Sunday was the final day of the Milano Arch Week, so I and some others went to a lecture by Toyo Ito. He’s famous. I didn’t know that, but some of his work looks like stuff you can get in a Sims 4 expansion pack, so you can say I’m familiar with his work. The garden area of the Triennale was packed (this is when we realized that he’s a famous architect), so a girl sat down on one of the plants. Not very nice…
I enjoyed his lecture about combatting homogenization in Tokyo’s architecture. Newer architecture in Japan is very rational and strict (I’m not sure if this is what Ito meant by “homogeneous” though), in contrast to Milan’s architecture, which I feel is more unique to the designer and period. His main goal in his projects is to create a space that functions well for the area and the people using it. This is done by both drawing from and integrating nature. For example, the Gifu Library Ito built acts like a living structure, and adjusts its temperature by using water from the land around it (or something like that, I don’t get physics).
of the Tama University Library from an Australian website.
I thought it was interesting to think about Ito’s goal in comparison to the Milan designer, Portaluppi. Like Portaluppi, Ito’s work is a reaction to rapid urbanization, although his focuses more on the functionality of a specific space, whereas Portaluppi wanted to capture a message through structure and aesthetic.