By incorporating elements of nature into each project, Japanese architect Toyo Ito celebrates the human connection to the surrounding landscape
Toyo Ito does not build monuments. His architecture can be monumental certainly, but at its core there is something intimate and self-effacing. In 2013, when Ito was awarded with the Pritzker Prize—often considered the Nobel Prize for architecture—critic Thomas de Monchaux described him as a “chameleon” who puts the lie to the notion of the architect as hero.
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Ito himself acknowledges that his work is always a collaboration, whether it is with the many talented young architects in his firm, some of whom have gone on to earn their own fame and acclaim, or with the people who eventually populate the buildings he designs.
A lot of architecture look more beautiful without human inhabitants. But I have always intended to design architecture to look more beautiful with humans present.