biographies Sep09

Toyo Ito
Born in 1941, Ito graduated from Tokyo University, Department of Architecture in 1965.

Toyo Ito is one of the world's most innovative and influential architects. He is known for creating extreme concept buildings, in which he seeks tofuse the physical and virtual worlds. He is a leading exponent of architecture that addresses issues of the contemporary 'simulated' city.

exerpt from interview:
architecture as media-clothing...?
“I compared man to tarzan. tarzan in the jungle creates his body and develops it in contact with nature,in relation to the surrounding environment.modern man is a sort of tarzan who lives in the world of media, within a very developed technology. architecture should be a sort of media-clothing, which is necessary in order for man to have a relationshipwith and integrate himself into the environment. the idea of media-clothing is a metaphor.”

- designboom