SANAA is known for designing art galleries such as the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, 21Street Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Lourve-Lens in France, and Sydney Modern Projects in New South Wales.
In 2010, the studio completed the new Rolex Teaching Center at the École Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne.
Other work by the Tokyo-based practice includes a university campus in Milan, a factory building in Rhein, and a business school in Essen. Sana has only one project built in the UK: the 2009 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion.
Sejima and Nishizawa, who won the Pritzker Prize in 2010, just 15 years after starting training, will receive a reward of 15 million yen (£100,000) for their Praemium Imperiale win.
The judges did not release a citation, but a video created for the award says that Sana “embodies a very effective fusion of two different personalities”, adding that she “turned the traditional hierarchical design in favor of a more inclusive form of architecture”.
Speaking in the video, Sejima said, “When we build architecture, it has nothing to do with whether it is public or not, but rather whether it is possible to build a place like a garden where people of different ages can come together for different purposes.”
The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 2007
Source: Dean Kaufman
The Praemium Imperiale is an annual award given by the Japan Arts Association, under the patronage of Masahito, Prince Hitachi, younger brother of Japanese Emperor Akihito, who abdicated in 2019.
The award is also given to winners in four other areas: the other winners in 2022 are Ai Weiwei (sculpture), Krystian Zimerman (music), Giulio Paolini (drawing), and Wim Wenders (theater/film).
last year Australian architect Glenn Murcutt Received the Praemium Imperiale Prize for Architecture. Previous winners have been Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, David Chipperfield, Herzog and de Meuron.