TOSHIKO MORI
Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture
Toshiko Mori is the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design and was chair of the Department of Architecture from 2002 to 2008. She is principal of Toshiko Mori Architect, which she established in 1981 in New York City. Mori previously taught at the Cooper Union School of Architecture from 1983, until joining the Harvard GSD faculty with tenure in 1995. She has been a visiting faculty member at Columbia University and Yale University, where she was the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor in 1992. Mori has taught courses on materials and fabrication methods in architecture, structural innovations, and the role of architects as agents of change in a global context. She is also the founder of VisionArc, a think-tank promoting global dialogue for a sustainable future and one of the founders of Paracoustica, a non-profit that promotes music in underserved communities.
Her firm’s recent work includes master plans for the Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch; Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs; The Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland, Maine; and the US headquarters for Axel Springer SE in New York City. Her two projects in Senegal, Thread Artists’ Residency and Cultural Center and Fass School and Teachers’ Residences, have both won the AIA Architecture Award, while her recent work on the Brooklyn Public Library Central branch won the 2022 MASterworks Award for Best Restoration. Architectural Digest has included Toshiko Mori Architect in their annual AD100 list since 2014, and most recently named her to the AD100 Hall of Fame in 2023. Mori was also named an Elle Décor A-List Titan in 2023.
Mori’s strong research-based approach to design has been commended in invitations to lectures and conferences around the world. As a member and former chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Design, Mori has participated in sessions to discuss scarcity-driven design, the future of cities and urban information systems, and the role of the arts in improving communities. She has participated in international symposia and conferences, including panels held at the MoMA, Guggenheim Museum, and the G1 Summit in Japan.
Nikkei Business listed Mori as one of 50 Japanese Changing the World; Newsweek Japan listed her as one of 100 Japanese People the World Respects; and Forbes Japan featured her as one of 100 Self Made Women. Her work was featured in Monocle, in “Japan, Only the Best: The Nation Making a Difference in the World,” and was featured in Iconic Women of Design, a video series by the New York Times’ T Brand Studio. Her writing has appeared in A+U, The PLAN, and the World Economic Forum Agenda blog. In 2020, the firm published two new monographs, one for A+U magazine’s February 2020 issue, and another with ArchiTangle titled Toshiko Mori Architect: Observations. In 2023, Mori worked in collaboration with Steven Holl as guest editor for five issues of Domus magazine as part of its centennial 10x10x10 Project, becoming one of the few women to act as editor in the magazine’s 95-year history.
Mori has been a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2016 and the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 2020, where she currently serves as Vice President of Architecture and as a member of the board. She has been honored with numerous awards, including the Asia Society Asia Arts Game Changer Award in 2024, the Philip Hanson Hiss Award in 2023, the Isamu Noguchi Award in 2021, the Louis Auchincloss Prize in 2020, the AIA/ASCA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education in 2019, the OMI Arts Leadership Award in 2019, Architectural Record’s Women in Design Leader Award in 2019, and the Tau Sigma Delta National Honor Society Gold Medal in 2016.