Toshihiro Oki, an architect and active member of the Design for Freedom Working Group, develops and conducts programs and tours that offer unique insights into the architectural choices that informed the River building’s distinct look and award-winning design. As a member of the Working Group, he also provides an informed perspective to not only industry professionals but to the public at large on how buildings, homes, and landscapes can be designed and built with materials less at risk of forced labor.
He established his office in New York after working for several years at the Japanese architectural office of SANAA / Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa (Pritzker Prize 2010) to build the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City and the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion in Ohio. Since 2009, he has been working on his own independent projects. Oki is licensed to practice architecture in New York and has taught architecture studio at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture and Princeton University Graduate School of Architecture.
Architecture should raise the human imagination beyond the conventional everyday. This requires an unconventional process. The experience of bridging the cultural gap of international teams, clients and locations has led to the focus of thinking globally and acting locally. Every project has a unique set of conditions that requires both an open perspective and a focused process. In order to expand the possibilities, each project team is assembled from a trusted group of associates, engineers and builders based on the project’s specific needs. This creates a dynamic team structure that can efficiently focus on the design and finding its subsequent reality. Such flexible partnerships and conditions help lead to unanticipated paths of new thinking and possibilities
