The Pritzker Prize–winning architect Toyo Ito is gifting his archives to the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) Collection in Montreal. The gift consists of ephemera representing Ito’s works from 1971 to 1995 by his Tokyo-based office Urban Robot (URBOT), which was later renamed Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects.

Among the donations are drawings and models of White U, a house completed in 1976 Ito designed for his sister and her family known for its lightness, openness, and experimental nature. Ito’s gift also includes drafts of his Aluminum House, otherwise known as URBOT-001; the Useless Capsule House (URBOT-002); and the House at Kogenai, completed in 1979.

Many of the projects Ito’s firm produced in those years were private homes that were emblematic of a particular window in time for Japan, the CCA says. Projects like URBOT-001 and the Useless Capsule House are representative of when the country was rapidly urbanizing and embracing consumerism, the Centre continued.1

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Japanese architect Toyo Ito is gifting ephemera representing his office’s early works to the Canadian Centre for Architecture.
Japanese architect Toyo Ito is gifting ephemera representing his office’s early works to the Canadian Centre for Architecture. © CCA