Toyo Ito . Research

• • Title:Toyo Ito : works projects writings / edited by Andrea Maffei.
    
  • Published:Milan : Electa Architecture, 2002.
    
  • Physical description:361p : 378ill.(357col.). ; 28cm.
    
  • ISBN:1904313019
    
  • Contributors:Maffei, Andrea, 1968-
    
  • Subjects:Ito, Toyo.
  
  
  pp.9. Andrea Maffei stated : 'The works of Toyo Ito can be considered one of the most significant interpretations of the complexity of the Japanese world. It is difficult to make his architecture fit into a precise and consistent current of thought, and the fact is that it is not Ito's primary intention to pursue a single line of research or create a formal 'style' of his own that can be applied everywhere. His research starts out from an attentive observation of Japanese consumer society and an interpretation of its social context.
  
  ......These cities have no real and lasting substance like European cities. Instead, they retain the impermanence and precariousness of a macro-infrastructure. If we look at Japanese tradition, buildings were constructed out of wood, never stone or brick, owing to the constant threat of earthquakes, and this were habitually rebuilt after a short time as the materials worn out. In japanese culture the idea of solid and substantial architecture, designed to last, does not exit.
  
  .... Toyo Ito starts out from an objective analysis of the conditions of Japanese society and its modus vivendi and goes on to devise a solution of his own.
  (Modus vivendi is a Latin phrase signifying an agreement between those whose opinions differ, such that they agree to disagree.)
  
  
  Homogeneous Space -
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homogeneous_space
  
  pp.10. The White U., a house he built for his sister, a musicologist, marks instead the beginning of his attempt to rise above any formal constraint and move toward the neutrality of a homogeneous space, without any windows opening onto the street, but only onto an internal courtyard, so that the city cannot be seen. Relating to the complexity of the urban context and fragmentary character, the space is isolated and interiorised in the non-representational character o an absolutely white volume.
  
  all contact is lost with the outside, leading to an immaterial abstraction of the building. The constant fluidity of movement and change in the big city is synthesized in a choice of continuous and formless space. The negation of form frees the building from succession of distinct parts and permits the creation of a single fluid system.
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