by Maria Teresa Rubbiani26   Giugno   2014

Toyo ito, Pritzker prize at Cersaie 2014

The Japanese architect, famous all over the world for his extreme architectural solutions, is the sixth consecutive Pritzker prize welcomed at Bologna Exhibition

From Renzo Piano to Shigeru Ban, from Enzo Mari to Eduardo Souto de Moura, from Patricia Urquiola to Kazuyo Sejima; from emergency architecture to social housing, from Soleri’s arcology to women in architecture; going through Italy, Japan, Spain, China, India: architects, designers, critics of architecture and internationally renowned artists. More than 70 open meetings have been organised in five years, involving close to 200 speakers, 5 Pritzker prizes and several Compasso d’Oro award winners: “Building, Dwelling, Thinking” has been all that and even more.

The lecturer of the year will be Japanese architect Toyo Ito, 2013 Pritzker award winner, greatly appreciated for his extreme architectural designs and, as he defined himself, his “non material” architecture where the obsession for  lightness and transparency combines the phisical world with the virtual one. His lecture will be given Thursday Sept 25th at the Palazzo dei Congressi at Bologna Fiere at 11 am.

Toyo Ito is a leading exponent of architecture envisaging the contemporary idea of a simulated city. After the terrible 2011 tsunami he has showed an impressive working approach in his joint cooperation with other architects in their new planning project for rescue centres “Home-for-All”: a project strongly based on sociality and sharing, it features minimal common spaces where people get the chance of being together and go back to smiling again. Among his most important works the Tower of Winds, Yokohama; the Sendai Mediatheque; the Mikimoto Ginza in Tokyo; the Temporary Serpentine Gallery of London; the Taichung Metropolitan Opera House in Taiwan; the White O Residence in Marbella and the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive in California. And then the project developped for the rescue centres after the tsunami in 2011, created together with Kazuyo Sejima, Kengo Kuma, Hiroshi Naito and Riken Yamamoto. Home-for-All (Minna no Ie) is a real example of the social responsability of architecture, aiming at questioning the role of contemporary architects through a total re-thinking of architecture and bringing it back to its original function: projecting human spaces.
Endless are the prestigious prizes which have been won by Toyo Ito. Cersaie together with Ceramic Tiles of Italy are deeply honoured to host one of his lectures.

September 24th Francesco Dal Co will introduce Javier Corvalàn, an architect from Paraguay famous for his experiments with the Caja Oscura in Asunciòn.  Here light is at the core of  architecture. The building with a small hole on the wall, reminds of a dark room: what is outside is projected inside. These interesting experiments are not to be missed for those wishing to embark on new ways to envisage architecture.

Carme Pinòs, honorary member of the American Institute of Architects, will be hosted on Tuesday 23rd at the Architecture Gallery. Among her most relevant projects is the Requalification Urban Project of Saint Dizier historic city centre in France, where major intervention in public spaces is being carried out. But also the departmental building of the new Economics campus at Wien University (Austria). Carme Pinòs is one of the few women who has succeeded in an all-male architectural world: she has emerged both as an architect and as a master teacher.
 
Riccardo Blumer, Swisse architect and designer, will speak on the 26th at Palazzo dei Congressi for the tupsy-turvy conference. His La Leggera chair (designed for Alias) and Entronauta chair (made for Desalto) became part of the permanent MoMA museum of New York in 2010.
Sound and acoustics in architecture will be dealt with by Higini Arau on Sept 23rd. An international expert involved in the most important theatres and auditoriums all over the world, Arau is an engineer and combines his exact calculations with his own interest for architecture.

Fulvio Irace will guide a Forum on young Italian architects living abroad: this open public debate will give the opportunity for discussing the reasons why so many Italian architects have left Italy and will allow the architects themselves to explain how they work abroad.

The second edition of “Ceramic Futures” – the social project on ceramics involving Italian and European schools of design and created by Stefano Mirti will be presented on September 22nd.

Having said all that, it looks like Cersaie comes up as being quite unmissable this year: if you’ve never been, expect to broaden your horizons.
If you’ve been away for a while, come back! You’ll be able to witness the transformations ceramics has gone through over the last few years and you’ll be able to listen to interesting ideas from famous architects and designers.
If you keep coming back every year: why wouldn’t you?

For further information : www.cersaie.it