Born in 1941. After graduating from the University of Tokyo, Department of Architecture in 1965, Mr. Ito worked for the Metabolist architect Kiyonori Kikutake until 1969. In 1971 he opened his own office, Urban Robot (URBOT), which was renamed to Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects in 1979. He has taught at the University of Tokyo as a Visiting Lecturer (1988~89), at Columbia University (1991) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) (1999) as a Visiting Professor, at Kyoto University as a Visiting Lecturer (2002~07) and at Tama Art University as a Guest Professor (2002~). He also has been a commissioner of the Kumamoto Artpolis since 2005.