Image copyright EPA Image caption Arata Isozaki in front of the Palahockey building he designed with another architect in Turin, Italy

Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has received this year's Pritzker Prize, widely considered to be the profession's highest honour.

The jury said he pioneered the "understanding that the need for architecture is both global and local".

Isozaki said growing up not far from the bombed city of Hiroshima taught him how homes and cities could be rebuilt.

He is the 46th Pritzker laureate and the eighth Japanese architect to receive the honour.

The jury said Isozaki's architecture defied categorisation as it was always evolving.

"Possessing a profound knowledge of architectural history and theory, and embracing the avant-garde, he never merely replicated the status quo," it said.

Isozaki will be awarded the prize of $100,000 (£76,000) in May at a ceremony at the Château de Versailles in France.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Palau Saint Jordi indoor sporting arena in Barcelona are among more than 100 of his major projects.

Some of his other works include:

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Allianz Tower in Milan, Italy

Image copyright Hisao Suzuki Image caption Qatar's National Convention Centre

Image copyright Mitsumasa Fujitsuka Image caption Kitakyushu's Central Library in Japan

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Thessaloniki concert hall's second auditorium, M2, in Greece

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Nara Centennial Hall in Japan

"I grew up on ground zero," the 87-year-old said, referring to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which lies across the shore from his home town of Oita.

"It was in complete ruins and there was no architecture, no buildings and not even a city," he is quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

"Only barracks and shelters surrounded me. So my first experience of architecture was the void of architecture, and I began to consider how people might rebuild their homes and cities."

Previous winners of the coveted prize include India's Balkrishna Doshi, Jorn Utzon who designed the Sydney Opera House, Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil and the British-Iraqi designer, Zaha Hadid.

All photographs subject to copyright as marked.</s>NEW YORK
• Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has been awarded the Pritzker Prize, considered architecture's highest honour, for a lifetime of work that found global resonance while mining local traditions.

The 87-year-old's built works, which number more than 100, range from the Palau Sant Jordi, built in Barcelona for the 1992 Summer Olympics, to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, his first international commission.

His home town of Otai in Japan is a showcase of his early work, including a medical hall and annex, and a prefectural library.

As the prize was announced on Tuesday, the chairman of the jury, United States Justice Stephen Breyer, said of the architect: "Isozaki is a pioneer in understanding that the need for architecture is both global and local - that those two forces are part of a single challenge.

"For many years, he has been trying to make certain that areas of the world that have long traditions in architecture are not limited to that tradition, but help spread those traditions while simultaneously learning from the rest of the world."

Isozaki is the 46th Pritzker laureate and the eighth Japanese architect to receive the honour. Winners get a bronze medallion and US$100,000 (S$135,700). The prize ceremony is in May in Paris.

Isozaki is considered one of the first Japanese architects to have Western styles and influences in his work, and had spent much time in the West travelling and studying.

But his interest in cultural diversity was sparked by the influence of American culture in post-World War II Japan - whose cities had just been devastated by US aerial bombing - when his country was occupied by US troops.

He was intrigued by the contrasting aesthetic codes of the two countries, as he joined a new generation of Japanese architects rebuilding their flattened cities.

With his swept-back grey hair and penchant for Chairman Mao-style shirt collars, the Japanese architect has designed buildings on four continents, from sports venues to office buildings to museums.

His works have built on the philosophy of his mentor Kenzo Tange, a modernist architect whose own works are scattered around the globe and was a Pritzker winner in 1987.

Aside from his cosmopolitan outlook, Isozaki is also known for never confining himself to one set style.

The two main elements of his work - cosmopolitanism and the desire to meld with the environment - found their apotheosis in Barcelona's Palau Sant Jordi.

Completed in 1990 as the stage for the Olympic Games' gymnastic events two years later, the domed venue is partially sunken into the summit of the Montjuic hill overlooking Barcelona, so that it appears to be part of the hill itself.

In Japan, his most celebrated works include the Kitakyushu municipal museum of art, built in 1974, and the Kamioka town hall from 1978, which reflect the architect's eclecticism: the former is all straight lines and sharp angles, while the latter is liquidly smooth and curvaceous. Last year, the Pritzker Prize was awarded to 90-year-old Indian Balkrishna Doshi.</s>Arata Isozaki has been named the 2019 laureate of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture. Isozaki, who has been practicing architecture since the 1960s, has long been considered an architectural visionary for his transnational and fearlessly futurist approach to design. With well over 100 built works to his name, Isozaki is also incredibly prolific and influential among his contemporaries. Isozaki is the 49th architect and eighth Japanese architect to receive the honor.

Said the jury of Isozaki in the award citation: “...in his search for meaningful architecture, he created buildings of great quality that to this day defy categorizations, reflect his constant evolution, and are always fresh in their approach.”

Born in 1931 in Oita, a town on Japan’s Island of Kyushu, Isozaki’s entré into architecture was profoundly affected by the world events of the time. Isozaki was just 12 years old when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were decimated in World War Two; his own hometown was burned to the ground during the war. “When I was old enough to begin an understanding of the world, my hometown was burned down. Across the shore, the Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, so I grew up on ground zero. It was in complete ruins, and there was no architecture, no buildings and not even a city...So, my first experience of architecture was the void of architecture, and I began to consider how people might rebuild their homes and cities.”

Isozaki took this worldview with him to the University of Tokyo, where he graduated from the Faculty of Architecture and Engineering in 1954. He followed this with a Ph.D. at the same faculty before beginning his architectural career in earnest at the office of Kenzo Tange. Isozaki quickly became Tange’s protege, working closely with the 1987 Pritzker Laureate before leaving to establish his own office in 1963.

Japan at the time was in a period of immense change and reinvention. Japan had been released from Allied Occupation only a decade prior, and the country was still reeling from the aftereffects of global war and occupation. “In order to find the most appropriate way to solve these problems, I could not dwell upon a single style,” says Isozaki. “Change became constant. Paradoxically, this came to be my own style.”

Indeed, Isozaki’s early work is notable for its decidedly futurist approach, one visible in City in the Air, his aspirational masterplan for Shinjuku. In this vision, elevated layers of buildings, residences, and transport would float above the old city - an extreme response to the (at the time) voracious pace of urbanization and modernization in Japan. Though the plan was never realized, it set the tone for many of Isozaki’s future projects and led to additional masterplan/urban visions for cities across the world.

The formal language that characterizes much of Isozaki’s works - a characteristic fusion of combination of Metabolism and Brutalism - was one developed in collaboration with mentor Kenzo Tange, the architect widely considered to be the founding father of Japanese Metabolism.

Originally named the Burnt Ash School after the environment from which it sprung, Metabolism fused ideas of organic growth with the architecture of futuristic megastructures. Isozaki was profoundly involved in the development and perpetuation of Metabolism, as seen in projects such as the Oita Prefectural Library, the Iwata Girls’ High School, and numerous projects for the Fukuoka City Bank.

But it was in 1970 the Isozaki vaulted to international renown, as his Festival Plaza at EXPO70 (the first world fair hosted by Japan) captivated global visitors. Isozaki went on to complete other significant works such as the Art Tower Mitor, LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. More recently, Isozaki completed the Hunan Provincial Museum, the Harbin Concert Hall, the Krakow Concert Hall, and the Allianz Tower in Milan.

“Isozaki’s oeuvre has been described as heterogeneous and encompasses descriptions from vernacular to high tech,” said the Pritzker jury in the award citation. “What is patently clear is that he has not been following trends but forging his own path.”

Isozaki has received numerous awards over the course of his career, most notably the Architectural Institute of Japan’s Annual Prize in 1974, the RIBA Gold Medal in 1986, the American Institute of Architects’ Honor Award in 1992.

The 2019 Pritzker Prize ceremony will take place in France's Chateau de Versailles this May, and will be accompanied by a public lecture by Isozaki in Paris.

Arata Isozaki, born in Ōita, Island of Kyushu, Japan is known as a versatile, influential, and truly international architect. Setting up his own practice in the 1960s Isozaki became the first Japanese architect to forge a deep and long-lasting relationship between East and West. Possessing a profound knowledge of architectural history and theory, and embracing the avant-garde, he never merely replicated the status quo but challenged it. And in his search for meaningful architecture, he created buildings of great quality that to this day defy categorizations, reflect his constant evolution, and are always fresh in their approach.

Over the more than 50 years Arata Isozaki has been practicing, he has had an impact on world architecture, through his works, writings, exhibitions, the organization of important conferences and participation on competition juries. He has supported many young architects from across the globe to have a chance to realize their potential. In such endeavors as the Fukuoka Nexus World Housing project (1988-1991) or Toyama Prefecture’s Machi-no-Kao (“face of the city”) program (1991-1999) he invited young international architects to develop catalytic projects in Japan. Isozaki’s oeuvre has been described as heterogeneous and encompasses descriptions from vernacular to high tech. What is patently clear is that he has not been following trends but forging his own path. An early exploration of a new vision for the city is seen in the project City in the Air, from the early 1960s, for a multilayered city which hovers over the traditional city.

His first works in his home country of Japan include a masterpiece of Japanese Brutalism, the Ōita Prefectural Library (1966). Such projects as the Kitakyushu Central Library (1974) and the Gunma Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, opened in 1974, reveal an exploration of a more personal architecture. In the museum, the clear geometry of the cube reflects his fascination with void and grid as it seeks to attain an equilibrium in which to display changing works of art.

Arata Isozaki’s reach and repertoire have expanded over the years to include projects of many scales and typologies and in numerous countries. In the United States, Isozaki is probably most well- known for undertaking the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (1986) and the Team Disney building in Florida (1991). The first is a study of the vault or what he calls “rhetoric of the cylinder” and the second is evidenced by a more playful use of shapes with a postmodern flair.

Many know his work through such significant buildings as the Sant Jordi Stadium for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He has undertaken exemplary works in China such as the CAFA (China Central Academy of Fine Arts) Art Museum in Beijing opened in 2008 or the Shenzhen Cultural Center (2007) in Shenzhen, Guangdong.

Isozaki has shown extraordinary dynamism in recent years with such works as Qatar Convention Center (2011), the traveling inflatable Ark Nova (2013) designed with Anish Kapoor for regions in Japan affected by the 2011 tsunami, and the powerful yet elegant Allianz Tower in Milan opened in 2018. Once again, it is a testimony to his ability to understand the context in all its complexity and to create a remarkable, well-crafted and inspiring building that is successful from city scale to the interior spaces.

Clearly, he is one of the most influential figures in contemporary world architecture on a constant search, not afraid to change and try new ideas. His architecture rests on profound understanding, not only of architecture but also of philosophy, history, theory, and culture. He has brought together East and West, not through mimicry or as a collge, but through the forging of new paths. He has set an example of generosity as he supports other architects and encourages them in competitions or through collaborative works. For all these reasons, the Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury has selected Arata Isozaki the 2019 Laureate.
• Ratan N. Tata: Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group. Mumbai, India.
• Wang Shu: Architect and Pritzker Laureate 2012. The People’s Republic of China.

Who Is Arata Isozaki? 20 Things You Should Know About The 2019 Pritzker Laureate

A Selection of the Best Instagram Photos from Arata Isozaki's Work</s>Tokyo, March 6 (IANS) Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has received this year's Pritzker Prize, widely considered to be the profession's highest honour.

The jury said he pioneered the "understanding that the need for architecture is both global and local".

Isozaki said growing up not far from the bombed city of Hiroshima taught him how homes and cities could be rebuilt, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

He is the 46th Pritzker laureate and the eighth Japanese architect to receive the honour.

The jury said Isozaki's architecture defied categorisation as it was always evolving.

"Possessing a profound knowledge of architectural history and theory, and embracing the avant-garde, he never merely replicated the status quo," it said.

Isozaki will be awarded the prize of $100,000 in May at a ceremony at the Château de Versailles in France.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and the Palau Saint Jordi indoor sporting arena in Barcelona are among more than 100 of his major projects.

"I grew up on ground zero," the 87-year-old said, referring to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which lies across the shore from his home town of Oita.

"It was in complete ruins and there was no architecture, no buildings and not even a city," he said.

"Only barracks and shelters surrounded me. So my first experience of architecture was the void of architecture, and I began to consider how people might rebuild their homes and cities."

Previous winners of the coveted prize include India's Balkrishna Doshi, Jorn Utzon who designed the Sydney Opera House, Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil and the British-Iraqi designer, Zaha Hadid.</s>Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has been awarded the Pritzker Prize, considered architecture's highest honor, for a lifetime of work that found global resonance while mining local traditions.

The 87-year-old's more than 100 built works range from the Palau Saint Jordi, built in Barcelona for the 1992 Summer Olympics, to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, his first international commission.

His hometown of Otai, Japan is a showcase of his early work, including a medical hall and annex, and a prefectural library.

"Isozaki is a pioneer in understanding that the need for architecture is both global and local -- that those two forces are part of a single challenge," the chair of the jury, U.S. Justice Stephen Breyer, said as the prize was announced Tuesday.

"For many years, he has been trying to make certain that areas of the world that have long traditions in architecture are not limited to that tradition, but help spread those traditions while simultaneously learning from the rest of the world," he said.

Isozaki is the 46th Pritzker laureate and the eighth Japanese architect to receive the honor. Winners receive a bronze medallion and $100,000.

The prize will be awarded in May at a ceremony in Paris.

His office of Arata Isozaki & Associates, in Tokyo did not have an immediate comment on the announcement.

Isozaki is considered one of the first Japanese architects to have absorbed western styles and influences into his work, and spent much time in the west traveling and studying.

But his interest in cultural diversity was sparked by the influence of American culture in post-WWII Japan -- whose cities had just been devastated by U.S. aerial bombing -- when his country was occupied by US troops.

He was intrigued at an early age by the contrasting aesthetic codes of the two countries, as he joined a new generation of Japanese architects rebuilding their flattened cities.

With his swept-back gray hair and penchant for Chairman Mao-style shirt collars, the distinguished Japanese architect has designed buildings on four continents, from sports venues to office buildings and museums.

His works have built on the philosophy of his mentor Kenzo Tange, a modernist architect whose own works are scattered around the globe and who took the Pritzker himself in 1987.

Aside from his cosmopolitan outlook, Isozaki is also known for never confining himself to one set style, showing more interest in integrating each of his constructions into their individual settings.

"My pleasure is to create different things, not the same thing," he told the website ArchDaily in 2017. "For the media or identity and so on, (it's) very confusing."

The two main elements of his work -- cosmopolitanism and the desire to meld with the environment -- found their apotheosis in Barcelona's Palau Sant Jordi.

Completed in 1990 as the stage for the Olympic Games gymnastic events two years later year, the domed venue is partially sunken into the summit of the Montjuic hill overlooking Barcelona, so that it appears to be part of the hill itself.

In Japan, his most celebrated works include the Kitakyushu municipal museum of art, built in 1974, and the Kamioka town hall from 1978, which reflect the architect's eclecticism: the former is all straight lines and sharp angles, while the latter is liquidly smooth and curvaceous.

Isozaki is also deeply attached to the Japanese concept of 'ma' which relates to the sense of space separating two objects.

Last year, the Pritzker Prize was awarded to 90-year-old Indian Balkrishna Doshi.</s>Eminent Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has won the Pritzker Prize, the "Nobel of architecture," it was announced Tuesday.

The prize's jury said the 87-year-old had been named 2019's Pritzker laureate, known internationally as architecture's highest honor, due to his original and "visionary" approach.

"Possessing a profound knowledge of architectural history and theory, and embracing the avant-garde, he never merely replicated the status quo," read a jury statement.

"His search for meaningful architecture was reflected in his buildings that to this day, defy stylistic categorizations, are constantly evolving, and always fresh in their approach," it added.

Isozaki's career has spanned more than six decades and over 100 completed buildings throughout Asia, Europe, North America, the Middle East and Australia.

His major works include Ceramic Park Mino and Art Tower Mito in Japan, Pala Alpitour and Allianz Tower in Italy, the Qatar National Convention Center and Shanghai Symphony Hall.

Among his best-known buildings is the Palau Sant Jordi sports facility in Barcelona, Spain, which was designed for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games and reflects his work's global influences.

The 17,000-person area's domed roof references Catalan vault-building techniques, while its sloped form was inspired by Buddhist temples. Local materials, including brick, tile, zinc and travertine, were used as finishes.

Elsewhere, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the architect's first international commission, drew specific praise from the Pritzker Prize's organizers.

"Though controversial and geographically challenging, the red Indian sandstone building was resolved by Isozaki's eloquent awareness of scale through an assemblage of volumes, while employing the golden ratio and yin yang theory throughout, evoking the complementary nature of Western and Eastern relationships," read a prize statement.

Isozaki's early architectural successes transpired in the era following the Allied occupation of Japan, when the country sought to rebuild itself from the ruins of World War II.

"(My) first experience of architecture was the void of architecture," he said, "and I began to consider how people might rebuild their homes and cities."

Tuesday's announcement comes as Asia consolidates its position in international architecture. While the Pritzker Prize has traditionally been seen as Western-centric, Isozaki is the seventh Asian architect to claim the award in the last 10 years.

Japan has now produced eight laureates (if counting 2010's joint winners, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, separately), including recent winners Tadao Ando and Shigeru Ban.

Isozaki's achievement puts Japan on par with the United States, which -- when including the Canadian-born American Frank Gehry -- has also produced eight Pritzker winners.

The seven-member jury of the annual prize, which was founded in 1979, included US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, British architect (and 2007 laureate) Richard Rogers and Ratan Tata, former chairman of the Indian conglomerate Tata Group.</s>The prolific and varied career of 2019 Pritzker Laureate Arata Isozaki, which includes more than 100 works built on virtually every continent, gives us a huge amount of facts that are relevant to understanding his life and architecture. Considered the first Japanese architect to develop his work on a truly global scale, Isozaki took special care to respond to the context and the specific requirements of each project, expanding the heterogeneity of his work and resulting in a variety of styles from vernacular to high tech.

See below 20 fascinating facts that illuminate his particular genius:

1. The Second World War had an important influence on his early vision of architecture. At the age of 12, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombarded, fostering in him the idea of the temporality of architecture and the importance of 'pleasing' its users while they move through and experience it in their own time. [1]

2. His career began under the teachings of the 1987 Pritzker Prize, Laureate Kenzo Tange. [1] After university, Isozaki continued an apprenticeship with Tange for nine years before establishing his own firm in 1963, Arata Isozaki & Associates. [2]

3. Isozaki was a pioneer among Japanese architects when working on projects outside of his native country, designing for example the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (1986) and the Team Disney Building in Florida (1991). [9]

4. Isozaki has built more than 100 architectural projects in 6 decades, including important public and cultural buildings in Japan, Spain, USA, China, Italy, Qatar, among many others around the world. [1]

5. He was a proponent and pioneer of architectural representation through the medium of silkscreen and thermal prints. [3]

6. Isozaki included in his work the concept of 'Ma', which defines the intermediate spaces between the objects: "In-between space, sound and sound, there are silences apart, pauses. That's called Ma. Space is important; in-between space is more important", he says. [5]

7. His work also integrated urbanism, developing in 1962 the futuristic project 'City in the Air' for the Shinjuku neighborhood in Tokyo, Japan. The project integrates "elevated layers of buildings, residences and transportation suspended above the aging city below, in response to the rapid rate of urbanization". [1]

8. Isozaki's work was always interdisciplinary: in addition to urban design, he worked on the design of fashions, graphics, furniture and set design, as well as writer, critic, jury of architectural competitions, and collaborator with artists. [6]

9. He also designed the Osaka Demonstration Robot for 1970 Osaka Expo, used for transportation. It was housed under Kenzo Tange's Festival Plaza space frame. [4]

10. During the 70s and 80s, Isozaki worked recurrently with his third wife, the Japanese sculptor Aiko Miyawaki (1929-2014), who somehow soaked his works of innovative geometric shapes. [6]

11. Isozaki was a member of the first generation of juries of the Pritzker Prize, between 1979 and 1984. [1]

12. Due to its impact and global influence, in 1985, Tadao Ando, 1995 Pritzker Prize Laureate, called Isozaki "the Emperor of Japanese Architecture". [8]

13. Also in 1985, Isozaki also developed the redesign of interiors of the famous Discotheque Palladium, in New York, as a 'building inside a building'. The nightclub, formerly a ruined theater, became the site of incredible celebrity parties, including Madonna. It was demolished in 1998. [7]

14. Among many other important awards, he won the RIBA Gold Medal for Architecture in 1986 (United Kingdom) and the Gold Lion of the Venice Architectural Biennale, as commissioner of Japanese Pavilion, in 1996 (Italy). [1]

15. Throughout his career, Isozaki frequently resorted to the typology of "Groundscaper", since according to him, the fact of 'lying down' a skyscraper dissipates its 'intimidating power', becoming more 'serene and humble'. [6]

16. He was very interested in Latin American revolutions of the twentieth century, especially that of Cuba and the figure of Che Guevara. Isozaki even used to wear a beret with a star. [2]

17. Isozaki thinks that in the southern hemisphere all are minorities. That’s why he greatly values the architecture linked to the culture to which it belongs, demonstrating his doubts regarding the effectiveness of globalization. [2]

18. In 2011, together with the artist Anish Kapoor, Isozaki developed the inflatable structure Ark Nova, to host Lucerne festival. [10]

19. His artistic influences are very varied, from the Renaissance and classical architecture of Borromini and Schinkel, to the Constantin Brâncuşi’s Infinite Column and the sculptural work of Isamu Noguchi, including the Louis I. Kahn’s use of the cannon vault. [6]

20. In relation to his identity and architectural style, he states: "My identity is that every time I like to create a difference. Not in one single style, but also always according to the situation, according to the environment; an architectural style as a solution. Every time it's different". [5]

[1] 2019 Pritzker Architecture Prize Media Kit. Media Release Announcing the 2019 Laureate.

[2] Facts shared gently by Abel Erazo, chilean architect based in China, with whom Arata worked in the Hakata Bay Model for 21st Century Olympic Project (2006, Tokyo), with Taishi Watanabe, Kai Beck, Eijiro saiga, Hitomi Fukuyoshi, and Mai Watanabe.

[3] Matthew Allen. “Arata Isozaki and the Invisible Technicians.” Canadian Center of Architecture (CCA). 2016. <https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/issues/4/origins-of-the-digital/40596/arata-isozaki-and-the-invisible-technicians>

[4] “1970 – Expo’70 Osaka Demonstration Robot – Arata Isozaki (Japanese)” November 31th, 2011. <http://cyberneticzoo.com/robots/1970-expo70-osaka-demonstration-robot-arata-isozaki-japanese/>

[5] Lindsey Leardi. "Arata Isozaki on "Ma," the Japanese Concept of In-Between Space" 05 Nov 2017. ArchDaily. <https://www.archdaily.com/882896/arata-isozaki-on-ma-the-japanese-concept-of-in-between-space/> ISSN 0719-8884

[6] Steffen Lehmann. “Reappraising the Visionary Work of Arata Isozaki: Six Decades and Four Phases”. 7 July 2017. MDPI. <https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/6/3/10>

[7] AD Editorial Team. "Spotlight: Kenzō Tange" 04 Sep 2017. ArchDaily. <https://www.archdaily.com.br/br/624403/em-foco-arata-isozaki> ISSN 0719-8884

[8] Joseph Giovanniniaug. “Arata Izozaki: From Japan a New Wave of International Architects”. August 17th, 1986. <https://www.nytimes.com/1986/08/17/magazine/arata-isozaki-from-japan-a-new-wave-of-international-architects.html>

[9] Edan Corkill. “Isozaki Arata: Astonishing by Design”. June 1, 2018. <https://apjjf.org/-Edan-Corkill/2777/article.html>

[10] Eric Baldwin. "World's First Inflatable Concert Hall Opening in Japan" 01 Oct 2013. ArchDaily. <https://www.archdaily.com/433776/world-s-first-inflatable-concert-hall-opening-in-japan/> ISSN 0719-8884</s>Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, who grew up in a city destroyed by Allied bombs and went on to build bridges between East and West, on Tuesday was named this year’s winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the field’s highest honor.

The 87-year-old Isozaki, whose more than 100 completed buildings defy easy categorization, is best known in the U.S. for two postmodern designs — the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles, a 1986 structure sheathed in red sandstone, and the Team Disney Building in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., a whimsical office building completed in 1991. His latest projects include an ultrathin Milan office building, the Allianz Tower, whose lower floors are braced by four exterior steel buttresses that are painted gold.

Isozaki’s selection marks the fourth time that a Japanese architect, or pair of architects, have won the Pritzker Prize in the last 10 years, and the seventh time since the prize was first presented in 1979. Japan, this year’s honor confirms, is a Pritzker powerhouse. And at a time when the flow of people and capital across national borders has sparked tensions, the award sends an optimistic message about the value of international exchange.

Isozaki “has brought together East and West, not through mimicry or as a collage, but through the forging of new paths,” said the citation from the seven-member jury, which includes experts in the field and is chaired by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

Sponsored by Chicago’s billionaire Pritzker family, the award is given annually to recognize "consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture." In light of Isozaki’s age, it is the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award. Like previous winners, he will receive $100,000 and a bronze medallion. The award will be presented at the Chateau of Versailles, France in May.

In an email, Isozaki said that winning the prize signaled that he has reached a venerable stage of his work called “Okina.”

“The past Laureates and jurors are some of the architects that I have been paying most attention to since before their acceptance of the prize,” he wrote. “I am honored and thankful to be a recipient.”

Besides Breyer, who has long exhibited a strong interest in architecture, this year’s jury had two members from Japan, including Kazuyo Sejima, who won the prize in 2010 with her partner Ryue Nishizawa.

The other Japanese winners include Kenzo Tange (1987), Fumihiko Maki (1993), Tadao Ando (1995), Toyo Ito (2013) and Shigeru Ban (2014).

Asked Monday to explain Japan’s abundance of Pritzker success, Martha Thorne, the prize’s executive director and a former Art Institute of Chicago architecture curator, cited the nation’s support for international cultural exchange programs, its wealth of distinguished architectural publications, and the buildings of the Pritzker winners, which she said are characterized by “excellence in construction, clarity in the expression and sensitivity to the landscape around it.”

Isozaki was born in 1931 in the city of Oita, which is on the island of Kyushu, part of Japan’s chain of four main islands. Allied bombs struck the island during World War II.

“When I was old enough to begin an understanding of the world, my hometown was burned down,” Isozaki said in a news release accompanying the announcement of the prize. “Across the shore, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, so I grew up on ground zero. It was in complete ruins, and there was no architecture, no buildings and not even a city. Only barracks and shelters surrounded me. So, my first experience of architecture was the void of architecture, and I began to consider how people might rebuild their homes and cities.”

After graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1954 with a degree in architecture, Isozaki apprenticed under Tange. He opened his own firm, which now has offices in China, Italy and Spain as well as Japan, in 1963. Some of his significant early works, like a 1966 library in his home city, were done in the Brutalist style of sculptural exposed concrete, but Isozaki did not develop a signature style, he said, because Japan had such a broad range of rebuilding to do after World War II.

By the 1980s and 1990s, he had blossomed into an international figure, through teaching and such commissions as the Los Angeles museum, the Team Disney office building and the Palau Sant Jordi sports arena that was designed for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona. He served on the Pritzker jury from 1979 to 1984. He has also taught at U.S. architecture schools, including those at Harvard and Yale.

In recent years, the jury’s citation said, Isozaki has demonstrated “extraordinary dynamism” in such projects as the Allianz Tower.

Isozaki has no buildings in Chicago. In 1982, as part of Neocon 14, the National Exposition of Interior Contract Furnishings, he designed a postmodern showroom in the Merchandise Mart for the E.F. Hauserman Co., an office wall-system and furniture company. The Art Institute of Chicago has a drawing of the showroom’s entrance in its collection: https://bit.ly/2VGtXGL

Isozaki’s favorite Chicago building, he wrote, is the Louis Sullivan-designed former Carson Pirie Scott & Co. building at 1 S. State St. The structure, built in stages starting in 1899, features a white glazed terra-cotta exterior that expresses its underlying steel frame, as well as spectacular cast-iron decoration. It is now known as the Sullivan Center.

Isozaki’s admiration of the building is appropriate. The bronze medal received by Pritzker winners is based on Sullivan’s designs.</s>NEW YORK (AFP) - Japanese architect Arata Isozaki has been awarded the Pritzker Prize, considered architecture's highest honour, for a lifetime of work that found global resonance while mining local traditions.

The 87-year-old's over 100 built works range from the Palau Saint Jordi, built in Barcelona for the 1992 Summer Olympics, to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, his first international commission.

His hometown of Otai, Japan is a showcase of his early work, including a medical hall and annex, and a prefectural library.

"Isozaki is a pioneer in understanding that the need for architecture is both global and local - that those two forces are part of a single challenge," the chair of the jury, US Justice Stephen Breyer, said as the prize was announced Tuesday.

"For many years, he has been trying to make certain that areas of the world that have long traditions in architecture are not limited to that tradition, but help spread those traditions while simultaneously learning from the rest of the world," he said.

Isozaki is the 46th Pritzker laureate and the eighth Japanese architect to receive the honour.</s>Japanese architect, urbanist and theorist Arata Isozaki, 87, on Tuesday was awarded the 2019 Pritzker Prize for a career during which he was "not afraid to change and try new ideas," according to the prize jury's announcement issued in Chicago.

"Clearly, he is one of the most influential figures in contemporary world architecture ... His architecture rests on profound understanding, not only of architecture but also of philosophy, history, theory and culture. He has brought together East and West, not through mimicry or as a collage, but through the forging of new paths," the panel said.
Japanese architect Arata Isozaki is announced as the winner of the 2019 Pritzker Prize.