional public buildings in many ways. While the building
principally functions as a library and art gallery, the administration
has actively worked to relax divisions between diverse programs,
removing fixed barriers between various media to progressively evoke an
image of how cultural facilities should be from now on. This openness is
the direct result of its simple structure, consisting of flat concrete
slabs (which are honey-comb steel plates with concrete) penetrated by 13
tubes. Walls on each floor are kept to an absolute minimum, allowing
the various functions to be freely distributed throughout the open areas
between the tubes.“ In delivering the Kenneth Kassler lecture at Princeton University in 2009, Ito explained his general thoughts on architecture: “The natural world is extremely complicated and variable, and its
systems are fluid – it is built on a fluid world. In contrast to this,
architecture has always tried to establish a more stable system. To be
very simplistic, one could say that the system of the grid was
established in the twentieth century. This system became popular
throughout the world, as it allowed a huge amount of architecture to be
built in a short period of time. However, it also made the world’s cities homogenous. One might even
say that it made the people living and working there homogenous too. In
response to that, over the last ten years, by modifying the grid
slightly I have been attempting to find a way of creating relationships
that bring buildings closer to their surroundings and environment.” Ito
amends that last thought to “their natural environment.” In the fashionable Omotesando area of Tokyo, Ito designed a building
in 2004 for TOD’S, an Italian shoe and handbag company, in which trees
provided a source of inspiration. The Ito office provides its own
description of the project: “Trees are natural objects that stand by themselves, and their shape
has an inherent structural rationality. The pattern of overlapping tree
silhouettes also generates a rational flow of forces. Having adapted the
branched tree diagram, the higher up the building, the thinner and more
numerous the branches become, with a higher ration of openings.
Similarly, the building unfolds as interior spaces with slightly
different atmospheres relating to the various intended uses. Rejecting the obvious distinctions between walls and opening, lines
and planes, two- and three dimensions, transparency and opaqueness, this
building is characterized by a distinctive type of abstractness. The
tree silhouette creates a new image with a constant tension generated
between the building’s symbolic concreteness and its abstractness. For
this project, we (Ito and his staff) intended to create a building that
through its architectural newness expresses both the vivid presence of a
fashion brand and strength in the cityscape that will withstand the
passage of time.” After designing critically-acclaimed buildings like Sendai
Mediatheque, Ito became an architect of international importance during
the early-2000s leading to projects throughout Asia, Europe, North
America and South America. Ito designed the Main Stadium for the 2009
World Games in Kaohsiung and the under-construction Taichung
Metropolitan Opera House, both in Taiwan. In Europe, Ito and his firm
renovated the façade of the Suites Avenue Apartments with striking
stainless steel waves and, in 2002, designed the celebrated temporary
Serpentine Pavilion Gallery in London’s Hyde Park. Other projects during
this time include the White O residence in Marbella, Chile and the
never-built University of California, Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film
Archive in California. Perhaps most important to Ito, however, are the projects in his home
country, made more pressing by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11,
2011. The disaster spurred Ito and a group of other Japanese architects
to develop the concept of “Home-for-All” communal space for survivors.
As Ito says in Toyo Ito - Forces of Nature published by Princeton Architectural Press: “The relief centers offer no privacy and scarcely enough room to
stretch out and sleep, while the hastily tacked up temporary housing
units are little more than rows of empty shells: grim living conditions
either way. Yet even under such conditions, people try to smile and make
do…. They gather to share and communicate in extreme circumstances – a
moving vision of community at its most basic. Likewise, what we see here
are very origins of architecture, the minimal shaping of communal
spaces. An architect is someone who can make such spaces for meager meals
show a little more humanity, make them a little more beautiful, a little
more comfortable.” For Ito, the fundamental tenets of modern architecture were called
into question by “Home-for-All.” He adds, “In the modern period,
architecture has been rated highest for its originality. As a result,
the most primal themes—why a building is made and for whom—have been
forgotten. A disaster zone, where everything is lost offers the
opportunity for us to take a fresh look, from the ground up, at what
architecture really is. ‘Home-for-all’ may consist of small buildings,
but it calls to the fore the vital question of what form architecture
should take in the modern era—even calling into question the most primal
themes, the very meaning of architecture.” The Pritzker Jury commented on Ito’s direct expression of his sense of social responsibility citing his work on “Home-for-All.” Recently, Ito has also thought of his legacy, as apparent by the
museum of architecture that bears his name on the small island of
Omishima in the Seto Inland Sea. Also designed by Ito, the museum opened
in 2011 and showcases his past projects as well as serving as a
workshop for young architects. Two buildings comprise the complex, the
main building “Steel Hut” and the nearby “Silver Hut,” which is a
recreation of the architect’s former home in Tokyo, built in 1984.
Architecture 22 of 23 The Abby Sainte Foy de Conques
Introduction to Sainte Foy, Conques, France | https://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/france/conques/stefoy/indexintro.html
"The abbey church, which has survived intact in its Romanesque form, is located in the town of Conques, from the Latin concha, meaning a shell (appropriate because the town is nestled in a gorge or hollow). This site was attractive as a retreat from the outside word to the early medieval founders of the abbey. Originally, in the 8th century there was a simple oratory at the site, but once the relics of Sainte Foy were in possession there (a Benedictine monk had stolen them from a monastery at Agen) in 866 and 883, the site was expanded. In the 11th century a new church was begun which was completed by the mid 12th century. This Romanesque pilgrimage church became a major stage on the Via Podiensis, the route between Le Puy and Moissac--one of the main pilgrimage roads to Santiago de Compostela.
The site became famous because it housed the relics of Sainte Foy, the daughter of a wealthy family in Agen who had converted to Christianity and thus refused to sacrifice to the pagan gods. In one of the last persecutions of Christians by the Romans, in 303 the proconsul Dacien condemned this 12-year old girl to be burned alive according to the imperial edict of Diocletian. Although the flames were "miraculously" extinguished, the young martyr was then beheaded. Her remains were saved and in later years miracles were attributed to their presence. Once the relics were situated at Conques, they attracted many pilgrims; stories of the blind seeing again or prisoners being freed are attributed to the saint's intercession. (The depiction of Sainte Foy on the tympanum of the church includes shackles hanging above her figure as a way of emphasizing these miracles.) Today in the Treasury of the church one can see some of the most fabulous golden religious objects in France, including the very famous gold and jewel-encrusted reliquary statue of St. Foy."
"At the center of the bottom row there are two doors, one to the left (Christ's right) to Heaven and one to Hell. (See far right image below for the door to Heaven.) Flanking this center scene are views of Heaven and Hell, each with a presiding figure--Abraham in Heaven and Lucifer in Hell. (See next page for Lucifer.) Abraham, depicted in the center, seems to be embracing two of the Elect, each carrying scepters with flowers. On Abraham's left are figures representing the Old Law--two prophets with scrolls and at the outer arch, female prophets, while on his right are New Testament figures..."
Architecture 19 of 23 Pierre Chareu Maison de Verre
AD Classics: Maison de Verre / Pierre Chareau + Bernard Bijvoet | http://www.archdaily.com/248077/ad-classics-maison-de-verre-pierre-chareau-bernard-bijvoet
"Built in 1932, the house uses various industrial and mechanical fixtures juxtaposed with a traditional style of home furnishings all under the transparency and lightness of the façade.
An interesting aspect of this house is the ubiquitous mechanical fixtures. On the ground floor was a medical suite for Dr. Jean Dalsace.
This unusual circulation arrangement was resolved by a rotating screen which hid the private stairs from patients during the day, but framed the stairs at night."
Brian Pagnotta. "AD Classics: Maison de Verre / Pierre Chareau + Bernard Bijvoet" 27 Jun 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 10 Dec 2015.
Maison de Verre | http://architectuul.com/architecture/maison-de-verre
The Maison de Verre (House of Glass) is a collaboration of the interior and furniture designer Pierre Chareau, the Dutch architect Bernard Bijvoet and The French metal craftsman Louis Dalbet. It was built between 1928 and 1932 and is a stunning example of modern architecture in the beginning of the twentieth century.
The Maison de Verre was commissioned by Dr. Jean Dalsace and his wife, Annie, who had bought the site, a 18th-century hôtel particulier next to the Latin Quarter in Paris. Much to their chagrin, the elderly tenant on the top floor of the building absolutely refused to sell, and the Dalsaces were obliged to demolish the bottom three floors of the building and construct the Maison de Verre underneath, without disturbing the original top floor. Viewed from the courtyard the house which cannot be seen from the street looks, the house looks like a glowing translucent box, its great glass-block facade embedded in the 18th-century fabric and capped by the old one-story apartment level above.
The Maison de Verre’s glass façade is made up of glass blocks supported by a steel frame structure. In the interior, spaces are separated by movable, sliding, folding or rotating screens in glass, sheet or perforated metal. Other mechanical components include an overhead trolley from the kitchen to dining room, a retracting stair from the private sitting room to Mme Dalsace's bedroom and complex bathroom cupboards and fittings. The whole steel structure with bare beams, the canalisation and conduits remain visible from the outside and contribute to the architecture thus transforming utilities into decorative elements. The glass block wall itself, is able to stand alone without the heavy frame. Ventilation through the glass block wall is provided by a series of movable traps. A weight and pulley system opens the window panels, allowing for natural ventilation. This unique system causes a minimum of visual impact on the glass facade of the structure.
The house which was used as a residency also comprised Dr. Dalsace’s gynecological practice which was located on the ground floor. A rotating screen hid the stairs leading to the private apartment in the upper floors from patients during the day, but framed the stairs at night. Pierre Chareau who was a distinguished furniture designer in Paris at the time gave enormous attention to detail, so much that the house itself was sometimes half-mockingly described as an elaborate piece of furniture.
In the mid-1930s, the Maison de Verre's double-height "salle de séjour" on the first floor was transformed into a salon regularly frequented by Marxist intellectuals like Walter Benjamin as well as by Surrealist poets and artists such as Louis Aragon, Paul Éluard, Jean Cocteau, Yves Tanguy, Joan Miró and Max Jacob. When the Nazis arrived in France, The Dalsaces had to flee the country. In 2006, Robert Rubin, an American collector, bought the house from the Dalsace family and carefully restored it. Today it is still in use as a private house.
Architecture 18 of 23 Claude Nicolas Ledoux The Saline of Arc et Senans
From the Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains to the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, the Production of Open-pan Salt | http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/203
The Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans, near Besançon, was built by Claude Nicolas Ledoux. Its construction, begun in 1775 during the reign of Louis XVI, was the first major achievement of industrial architecture, reflecting the ideal of progress of the Enlightenment. The vast, semicircular complex was designed to permit a rational and hierarchical organization of work and was to have been followed by the building of an ideal city, a project that was never realized.
The Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains was active for at least 1200 years until stopping activity in 1962. From 1780 to 1895, its salt water travelled through 21 km of wood pipes to the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans. It was built near the immense Chaux Forest to ensure its supply of wood for fuel. The Saltworks of Salins shelters an underground gallery from the 13th century including a hydraulic pump from the 19th century that still functions. The boiler house demonstrates the difficulty of the saltworkers’ labour to collect the “White Gold”.
Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
The saltworks in Salins-les-Bains and Arc-et-Senans demonstrate outstanding universal value in terms of the extent of the chronological timeframe during which the extraction of salt continued in Salins, certainly from the Middle Ages, and probably from prehistoric times, through to the 20th century. Spa activity has extended its use until nowadays. The saltworks also demonstrate outstanding universal value in terms of the specific nature of salt production in Salins-les-Bains and Arc-et-Senans, based on a technique of tapping sources of salt deep underground, the use of fire to evaporate the brine, and the 18th century innovation of the creation of a 21km pipeline to carry the brine between the two sites. The saltworks express their value as well for the exceptional architectural quality of the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans and its participation in the movement of ideas in the Age of Enlightenment. It is testimony to a visionary architectural project of a ‘model factory.’ Developed and built by the architect and supervisor of saltworks in Franche-Comté and Lorraine, Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736–1806), Arc-et-Senans is the modern and Utopian extension of the Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains.
Criterion (i): The Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans is the first architectural complex on this scale and of this standard designed as a place of work. This is the first instance of a factory being built with the same care and concern for architectural quality as a palace or an important religious building. It is one of the rare examples of visionary architecture. The Saltworks was the heart of an Ideal City which Claude-Nicolas Ledoux imagined and designed encircling the factory. The unfinished Utopian architecture of the Saltworks still carries the full impact of its futuristic message.
Criterion (ii): The Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans bears witness to a fundamental cultural change in Europe at the end of the 18th century: the birth of industrial society. Besides being a perfect illustration of an entire philosophical current that swept Europe during the Age of Enlightenment, the Royal Saltworks heralded the industrial architecture that was to develop half a century later.
Criterion (iv): The saltworks of Salins-les-Bains and Arc-et-Senans provide an outstanding technical ensemble for the extraction and production of salt by pumping underground brine and the use of fire for its crystallisation, since at least the Middle Ages through to the 20th century.
"Claude Nicolas Ledoux
On September 20, 1771, Louis XV appointed Ledoux Commissioner of the Salt Works of Lorraine and Franché-Comté. As Commissioner, Ledoux was responsible for inspecting the different saltworks in eastern France. This gave him an opportunity to see many different saltworks, including those at Salins-les-Bains and Lons-le-Saunier, and to learn from them what one might want if designing a factory from scratch.
Two years later, Madame du Barry supported Ledoux's nomination to membership in the Royal Academie of Architecture. This permitted him to style himself as Royal Architect. (He was already the architect for the Ferme générale, the private customs and excise operation that collected many taxes on behalf of the king, under 6-year contracts.) It was on the basis of his positions as Inspector of the Saltworks and as Royal Architect that he received the commission to design the Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans."
Architecture 16 of 23 Sullivan & Adler Auditorium Building Chicago
Auditorium Building | http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/89.htmlThe Auditorium is one of Chicago's architectural masterpieces. Built in 1888 on the northwest corner of Congress and Michigan, it combines Dankmar Adler's engineering ingenuity with Louis Sullivan's architectural virtuosity. It was the brainchild of Ferdinand Peck, a Chicago impresario devoted to bringing the city a world-class opera house and theater. A hotel and office block were added in 1890 to ensure the theater's economic viability.
Adler and Sullivan received the commission based on Adler's expertise in acoustics and engineering. After preliminary, ornate designs, Peck accepted Sullivan's final scheme, which derived much of its character from H. H. Richardson's recently completed Marshall Field Wholesale Store, also in Chicago. Richardson's building was a warehouse that employed strong, solid massing without excessive ornament. The beauty of Sullivan's design (built 1887–1889) comes from his focus on the structure's overall mass and repetition of streamlined patterns to give this large building (63,350 square feet) with many uses a unified look. Sullivan's muted exterior stands in contrast to his elaborate interior designs, based on organic motifs.
The Auditorium demonstrates Adler's technical ability to accommodate a variety of uses, from political conventions to grand opera, under one roof. Innovations in foundation technology allowed the large, heavy building to be constructed on notoriously marshy land, and the latest techniques were employed to give the building uninterrupted spans.
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Auditorium_Building,_Chicago | Auditorium Building, Chicago
Later uses
On October 5, 1887, President Grover Cleveland laid the cornerstone for the Auditorium Building. The 1888 Republican National Convention was held in a partially finished building where Benjamin Harrison was nominated as a presidential candidate. On December 9, 1889, President Benjamin Harrison dedicated the building and opera star Adelina Patti sang "Home Sweet Home" to thunderous applause.[citation needed] Sullivan had also opened his offices on the 16th and 17th floors of the Auditorium tower.
The opera company renting the accommodation moved to the Civic Opera House in 1929, and the Auditorium Theatre closed during the Great Depression. In 1941, it was taken over by the city of Chicago to be used as a World War II servicemen's center. By 1946,Roosevelt University moved into the Auditorium Building,[8] but the theater was not restored to its former splendor.
In 1952, Congress Parkway was widened, bringing the curb to the southern edge of the building. To make room for a sidewalk, some ground-floor rooms and part of the theater lobby were removed and a sidewalk arcade created.[10]
On October 31, 1967, the Auditorium Theatre reopened and through 1975, the Auditorium served as a rock venue. Among other notable acts, the Grateful Dead played there ten times from 1971 through 1977.
The building was equipped with the first central air conditioning system and the theater was the first to be entirely lit by incandescentlight bulbs.[8] In 2001, a major restoration of the Auditorium Theatre was begun by Daniel P. Coffey and Associates in conjunction withEverGreene Architectural Arts to return the theater to its original colors and finishes.
On April 30, 2015, the National Football League held its 2015 NFL Draft in the Auditorium Theatre, the first time the league has held its annual draft in Chicago in more than 50 years.
Institute of Financial Economics and the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs Cordially held a panel discussion on Will Lebanon transit to a fully- fledged Democracy? Economic and Political Perspectives with Samir Makdisi, George Corm, Fadia Kiwan and Youssef El-Khalil
The rationale for Lebanon's sectarian consociational model adopted on the eve of independence was that in heterogeneous societies such as Lebanon's, it tended to promote stability and democracy. In practice, Lebanon's political model did allow for a significant space of freedom and plural political activity which, until the recent Arab uprisings, set apart Lebanon's political system from the autocratic regimes that characterized the Arab world. On the other hand it also led to unequal political rights among citizens, a weak central authority, weak political institutions and poor governance. Lebanon's political system did not prevent the onset of a long lasting civil war, whatever its underlying causes, or subsequently assure domestic political stability.
The ongoing developments in the Arab world will test the resiliency of Lebanese consociationalism, presenting both clear threats to it as well as opportunities for the country's democratic advancement. A major aim of this panel is to analyze Lebanon's post- independence politico/economic developments and, with the back drop of the recent Arab uprisings, to evaluate whether and how Lebanon can move forward towards a mature democracy that recognizes equal political and civil rights for citizens and promotes accountable institutions which aim to advance the public good.
Samir Makdisi, American University of Beirut George Corm, University of St.Joseph Fadia Kiwan, University of St.Joseph Youssef El Khalil, Bank of Lebanon and American University of Beirut
