Announcements
Urban Thinkers Campus Webinar: Healthy Environments Through Architecture
As a partner of UN-Habitat, initiators of the Urban Thinkers Campus, the UIA will host a webinar on 24 October 2020 at 12h00 GMT. Moderated by UIA Council Member Kevin Bingham, the event will seek to discuss the theme, Healthy Environments through Architecture. It will include presentations from global experts and opening remarks from UIA President Thomas Vonier.
Register for the webinar here.
PAM – 2nd Survey To Access The Impact Of The MCO And COVID-19 On Architecture Firms
- This is a follow-up survey by the PAM Research & Futures Committee to better understand the impact of the MCO on our firms.
- Findings of our first survey (5-10 May 2020) were used to assist policymakers in formulating relief measures found in PENJANA.
- In order to ensure accuracy of the survey, we ask only one Director/Principal per architectural practice to answer the survey.
- Thank you for returning your survey to PAM to help us better support Architects to steer us through these challenging times.
- This survey is only open from 4 - 18 July 2020.
Click the link to start the survey:
Little Architects Drawing-Design Competition Prize Annoucement
PAM's Participation and Proposals to Ministries During MCO Period March - June 2020
Interview with Toyo Ito, UIA Gold Medal 2017
Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects
Interview with Toyo Ito, UIA Gold Medal 2017
By UIA / International Union of ArchitectsJapanese architect Toyo Ito was awarded the 2017 UIA Gold Medal at the UIA World Congress of Architects in Seoul (Korea). A pioneer of conceptual architecture and postmodernism, constantly exploring the potential of new forms in the built environment, he was also awarded the Pritzker Prize in 2013.
Can you tell us about what you’re working on at the moment?
We have been working on Japanese public architecture since the 1990s and are now undertaking two new public projects. Looking back at our past public projects, I realised that it is more important to create a space where people can be comfortable and have an enjoyable time no matter the program, than to create a space specifically for one program. I would like to create architecture that can provide comfortable spaces for people regardless of age.
White U (Japan) Toyo Ito &Associates, Architects ©Koji Taki
What is the starting point and creative process for your projects?
I found that the interior spaces of my starting point “White U” and my recent project “National Taichung Theater” resemble each other. Both spaces remind us of space within a cave and I feel this cave-like space is my true spatial representation derived from my instinctive bodily senses. Rather than logically thinking about architecture, I find it important to go beyond logic and rely on the instinctive bodily senses that bring out the most creative essence of architecture.
National Taichung Theatre (Taiwan), Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects, ©Kai Nakamura
Which of your projects best reflects your design philosophy and why?
“Sendai Mediatheque” reflects my design philosophy the most. Through this project, I tried to bring back nature into architecture by not designing from the functional point of view. In nature, people encounter many places and decide what to do according to the sense of place. By pursuing this process in architecture, people can choose a place freely and spend their time shifting between places. This project allowed me to aim a little bit beyond modernism, which is based on functionality.
Sendai Mediatheque (Japan) Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects
How do you see your work to evolving in the future?
By developing my design philosophy as described in your previous question, I would like to pursue rediscovering the relationship between architecture and nature that goes beyond functionalism, to create spaces that are freer and more comfortable, which modernist architecture was not able to achieve.
Sendai Mediatheque (Japan) Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects
The International Union of Architects (UIA) is an international non-governmental organisation based in Paris. Established in 1948, it is the only organisation representing architects across the globe working to unify architects, influence public policies on construction and development, and advance architecture in service to the needs of society.
