RIBA Gold Medallist: Toyo Ito.Korean-born, Tokyo-based architect Toyo Ito Toyo Ito (伊東豊雄, Itō Toyo'o; 1941-) is considered "one of the world's most innovative and influential architects" (Designboom). is this year's RIBA RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medallist. While remaining deceptively de·cep·tive·ly adv. In a deceptive or deceiving manner; so as to deceive. Usage Note: When deceptively is used to modify an adjective, the meaning is often unclear. youthful, Ito is widely accepted to be one of Japan's leading architectural figures, ahead perhaps of direct contemporaries Tadao Ando (who was awarded the Gold Medal gold medal traditional first prize. [Western Cult: Misc.] See : Prize in 1996) and Itsuko Hasegawa Itsuko Hasegawa 長谷川 逸子 (1941 - ) is a noted Japanese architect. Hasegawa was born in Shizuoka, received her degree in architecture from Kanto Gakuin University (1964), trained with Kiyonori Kikutake until 1969, and then studied and worked . His work has clear sympathies with this year's judges, who included Professor Peter Cook, Ian Ritchie, Chris Wilkinson Chris Wilkinson (born January 5, 1970 in Southampton) is a former tennis player from England, who turned professional in 1989. He represented Great Britain at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, where he was defeated in the first round by Morocco's Younes El Aynaoui. , and Odile Decq, and while some more distant observers expected the honour to go to Alvaro Siza (seven years Ito's senior), Ito is indeed a worthy recipient. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Already Ito's work has had a huge influence around the world, and his pioneering experiments with lightness and transparency have taken steel and glass away from the cool confines of High-Tech with revolutionary new structures such as his stunning Tower of the Winds in Yokohama (1986). His most celebrated building, considered to be one of the world's recent masterpieces, is the Sendai Mediatheque, completed in 2001 (AR October 2001); a building that somehow managed to recontextualise Corbusier's Domino diagram with subtle Japanese nuance while creating one of the world's most visionary contemporary civic institutions. What is clear with Ito, however, despite the fact that the Gold Medal is awarded in recognition of a lifetime's work, is that there is much more to come from this architect; an architect who besides his talent also comes with the label of being one of architecture's few genuine Mr Nice Guys. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] |
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