Fifth Edition 2015-2016
Toyo Ito
Japan
Born in Seoul in 1941, and soon back to Japan with his family, he graduated in 1965 from the University of Tokyo. From 1965 to 1969 he cooperated with Kiyonori Kikutake, and in 1971 he founded the Urban Robot firm, renamed Toyo Ito & Associates in 1979.
His works have been published all over the world and he was awarded numerous prizes and honours, including the Architecture Institute of Japan Award for the “Silver Hut” building (1986), the Grand Prize of Good Design Award for the Sendai Mediatheque (2001), the Golden Lion award at the 8th International Architecture Exhibition – Venice Biennale (2002); the Golden Compass award for the “Ripples” (2004) and “Horm” (2008) pieces of furniture; the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA, 2006), the Golden Lion for the best national pavilion at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition – Venice Biennale (2012) and finally the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2013).