About TOTO GALLERY・MA

Akihisa HIRATA：Discovering New（2018）© Nacása & Partners Inc.

TOTO GALLERY·MA is a gallery specializing in architecture that is operated by TOTO as part of the company's social contribution program. The gallery takes its name from the unique Japanese concept of ma-ai, which describes the spatiotemporal intervals or connective voids that are perceived between people, time, and space.

Since opening in October 1985, TOTO GALLERY·MA has remained devoted to organizing solo exhibitions of architects from across the world. The gallery offers exhibitors with a unique opportunity to freely demonstrate their individuality by allowing them to design their own exhibitions and to comprehensively shape the spaces of the entire gallery as a single creative presentation. The gallery itself has a distinctive spatial configuration in which its two independent exhibition rooms are connected by an exterior courtyard. Although modest in size at approximately 240 square meters, the gallery's intimate spaces enable the creation of exhibitions that are richly imbued with the philosophies and values of the exhibitors.

The exhibitions at TOTO GALLERY·MA are planned by its Planning and Management Committee. The original committee was formed by the founders of TOTO GALLERY·MA: Tadao Ando, Motomi Kawakami, Masayuki Kurokawa, Takashi Sugimoto, and Ikko Tanaka. A new committee was elected on the occasion of the gallery’s 25th anniversary in 2010 and it is now represented by Tadao Ando (Special Advisor), Manabu Chiba, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Seng Kuan and Tsuyoshi Tane.

In addition to hosting exhibitions, TOTO GALLERY·MA has organized accompanying lecture events to provide an opportunity for each exhibitor to share their ideas directly with a public audience. Starting in 1995, TOTO GALLERY·MA has also been operating together with TOTO Publishing to issue publications to convey a multifaceted picture of the ideas of each architect in combination with its exhibitions and lecture events.

TOTO GALLERY・MA aims to continue to transmit the messages of its exhibitors, who each shine with a unique light, by serving as a place for independent architects to express their personal philosophies and values throughout the years to come..

TOTO GALLERY·MA Planning and Management Committee Members

Special Advisor
Tadao Ando

Architect. Born in 1941. Self-educated in architecture. Established Tadao Ando Architect & Associates in 1969. Professor at the University of Tokyo from 1997. Became a professor emeritus in 2003 and special university professor in 2005. Has received numerous awards, including the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize, Alvar Aalto Medal (Finland), Japan Art Academy Award, Pritzker Architecture Prize (USA), Praemium Imperiale (Japan), American Institute of Architects Gold Medal (USA), and International Union of Architects Gold Medal. Awarded the Order of Culture (Japan) in 2010.

Committee Member
Manabu Chiba

Architect. Born in 1960. Graduated from the Department of Architecture in the University of Tokyo in 1985. Received a master's degree in architecture from the Graduate School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo in 1987. Joined Nihon Sekkei in the same year. Co-principal of Factor N Associates from 1993 to 2001. Assistant of the Campus Planning Office of the University of Tokyo from 1993 to 1996. Assistant of the Tadao Ando Lab of the Department of Architecture in the University of Tokyo from 1998 to 2001. Established Chiba Manabu Architects and became an associate professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo in 2001. Taught as a visiting professor at ETH Zurich from 2009 to 2010 before becoming a professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo in 2013. Vice president of the University of Tokyo since 2016. Notable awards include the 2009 Prize of the Architectural Institute of Japan (Architectural Design Division), Award of Merit of the 2013 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation, and 27th Togo Murano Prize, among many others.

Committee Member
Yoshiharu Tsukamoto

Architect.Born in 1965. Graduated from the Department of Architecture in the Faculty of Engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1987. Guest student of the École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris-Belleville from 1987 to 1988. Founded Atelier Bow-Wow with Momoyo Kaijima in 1992. Completed the postgraduate program at the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1994. Has taught as a visiting professor at the Harvard GSD, UCLA, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Barcelona Institute of Architecture, Cornell University, Rice University, and TU Delft, among others.Currently Professor of the Tokyo Institute of Technology Graduate School.

Committee Member
Seng Kuan

Architectural historian. Born in 1976. Completed a PhD in Architecture at Harvard University. Currently a lecturer at the Harvard GSD, and the director of International Architectural Education Platform SEKISUI HOUSE – KUMA LAB in the University of Tokyo. Commissioned as the chief editorial advisor of a+u magazine in 2021. Specializes in Japanese contemporary architectural history. Major exhibitions include Utopia Across the Scales: Highlights from the Kenzo Tange Archive (Harvard GSD, 2009). Major publications include Kazuo Shinohara: Traversing the House and the City (Lars Müller Publishers, 2021). Awards include the 2019 Graham Foundation grant, among many others.

Committee Member
Tsuyoshi Tane

Architect. Born in 1979 in Tokyo, Japan. Works out of Paris, France, as the principal of Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects. Graduated from the Department of Architecture in the School of Art and Technology at Hokkaido Tokai University. Worked at Henning Larsen and Adjaye Associates before co-founding DGT. (DORELL.GHOTMEH.TANE/ARCHITECTS) (Paris) in 2006 and founding Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architects (Paris) in 2017. Was a visiting researcher at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and taught as a lecturer at Columbia GSAPP from 2012 and as a visiting professor at the ESVMD from 2014. Accolades include the Nouveaux Albums des Jeunes Architectes & Paysagistes (2008), AFEX Grand Prix (2016), nomination for the EU Mies Award (2017), 67th Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists (2017), and the Nikkei Architecture Architect of the Year (2019), among many others.

History

1984

DAC (TOTO Design Advisory Committee) formed by Tadao Ando, Motomi Kawakami, Masayuki Kurokawa, Takashi Sugimoto, and Ikko Tanaka

1985

GALLERY·MA established by DAC members
Tadao Ando, Motomi Kawakami, Masayuki Kurokawa, Takashi Sugimoto, and Ikko Tanaka appointed as planning and management committee members
1st Exhibition “The Works of Frank O. Gehry”

1989

Awarded the Japan Inter-Design Forum Award Corporate Inter-Design Prize

1990

5th Anniversary Exhibition “Image of Space ‘90”

1994

Second exhibition space added to 4th floor of the TOTO Nogizaka Building

1995

10th Anniversary Exhibition “The 53 Origins”
Began making books with TOTO Publishing in conjunction with the exhibitions

1996

Launched Kukan-jutsu Koza [Series of Lectures on the Art of Space Design] sessions in which exhibitors facilitate discussions with guest panelists

1997

Awarded Mainichi Design Award Special Prize

2000

15th Anniversary Exhibition “10 City Profiles from 10 Young Architects”
Began organizing travelling exhibitions in collaboration with regional universities

2002

Awarded 2002 Japan Mécénat Award for Disseminating Quality Information
100th Memorial Exhibition “Architecture of Tomorrow”
Planning and Management member Ikko Tanaka passes away

2005

20th Anniversary Exhibition “Contemporary Japanese Houses, 1985–2005”

2010

Renamed to TOTO GALLERY·MA
25th Anniversary Exhibition “GLOBAL ENDS—towards the beginning”
Tadao Ando (Special Advisor), Waro Kishi, Hiroshi Naito, Kenya Hara(resigned 2014), Tokujin Yoshioka (resigned 2012) appointed to new Planning and Management Committee

2012

Erwin Viray appointed to Planning and Management Committee

2013

Nobuyuki Endo awarded The Appreciation Prize of AIJ 2013

2014

Kazuyo Sejima appointed to Planning and Management Committee

2015

30th Anniversary Exhibition “The Asian Everyday: Possibilities in the Shifting World”

2016

Kazuhiro Kojima (resigned 2016), Kazuyo Sejima (resigned 2019), Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Erwin Viray (resigned 2019) appointed to Planning and Management Committee

2017

Manabu Chiba appointed to Planning and Management Committee.

2020

Seng Kuan and Tsuyoshi Tane appointed to Planning and Management Comittee.

Present

Exhibitions Hosted: 173 (as of March 2023)

Gallery Information

Address

TOTO Nogizaka Building 3F, 1-24-3 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062

Telephone

+81-3-3402-1010

Fax

+81-3-3423-4085

Hours

11:00–18:00

Closed

Monday; National, Summer, and New Year Holidays; and between exhibitions

※Hours and dates of operation may differ by exhibition.
Please check the calendar on the TOTO GALLERY·MA website for up-to-date information.

Admission

Free

Directions

・1-min. walk from Nogizaka Station (Exit 3) on the Chiyoda subway line
・6-min. walk from Roppongi Station (Exit 8) on the Toei Oedo subway line
・7-min. walk from Roppongi Station (Exit 4a) on the Hibiya subway line
・7-min. walk from Aoyama-itchome Station (Exit 4) on the Ginza or Hanzomon or Oedo subway line

Current Exhibitions
Upcoming Exhibitions
Past Exhibitions

External Location

Upcoming Exhibitions
Past Exhibitions

Upcoming Lectures
Past Lectures

Directions
Gallery Information

Bookshop TOTO

About TOTO GALLERY·MA

TOTO GALLERY·MA
TOTO Nogizaka Building 3F, 1-24-3 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Tel +81-3-3402-1010