The Japan Art Association has just announced SANAA founders Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa as the 2022 Architecture category winners of the coveted annual Praemium Imperiale Award, now in its 33rd year.

Praemium Imperiale is a global arts prize awarded annually by the Japan Art Association. Since its inauguration in 1988, it has become a mark of the arts. Six nomination committees, each chaired by an International Advisor, propose candidates in five fields: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music and Theatre/Film.
The laureates Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA (Architecture) were joined by winners in other categories that include Italian Arte Povera painter Giulio Paolini (Painting), dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei (Sculpture), Krystian Zimerman (Music) and architecturally-inspired "Alice in the Cities" director Wim Wenders (Cinema/Theater). The prize is endowed with 105,000 euros.

Their three-decade body of work was commended for its “light, outward-opening, precise, and sophisticated style” and will now count among the award’s prestigious list of past winners, which has recently included Glen Murcutt, Tod Williams & Billie Tsien, Rafael Moneo, Dominique Perrault, and Steven Holl.


Grand Magasin La Samaritaine by SANAA and team. Photograph by SANAA / Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa.


Grand Magasin La Samaritaine by SANAA. Photograph by Simón García / arqfoto.

Sejima and Nishizawa are authors of an architecture that seeks "immateriality and permeability with the outside world" generating an image of apparent fun and simplicity. Among his most significant works are; the Zollverein School of Management and Design in Essen, the Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, the Grace Farms center in New Canaan-Connecticut, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Louvre-Lens Museum in Lens, the Bocconi University Campus in Milan, the renovation of the department store La Samaritaine in Paris, and our article with 12 extraordinary projects designed by Japanese studio SANAA.


Rendering of SANAA's winning "Clouds on the Sea" entry for the new Shenzhen Maritime Museum. Image: SD-Agencies.

SANAA is currently working on the Sydney Modern Project (an extension to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia) and a cloud-like structure for Shenzhen Maritime Museum.

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Kazuyo Sejima. Architect. Born 1956 in Ibaraki prefecture, Japan. Master’s in Architecture, Japan Women’s University, 1981. Worked in office of Toyo Ito before founding Kazuyo Sejima and Associates in 1987. Founded SANAA with Ryue Nishizawa in 1995. Awards won by SANAA include the Arnold Brunner Memorial Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2002), the Golden Lion at the 9th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2004), a design prize from the Architectural Institute of Japan (2006), the Kunstpreis Berlin from the Berlin Academy of Arts (2007), and the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2010). Works by SANAA include the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art; the De Kunstlinie Theater and Cultural Center in Almere...

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SANAA. Kazuyo Sejima (Ibaraki, Japan, 1956) and Ryue Nishizawa (Kanagawa, Japan, 1966) worked independently from each other before founding the SANAA Ltd. studio in 1995. Having studied architecture at the Japan Women’s University, Sejima went on to work for the renowned architect Toyo Ito. She set up her studio in 1987 and in 1992 was proclaimed Young Architect of the Year in Japan. Nishizawa studied architecture at the Yokohama National University. In addition to his work with Sejima, he has had his practice since 1997.

The studio has built several extraordinarily successful commercial and institutional buildings, civic centres, homes and museums both in Japan and elsewhere. These include the O Museum in Nagano (1999) and the N Museum in Wakayama (1997), the Day-Care Center in Yokohama (2000), the Prada Beauty Store in Tokyo and Hong Kong (2001), the Issey Miyake and Christian Dior Building in Tokyo (2003) and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa (2004). Sejima also designed the famous Small House in Tokyo (2000), the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion, Toledo, Ohio (2001-2006), the extension to the Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain (2002 – ), the Zollverein School, Essen, Germany (2003-2006), the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2003-2007) and the Novartis Campus WSJ-157 Office Building, Basle, Switzerland (2003 – ).

In 2004 Sejima and Nishizawa were awarded the Golden Lion at the 9th Venice Architecture Biennale for their distinguished work on the Metamorph exhibition.

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa have won the 2010 Pritzker Prize.

The 12th International Architecture Exhibition was directed by Kazuyo Sejima, the first woman to direct the Venice Architecture Biennale, since its inception in 1980.

   

Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima. Kazuyo Sejima

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Ryue Nishizawa. Architect. Born in 1966 in Tokyo. In 1990, he graduated from Yokohama Graduate School of Architecture, Yokohama National University, and joined Kazuyo Sejima & Associates. In 1995, he founded a firm named SANAA together with Kazuyo Sejima. He established Office of Ryue Nishizawa in 1997.  In 2001, he was appointed as Assistant Professor at Yokohama Graduate School of Architecture, Yokohama National University (Y-GSA), and has been a Y-GSA Professor since 2010.

His numerous awards include the Golden Lion Award of the 9th International Architecture Exhibition at the 2004 Venice Biennale of Architecture, and the 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

His main works include: International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS) Multimedia Studio*, Weekend House, Dior Omotesando Store*, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa*, Moriyama House, House A, The Glass Pavilion of the Toledo Museum of Art*, Marine Station Naoshima*, Stadttheater Almer (De Kunstlinie)*, New Museum*, Towada Art Center, ROLEX Learning Center*, Teshima Art Museum. * SANAA design collaborated with Kazuyo Sejima.

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Published on: September 16, 2022
Cite: "SANAA founders Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, Praemium Imperiale 2022 " METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/sanaa-founders-kazuyo-sejima-and-ryue-nishizawa-praemium-imperiale-2022> ISSN 1139-6415
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