Hitoshi Abe is Chair and Professor of UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design. Known for architecture that is spatially complex and structurally innovative, the work of Atelier Hitoshi Abe has been published internationally and received numerous awards, including most recently the 2009 Architectural Institute of Japan Award for SSM/​Kanno Museum, the 2009 Contract World Award for Aoba-tei, the 2008 SIA-Getz Prize for Emergent Architecture in Asia and the 2007 World Architecture Award for M/​Kanno Museum. Principal of his own firm, he founded Atelier Hitoshi Abe in 1993 in Sendai, Japan and recently opened a second office in Los Angeles. Some of his key projects located in Japan include the Aoba-tei restaurant, the Sasaki Office Factory for Prosthetics, F‑town, which is an eat-and-drink building filled with bars and restaurants in Sendai, the Miyagi Stadium in Rifu, SSM/​Kanno Museum in Shiogama, the 9‑tsubo House ​“Tall” in Kanagawa, and the Reihoku Community Hall in Kumamoto. Abe’s work is the subject of two monographs including Hitoshi Abe Flicker (TOTO) from his exhibition in 2005 at the Gallery Ma in Tokyo and Hitoshi Abe published by Phaidon in 2009.