Paul Clemence: This exhibit could have been a retrospective of your life’s work at one of the most important cultural institutions in the world—an opportunity that most architects would have jumped at. But you had something else in mind.

Toyo Ito: I never have had a show of just my work, like a retrospective-type of exhibit, from start to finish. I am not interested in that. It would feel like there’s an end, like an end to the work, to the life. When you show the work in a retrospective manner it’s hard to extend myself further, it’s like just looking back. And I am interested more in the continuation of the work, the present, and what’s still to come. I find it more interesting showing my influences and the people that possibly were influenced by me. Maybe even people that I have competed with. So there is this stimulating feeling of exchange in the exhibit.

PC: The show suggests a certain sense of interconnectedness within this group. But being that there are so many egos involved, and how competitive architecture can be, are there also rivalries?

TI:  (Laughing) Yes, sometimes rivalries, if in a competition...

PC:  What is the importance today of this show at MoMA?

TI: It’s very important to have a show like this right now. It’s basically like cutting open what the Japanese architecture scene is like in 2016 and showing it to the world. I feel very grateful for this opportunity, that this is happening right now, and that so many people can see what Japanese architecture is going through right now.

PC: Exhibition curator Pedro Gadanho spoke about how the architecture on display highlights a certain sublime experience of space that can be created through buildings. Is the search for the sublime something you consciously pursue in your designs?

TI: I don’t intentionally go for the sublime. By comparison, SANAA’s work might have more of a poetic approach, since they have been more involved with art and maybe have more of an art influence. In this exhibition there’s three different generations, and you can see that reflected in the different approaches.

PC: What is for you the definition and importance of beauty?  

TI:  There’s a common notion of beauty in Japanese architecture, traditionally anyway. There’s a wish to take away certain elements to make it as simple and pure as possible, and that is an approach you see in Japanese architecture, but, even in the design of a  simple teacup or dish, it’s this elegance of simplicity. And I think you can feel that approach in all the works here. And I would say that could be defined as beauty.

PC: When you start a project, do you consciously pursue that elegance of simplicity?

TI: I am always aware of this abstractness of building.

....