While the building principally functions as a library and art gallery, the administration has actively worked to relax divisions between diverse programs, removing fixed barriers between various media to progressively evoke an image of how cultural facilities should. Through designs for projects including the sendai mediatheque, tama art university library hachioji campus and taichung metropolitan opera house, toyo ito expresses a visionary architectural language that addresses structure in terms of flow and continuum rather than opposition. We use cookies to maximise your experience and make our website easier for you to use. Toyo ito wins the pritzker prize architecture agenda. The author, miyamoto musashi was an unparalleled man in swordsmanship in his time. Columns replaced with vertical shafts for light and circulation. This makes it a good location which is located within the main town of sendai, japan. The book sendai mediatheque presents the process of design and construction of itos prototype during the six years between the buildings initial design through to its completion in 2001.
Thia book is based on the kenneth kassler endowed lecture delivered by ito at princeton university school of architecture in the spring of 2009. Some small temples and a castle are witness of its history, but the reason why sendai has achieved international renown. Nearby is the matsushima bay, one of japans three most famous natural sceneries, along with the itsukushima shrine in the island of miyajima and amanohashidate. Highlighting sendai mediatheque together with completed and unrealised works during the 1990s. Located in an area of 50 x 50 m, the multimedia library should contain several features. The book is delivered primarily in ito s voice, through the lecture transcript, which is the focus of the book, and through extended interviews, and a previously untranslated essay from 1980, all of which tie together his ideas of. It has been said that the sendai mediatheque 2000, with its revolutionary. Its a transparent cube, composed of tubes and platforms.
From modest origins as a cultural centre and library in a provincial town, toyo ito s sendai mediatheque celebrates and displays its different activities and inventive structure in a dramatic urban shop window. Series foreword preface solution seeing the sendai mediatheque the sendai solid structural design for the sendai mediatheque building in the information age. Sendai mediatheque 2004, paperback at the best online prices at ebay. It was designed by toyo ito in 1995 and completed in 2001. His architecture makes innovative use of steel and aluminum and includes such paradigm shifting buildings as the white u house and the eggs of winds in tokyo. The mediatheque aspires to integrate real and virtual worlds or, in itos words, the primitive body of natural flow and the virtual body of electronic flow. Sendai mediatheque is widely recognised as one of ito s seminal works.
Planning for the sendai mediatheque began in 1994 when they held a competition for the design of the building. Sendai mediatheque book by ito, toyo riba bookshop. The sendai mediatheque is a mixedprogram public facility which combines library and art gallery functions located in the city of sendai, japan. The book sendai mediatheque presents the process of design and construction of itos prototype during the six years between the buildings initial design. Sendai mediatheque is widely recognised as one of itos seminal works. His architecture makes innovative use of steel and aluminum and includes such paradigmshifting buildings as the white u house and the eggs of winds in tokyo. The general concept,was the free public accessibility.
With the intentions of designing a transparent cultural media center that is supported by a unique system to allow complete visibility and transparency to the surrounding community, the sendai mediatheque by toyo ito is. This is strikingly reflected in the buildings discussed in this book. Toyo ito, sendai mediatheque ghent university library. Upon approaching the sendai mediatheque, the public is led into a continuation of the surrounding city into the double height hall of the main entrance through large panes of glass. I was expecting more from this book, but just for it to be done by ito himself is a. The mediatheque is a prototypical building typology that is not attuned to one set specific program. A study of toyo ito s mediatheque in sendai, which is predicated on the idea that the users of the building occupy a digital ecology. Cookies are very small text files that are stored on your computer when you visit some websites. Forces of nature and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at. The book investigates the evolution of the structure through a series of essays by experts on media, architectural technology, and digital culture. The sendai mediatheque library, completed in sendai, japan, in 2001, burnished the architect toyo ito s image after it withstood an earthquake in 2011. Sendai mediatheque by toyo ito, photo by kevin mckitrick kmckitrick.
Just a little to remember, but the brain is a beautiful thing and relatively easy to remember these. Toyo ito sendai mediatheque toyo ito s sendai mediatheque is an example of a building that embraces the multidimensionality, diversity, and uncertainty of living in a computerized world witte, 2002 by acting as a nodal link that enables an oscillating relationship between people and information. Musashi is wellknown for his unique doublebladed style and the. On architectural meaning and its limits electronic technology, society, and architecture processing incompletion the walls re. The plans for the facility called for a multifunctional building including library, gallery, and visual media center. It also discussed in detail the three central themes, boundaries, flows and cavities holes that has inspired toyo ito since the completion of white u 1978. Solution ron witte seeing the sendai mediatheque ryue nishizawa the sendai solid sanford kwinter structural design for the sendai mediatheque mutsuro sasaki building in the information age. Aug 17, 2015 library in japan designed by toyo ito that has a unique continuous structure. The sendai mediatheque project was announced with a competition organized by the city administration of sendai. Sendai, located 300 km north of tokyo and known as the city of trees, is a city of one million inhabitants.
This structure allow for open planning and is used to define programme and zones throughout the building. I was expecting more from this book, but just for it to be done by ito himself is a honour. He calls the sendai mediatheque, completed in 2001 in sendai city, miyagi, japan, one of the high points of his career. To that end, toyo ito built a mediatheque a kind of cuttingedge public library in sendai, japan, back in 2001. As you read the book, you have a variety of meanings, their origins, ambitions, history and nuances, as well as various circles and subtransfers each story. Sendai mediatheque is a library in sendai, miyagi prefecture, japan. Sendai is a provincial capital, about 300km north of tokyo, which was levelled in the second world war and rebuilt on a spacious grid plan. The sendai mediatheque was to be built on an old bus depot in sendai. It was a competition winning scheme chosen in 1995 from amongst 235 competing proposals. Discover delightful childrens books with prime book box, a subscription that delivers new books every 1, 2, or 3 months new customers receive 15% off your. The architect toyo ito s winning entry for the open competition was eventually commissioned by the town of sendai in 1995. Toyo ito, sendai mediatheque hiroto kobayashi, ron witte published in 2002 in munich new york cambridge mass by prestel harvard university graduate school of design.
The sendai mediatheque is a mixed and multisystem open office it mixes library and other public room functions. It was designed by toyo ito in 1995 and completed in sendai mediateque by toyo ito. In the phaidon book, toyo ito, he explains, the mediatheque differs from conventional public buildings in many ways. This publication showcased the offices recent ongoing and unrealised projects after sendai mediatheque 2001, with a particular emphasis on the design processes. In the competition specifications, the project is referred to as, an intellectual new area of urban function such as sensory art, books for the new age. Toyo ito wins the pritzker architecture prize the new. Ripplelike contour lines of activities occurring around the tubes. Sendai mediatheque case series paperback august 1, 2002 by ron witte author. In 1995 sendai, japan held design competitions for the sendai mediatheque, which would have an audiovisual media centre, a civil art gallery and service centre for people with visual and hearing disabilities. In the phaidon book, toyo ito, he explains, the mediatheque differs from.
In the phaidon book, toyo ito, he explains, the sendai mediatheque differs from conventional public buildings in many ways. Sendai mediatheque toyo ito kevin mckitrick toyo ito. Diagram architecture toyo ito s sendai mediatheque, japancompleted in 2001 the diagram is in fact the dance of the movement, which is, on one level, strange, since the word was first introduced into architectural criticism in 1996 by toyo ito. Sendai mediatheque by toyo ito japanese patterns of design.