Pritzker Prize 2019: Arata Isozaki

Event

The 2019 Pritzker Prize was awarded in Chicago on March 5, 2019 to the Japanese architect, urban planner and theorist ARATA ISOZAKI, who has profoundly influenced contemporary architecture in more than 60 years of practice. His projects, texts, exhibitions and lectures demonstrate a deep knowledge of architectural history and theory, a constant search for the meanings of architecture, and a global vision that transcends national or continental boundaries.
Today Isozaki is appreciated as an international architect in a very complex sense. His desire to understand what architecture is has led him to travel to countless places in Japan and around the world, always seeking to know and understand the lives of his fellow men and women around the world, to see places and things with his own eyes, to construct his own impressions, unmediated by readings or other forms of knowledge. He distinguished himself in the 1960s with major projects during the post-World War II reconstruction of Japan and later with numerous architectural and urban planning projects in his homeland.

Since the 1980s, however, Isozaki has been one of the first Japanese architects to build outside Japan, in the United States, Europe and China. The architect's experience and efforts have resulted in more than 100 projects appreciated for the connection established between global universality and local identity, through solutions that are always transcultural and interdisciplinary, but sensitive to the natural environment, the specific context and local social needs.
Among his best-known projects can be listed: Õita Prefectural Library (1962-1966, Õita, Japan); Kitakyushu City Museum of Art (1972-1974, Fukuoka, Japan); Tsukuba Center Building (1979-1983, Ibaraki, Japan); The Museum of Contemporary Art (1981-1986, Los Angeles, USA); Palau Sant Jordi (1983-1990, Barcelona, Spain); Art Tower Mito (1986-1990, Ibaraki, Japan); Nara Centennial Hall (1992-1998, Nara, Japan); Domus: La Casa del Hombre (1993-1995, A Coruña, Spain); Pala Alpitour (2002-2006, Turin, Italy); Allianz Tower (2003-2014, Milan, Italy); Qatar National Convention Center (2004-2011, Doha, Qatar); and Shanghai Symphony Hall (2008-2014, Shanghai, China).
www.pritzkerprize.com

ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE SUMMARY, NR.1/2019
Architecture. Film. Cinema