[t.a.]Toyo Ito was born in 1941. He graduated in architecture from the University of Tokyo in 1965. From 1965 to 1969 he worked at the studio Kiyonori Kikutake, one of the members of the movement Metabolism. In 1971 he opened his own studio in Tokyo, called, until 1979, Urban Robot (URBOT) and, subsequently, Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects. Honorary Professor of the University of North London, has taught at Columbia University in New York (1991-92 and 1994-95), the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam (1992) and Harvard University in Boston (1994-95 and 1995-96). He has participated in numerous personal and collective exhibitions and major international competitions, including those for the Maison de la culture du Japon a Paris (1990), in the library of the University of Paris (1992), for the expansion of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1997) and the Center for Contemporary Arts in Rome (1999). Among the various awards and recognitions received the prize of the Institute of Architecture for the home Japanese Silver Hut (1986), the prize of the city of Yatsushiro Kumamoto for the Museum (1991) and the Yatsushiro Fire Station (1996), the premium Interarch'97, gold medal of the Order of Architects in Bulgaria (1997), entitled to the prize Arnold W. Brunner the American Academy of Fine Arts (2000), the World Architecture Award for the East Asia Sendai Mediatheque (2002). Among the major recent works: the installation Helath Future at Expo 2000 in Hannover, the Sendai Mediatheque (1997-2001), an aluminum pavilion in Bruges, Belgium (2000-02). Among the projects under development: the hospital Cognacq-Jay in Paris, the M-Hall in Matsumoto, Nagano, and the office tower Mahler 4 Amsterdam.