“Toyo Ito, a 71-year-old architect based in Japan, is the winner of the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize. The jury honored Ito for his more than four-decade career, in which he has created architecture that ‘projects an air of optimism, lightness and joy … infused with both a sense of uniqueness and universality.’ . . . Unlike so many of today’s so-called ‘starchitects,’ Ito cares about personal connections. He has built his share of splashy icons: apartments, fire hydrant red, in Barcelona; the stunning solar-powered stadium in Taiwan. But he has also poured his aesthetic philosophy and technical expertise into a public kindergarten, a firehouse and a community center for the elderly.” See photos and read more or listen to the NPR story here. See his website here.
