THE PRITZKER ARCHITECTURE PRIZE

2008-2010

1. Jean Nouvel

1.1 Biography

Jean Nouvel was born in Fumel, Lot-et-Garonne, France, on August 12, 1945. He is a French

architect who created his buildings to "create a visual landscape" that matched the environment they were

in, sometimes by having them contrast with the surrounding surroundings. Additionally, for his daringly

creative designs that resist categorization, Nouvel was given the 2008 Pritzker Architecture Prize, and by

the early twenty-first century, he had earned a position in the pantheon of architectural superheroes.

Fundamentally, when the Institute of the Arab World (Institut du Monde Arabe [IMA]) was constructed in

1987, Nouvel received a worldwide audience for the first time. With its high-tech, aperture-like panels,

the primary south face of that structure manages to be both cutting-edge in its inventive reaction to

shifting levels of light and suggestive of traditional Arab moucharaby (latticework grills). And, Nouvel

received the 1989 Aga Khan Award for architectural excellence for his design, and primarily, some

important twentieth-century structures include the refurbishment of France's Opéra National de Lyon

(1993) and the design for the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain (1994), both in Paris. Indeed,

when Jean Nouvel was young, his parents, both professors, advised him that instead of pursuing his

passion of being an artist, he should do something more practical to earn a livelihood, and architecture

provided the ideal compromise. Also in 1965, Nouvel won the first of many accolades when he won a

national competition to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Additionally, worked for an
architectural business founded by modernist architect Claude Parent and "urbanist" and cultural theorist

Paul Virilio while there. Nouvel received his architectural degree in 1972.

Nouvel's completed structures from the first decade of the twenty-first century include one of three

buildings that comprise Seoul's Leeum Museum (2004), Barcelona's bullet-shaped Agbar Tower (2005),

Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater (2006), Paris' quirky Quai Branly Museum (2006), and Copenhagen's

Concert Hall (2009), which has a bright blue exterior that functions as a video screen at night. In 2010, he

designed the Serpentine Pavilion, a prestigious commission to build a temporary structure in Kensington

Gardens, London; One New Change, a retail and office space near St. Paul's Cathedral, London; and 100

Eleventh Avenue, a luxury apartment building with a striking crystalline facade in New York City.

However, Nouvel's concept for the Philharmonie de Paris was delayed and over budget. When it first

debuted in 2015, Nouvel boycotted the opening ceremony. And, he complained in Le Monde that the

opening was too soon and that the construction had deviated from his original plan. The courts, however,

denied his attempt to disassociate himself from the building. Further to that, the Louver Abu Dhabi, a

museum that showed art leased from 13 French institution, and, was another of Nouvel’s long delayed

projects. Simultaneously, when it was opened in 2017, the structure was acclaimed for its unusual latticed

dome, which blocked the strong desert sun. Nouvel also designed the new National Museum of Qatar in

Doha (2019), which is made up of interconnecting discs. The structure was built around the renovated Old

Amiri Palace, which housed Qatar's previous national museum. 53 West 53 (or 53W53), his

much-anticipated "supertall" skyscraper in New York City, was finished in 2019. The nearby Museum of

Modern Art received many floors of gallery space from the tower.

1.2 Famous Building

➢ Arab World Institute, Paris

➢ Louvre Abu Dhabi

➢ One Central Park, Sydney

➢ Agbar Tower, barcelona

➢ Quai Branly Museum, Paris

1.3 Famous Dictums

“Each new situation requires a new architecture.”

“I like to play with architecture! It’s my favorite game.”

“My buildings are more famous than me.”

2. Peter Zumthor

2.1 Biography
2.2 Famous Building

➢ Thermal Vals, Switzerland

➢ Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria

➢ Kolumba, Germany

➢ Saint Benedict Chapel, Sumvitg

➢ Residential Home for Elderly, Masans

2.3 Famous Dictums

“What I try to do is the art of building, and the art of building is the art of construction; it is not only about

forms and shapes and images.”

“My first buildings, when I was about 30, were rejected for aesthetic reasons.”

“When I concentrate on a specific site or place for which I am going to design a building, I try to plumb

its depths, its form, its history and its sensuous qualities.”

3. Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa

3.1 Biography

3.2 Famous Building

3.3 Famous Dictums

 Reference

❖ https://www.famous-architects.org/jean-nouvel/

❖ https://www.thoughtco.com/buildings-and-projects-by-jean-nouvel-4065275

❖ https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/2019/07/20/a280-15-works-of-peter-zumthor-every-archite

ct-should-visit/#:~:text=Peter%20Zumthor's%20best%2Dknown%20projects,to%20be%20recycl

ed%20after%20the

1 SHIGERU BAN (2014)

1.1 Biography

Shigeru Ban was born in Tokyo on August 5, 1957. His father was a businessman at Toyota, and his
mother is a women’s clothing “haute couture'' designer. Ban’s father was very fond of classical music and
made Ban learn the violin at a young age. Ban excelled at arts and crafts in primary school and junior high
school. The model of a house he designed for an assignment during his 9th-grade summer holiday was
displayed in his school as the best. He then decided that he wanted to become an architect. Ban hoped to
attend Waseda University in order to pursue both rugby and architecture. After learning of a drawing
examination to enter that university, he spent every Sunday, starting in 10th grade, learning how to draw
at a painter’s atelier, and from the 11th grade, he went to a drawing school every day after his rugby
training at school. From the 12th grade, Ban joined the evening classes of a preparation school to enter the
university. He learned structural modeling using paper, wood, and bamboo for the first time, and his
exceptional ability quickly proved him to be peerless in this area. His teacher at the evening school was
Tomoharu Makabe, a graduate from the architecture department of the Tokyo University of the Arts. One
day, at Makabe’s house, Ban came across an article on John Hejduk, the “paper architect” and then-dean
of Cooper Union’s School of Architecture in New York. Ban’s encounter with the models and plans of
these unbuilt buildings was revolutionary for him, and he decided to go to the United States and study
architecture at Cooper Union.

In 1977, Ban traveled to California to study English. At that time, he discovered that Cooper Union did
not accept students from abroad and only accepted students who transferred from other schools within the
United States. Ban searched for a school from which he could transfer and decided to attend the Southern
California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), which had just been founded and used an old renovated
warehouse as the school building. Ban was very inspired by the series of Case Study Houses, which were
influenced by traditional Japanese architecture. In 1980, after finishing the 4th year at SCI-Arc, Ban
transferred to Cooper Union. All students transferring from other schools started at the sophomore level,
and among Ban’s classmates were his current partner in the New York office, Dean Maltz, and other
notable architects such as Nanako Umemoto (Reiser + Umemoto), and Laurie Hawkinson (Smith-Miller +
Hawkinson Architects). His teachers were Ricardo Scofidio, Tod Williams, Diana Agrest, Bernard
Tschumi, Peter Eisenman and John Hejduk, among others. At the end of the fourth year, Ban took a year
of absence from Cooper Union and worked at Arata Isozaki’s office in Tokyo. Ban went back to Cooper
Union and received his Bachelor of Architecture in 1984. After graduating, Ban accompanied the
photographer Yukio Fukagawa on a trip to Europe, where he visited Alvar Aalto’s architecture in Finland
for the first time. Ban was stunned by how Aalto’s architecture emphasized regional context and material.

Ban also built temporary housing at Onagawa, Miyagi prefecture, Japan. This brought great
improvements in the quality of life in shelters and the temporary housing environment, neglected by the
government. Following the devastation of the New Zealand Canterbury earthquake in 2011, Ban built the
Cardboard Cathedral as a symbol of reconstruction of the city of Christchurch. In 1995, Ban’s paper-tube
structure development received the permanent architecture certificate from the Minister of Construction in
Japan and he completed the “Paper House.” In 2000, in collaboration with German architect/structural
engineer Frei Otto, Ban constructed an enormous paper-tube grid shell structure for the Hanover Expo’s
Japan Pavilion in Germany. This structure drew attention from all over the world for its recyclable
architecture. Ban is currently working on creating architecture, he volunteers for disaster relief, lectures
widely, and teaches. He continues to develop material and structure systems.

1.2 Famous Building

● Centre Pompidou-Metz, France

● Curtain Wall House, Japan
● Cardboard Cathedral, New Zealand
● Naked House, Japan
● Tamedia Office Building, Switzerland

1.3 Famous Dictums

"An architect does not need to spend his whole career making monuments for rich people."

"Architects mostly work for privileged people, people who have money and power. Power and
money are invisible, so people hire us to visualize their power and money by making
monumental architecture. I love to make monuments, too, but I thought perhaps we can use our
experience and knowledge more for the general public, even for those who have lost their houses
in natural disasters."

"People are not killed by earthquakes alone, but by collapsed buildings."

2 FREI OTTO (2015)

2.1 Biography

Frei Otto was born in Siegmar, Germany, on May 31, 1925, and grew up in Berlin. “Frei” in German
means “free”; his mother thought of the name after attending a lecture on freedom. Otto’s father and
grandfather were both sculptors, and as a young student, he worked as an apprentice in stonemasonry
during school holidays. For a hobby he flew and designed glider planes; this activity piqued his interest in
how thin membranes stretched over light frames could respond to aerodynamic and structural forces.
When he had his university-entrance diploma in 1943, Otto signed up at once to study architecture, but he
was not allowed to. Instead, he was drafted into the labor force. In September 1943, Otto was called for
military service and he trained as a pilot. The pilot training was stopped at the end of 1944 and Otto
became a foot soldier. In April 1945, he was captured near Nürnberg and became a prisoner of war. He
stayed for two years in a prisoner of war camp near Chartres in France. There he worked as a camp
architect; and he learned to build many types of structures with as little material as possible.

After the war, in 1948, Frei Otto returned to study architecture at the Technical University of Berlin. His
architecture would always be a reaction to the heavy, columned buildings constructed for a supposed
eternity under the Third Reich in Germany. Otto’s work, in contrast, was lightweight, open to nature,
democratic, low-cost, and sometimes even temporary.

In 1952, Frei Otto became a freelance architect and founded his own architectural office in Berlin. He
earned a doctorate of civil engineering at the Technical University of Berlin in 1954. His dissertation Das
Hangende Dach, Gestalt und Struktur (“The Suspended Roof, Form and Structure”) was published in
German, Polish, Spanish and Russian. Also in 1954 he began work with “the tentmaker” Peter Stromeyer
at L. Stromeyer & Co. In 1955, he designed and built (with Peter Stromeyer) three lightweight minimal
temporary structures made of cotton fabric for the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Garden Exhibition) in
Kassel, Germany. These were his first works to gain national recognition, in part for how they harmonized
with nature.

From 1964 to 1991, Otto was a full professor at the University of Stuttgart, and in 1991, he was named
emeritus professor. Over the years, Otto’s research teams would include philosophers, historians,
naturalists and environmentalists. He is a world-renowned innovator in architecture and engineering who
pioneered modern fabric roofs over tensile structures and also worked with other materials and building
systems such as grid shells, bamboo, and wooden lattices. He made important advances in the use of air as
a structural material and pneumatic theory, and the development of convertible roofs. Otto made the
results of the research available to other architects. He always favored collaboration in architecture.

Frei Otto was recognized with his first major monographic exhibition in 1971 at the Museum of Modern
Art (MoMA) in New York. (A redesign of the exhibition later traveled in 1975 and 1977 to venues in
North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia). The exhibition “Natural Constructions,” which featured his
work, was organized by the Institute for International Relations in Stuttgart in 1982 and shown in Goethe
Institutes in approximately 80 countries.

Among numerous accolades, Frei Otto was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Prize and Medal in
Architecture by the University of Virginia in 1974; the Medaille de la recherché et de la technique by the
Academie d’Architecture, Paris, in 1982; the Grand Prize and gold medal by the Association of German
Architects, also in 1982. He received the 1980 Aga Khan Award for Architecture (together with Rolf
Gutbrod) for the conference centre in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and the 1998 Aga Khan Award for
Architecture (together with Omrania and Happold) for the Diplomatic Club in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He
was named Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, London, in 1982 and Honorary
Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers, London, in 1986. In 1996, he received the Grand Prize
of the German Association of Architects and Engineers, Berlin. In 2005, he was awarded the Royal Gold
Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). In 2006, the Japan Art Association awarded
him the Praemium Imperiale in Architecture.

2.2 Famous Buildings

● Munich Olympic Stadium, Germany

● Multihalle, Germany
● Tuwaiq Palace, Saudi Arabia
● Japan Expo Pavilion, Germany
● Diplomatic Club Heart Tent, Saudi Arabia

2.3 Famous Dictums

● “Buildings are 'humane' only when they promote peaceful human coexistence.”
● “My hope is that light, flexible architecture might bring about a new and open society.”
● “I have only one dream. It is the oldest of humanity, of man, in time. It is paradise. I would like to
give paradise to everyone.”

3 ALEJANDRO ARAVENA

3.1 Biography

Alejandro Aravena was born on June 22, 1967, in Santiago, Chile. He graduated as an architect from the
Universidad Católica de Chile in 1992. In 1994, he established his own practice, Alejandro Aravena
Architects. Since 2001 he has been leading ELEMENTAL, a “Do Tank” focusing on projects of public
interest and social impact, including housing, public space, infrastructure and transportation. Alejandro
Aravena is the Director of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016. He was a speaker at TEDGlobal in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2014. He was a member of the Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury from 2009 to 2015.

In 2010 he was named International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and identified as
one of the 20 new heroes of the world by Monocle magazine. He is a Board Member of the Cities
Program of the London School of Economics since 2011; Regional Advisory Board Member of the David
Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies; Board Member of the Swiss Holcim Foundation since
2013; Foundational Member of the Chilean Public Policies Society; and Leader of the Helsinki Design
Lab for SITRA, the Finnish Government Innovation Fund. He was one of the 100 personalities
contributing to the Rio +20 Global Summit in 2012. Aravena was a Professor at the Harvard Graduate
School of Design (2000 and 2005); and also taught at Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia
(2005), Architectural Association in London (1999), and London School of Economics. He has held the
ELEMENTAL Copec Chair at Universidad Católica de Chile since 2006.

Author of Los Hechos de la Arquitectura (Architectural Facts, 1999), El Lugar de la Arquitectura (The
Place in/of Architecture, 2002) and Material de Arquitectura (Architecture Matters, 2003). His work has
been published in more than 50 countries, Electa published the monograph Alejandro Aravena; progettare
e costruire (Milan, 2007) and Toto published Alejandro Aravena; the Forces in Architecture (Tokyo,
2011). Hatje-Cantz published the first monograph dedicated to the social housing projects of
ELEMENTAL: Incremental Housing and Participatory Design Manual (Berlin, 2012) launched at the
12th International Architecture Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia.
3.2 Famous Buildings

● UC Innovation Center, Chile

● Siamese Towers, Chile
● St. Edwards University Dorms, USA
● Novartis Office Building, China
● Villa Verde Housing, Chile

3.3 Famous Dictums

● “If anything, cities are concentrations of opportunity”
● “This is not, even for a second, a kind of romantic look at the favela as a kind of a
pre-civilized, paradisiac state of living, not at all. I mean, the favela is a disaster. But
there are forces there that we should be able to channel through design”

2011-2013

EDUARDO SOUTO DE MOURA

1.1 Biography
In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Machado and the second or paternal family
name is Souto de Moura. Eduardo Elísio Machado Souto de Moura and was born 25 July 1952, better
known as Eduardo Souto de Moura, is a Portuguese architect who was the recipient of the Pritzker
Architecture Prize in 2011 and the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2013. Along with Fernando Távora and Álvaro
Siza, he is one of the alumni of the Porto School of Architecture, where he was appointed a Professor.
Souto de Moura was born in Porto, and studied sculpture before switching to architecture at the School of
Fine Arts of the University of Porto, the current FAUP – Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do
Porto, and receiving his degree in 1980. From 1974 to 1979 he worked with Álvaro Siza Vieira at his
architectural practice, who encouraged him to start his own firm. Souto de Moura is the son of medical
doctor José Alberto Souto de Moura and wife Maria Teresa Ramos Machado. His brother is José Souto de
Moura, former 9th Attorney-General of Portugal. Souto de Moura began his career as an independent
architect in 1980 after winning a design competition for the Casa das Artes in Porto. He
collaborated with Siza on the Portuguese pavilion at the Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany, and
Serpentine Gallery's annual summer pavilion in 2004. Between 1989 and 1997, he spent eight
years on the restoration of Santa Maria do Bouro, transforming it into a Pousada. From 1981 to
1990, he was an assistant professor at his alma mater and was later appointed Professor at the
Faculty of Architecture at the University of Porto. He has been a visiting professor at the
architectural schools of Geneva, Paris-Belleville, Harvard University, Dublin, ETH Zurich and
EPFL Lausanne, and has participated in numerous seminars and given many lectures both in
Portugal and abroad. His work has appeared in various publications and exhibitions.

1.2 Famous Structure

- The House in Tavira (1991-1995)

- Conversion of the South Matosinhos coastal promenade, Matosinhos (1995)
- Courtyard houses in Matosinhos (1993-1999)
- Estádio Municipal de Braga (2000-2003)
- Porto Metro (2004)

1.3 Famous Dictums

“There is no ecological architecture, no intelligent architecture, and no sustainable architecture –

there is only good architecture. There are always problems we must not neglect. For example,
energy, resources, costs, social aspects – one must always pay attention to all these.”
WANG SHU

2.1 Biography
Wang Shu was born in 1963 in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China. He received his first degree in architecture in
1985 and his Masters degree in 1988 from the Nan Nanjing Institute of Technology. He and his wife, Lu
Wenyu, founded Amateur Architecture Studio in 1997 in Hangzhou, China. The office name references
the approach an amateur builder takes, one based on spontaneity, craft skills and cultural traditions. Wang
Shu spent a number of years working on building sites to learn traditional skills and utilizes his
knowledge of everyday techniques to adapt and transform materials for contemporary projects. This
unique combination of traditional understanding, experimental building tactics and intensive research
defines the basis for the studio’s architectural projects. Wang Shu's studio, Amateur Architecture Studio,
takes a critical view of the architecture profession's role in the demolition and destruction of large urban
areas. At the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale, the studio created an installation made from 66,000
recycled tiles salvaged from demolition sites. His work is rooted in Chinese history and culture, and he
believes that architecture is spontaneous because it is a matter of everyday life. He named his studio
"Amateur Architecture" to emphasize the spontaneous and experimental aspects of his work. He has
participated in several international exhibitions, including the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale, 2009
"Architecture as a Resistance", 2007 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale, 2003 "Alors, La Chine?",
2002 Shanghai Biennale, 2001 "TU MU-Young Architecture of China" and 1999 Chinese Young
Architects' Experimental Works Exhibition.

2.2 Famous Structures

- Library of Wenzheng College

- Suzhou University
- Ningbo Contemporary Art Museum
- Ningbo
- Five Scattered Houses

2.3 Famous Dictums

“always attempt to make use of traditional building materials and older techniques in modern
buildings”

TOYO ITO

3.1 Biography
Toyo Ito was born in 1941 in Keijo, Korea. His father was a business man with a special interest in
ceramic ware and Japanese style paintings. He moved back to Japan in 1943 and his father returned two
years later. His father died in 1953 and the rest of the family operated a miso (bean paste) making factory.
All but one sister have died. Ito established his own architecture office in 1971, and the following year he
married. His wife died in 2010. They had one daughter who is now 40 and is editing Vogue Nippon. Ito's
early influences in architecture included his grandfather, father, Yoshinobu Ashihara, and Hibiya High
School. During his undergraduate diploma design at the University of Tokyo, he won the top prize for his
proposal for Ueno Park. Toyo Ito began working in the firm of Kiyonori Kikutake & Associates after he
graduated from Tokyo University’s Department of Architecture in 1965. By 1971, he was ready to start
his own studio in Tokyo, and named it Urban Robot (Urbot). In 1979, he changed the name to Toyo Ito &
Associates, Architects. He has received numerous international awards, including the 22nd Praemium
Imperiale in 2010, the Royal Institute of British Architects' Royal Gold Medal in 2006, and the Golden
Lion for Lifetime Achievement for the 8th Venice Biennale International Exhibition in 2002. He has also
been a guest professor at various universities and hosted an overseas studio for Harvard's Graduate School
of Design in 2012. Ito's early works were residences, such as "Aluminum House" and "White U". He also
produced a home for his sister, "White U", which was demolished in 1997. He sought to erase
conventional meaning from his works through minimalist tactics, developing lightness in architecture that
resembles air and wind.

3.2 Famous Structure

- White U House, Japan

- Sendai Mediatheque, Japan
- Vivo City, Singapore
- Kaohsiung National Stadium, Taiwan
- Odate Dome (Nipro Hachiko Dome), Japan

3.3 Famous Dictums

“Architects have made architecture too complex. We need to simplify it and use a language that
everyone can understand.”

“There are so many constraints on the architect that public buildings almost never feel free or
enjoyable.”

“I sometimes feel that we are losing an intuitive sense of our own bodies.”

“Because there are a lot of big cities in the world, people who live in cities have become more
isolated than ever.”

10. Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, and Ramon Vilalta (2017)

10.1 Biography

Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, and Ramon Vilalta

Spanish architects who founded the firm RCR
Arquitectes in 1988 and were known for their
collaborative approach to designing a variety of
public and private projects. In 2017, the trio
received the Pritzker Prize, the first time the
honor was bestowed on three people at the same
time.

According to the official website of the Pritzker

Architecture Prize, Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem,
and Ramon Vilalta graduated from the School of
Architecture in Valles in 1987 and established
RCR Arquitectes the following year in their hometown of Olot, in the Spanish province of Girona. They
credit their early success to a first-place win in a 1988 competition sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of
Public Works and Urbanism, in which they designed a lighthouse in Punta Aldea by pondering the
essence of typology, a fundamental approach that would resonate throughout all of their future works.
This accomplishment inspired them to further explore their individual architectural ideas, which resulted
in commissions, many of which were completed in Catalonia.

They are the 2005 recipients of the Catalan government's National Prize for Culture in Architecture. the
French Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 2008 and 2014; Honorary Fellows of the American
Institute of Architecture, 2010; International Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 2012;
and awardees of the Gold Medal by the French Académie d’Architecture, 2015.

Aranda, Pigem, and Vilalta have worked as consultants for the Natural Park in the Volcanic Zone of La
Garrotxa since 1989. From 1989 to 2001, they taught urbanism, landscape architecture, and design studio
at ETSAV, and they have acted as critics for diploma project juries at ETSAV and Escola Tècnica
Superior d'Arquitectura de Barcelona. They developed an international summer program at their Barber
Laboratory studio in 2012.

They founded the RCR BUNKA Foundation in 2013 to assist architecture, landscape, arts, and culture
throughout society.

10.2 Famous Buildings

● Bell-Lloc Winery ( Palamós, Girona)

● Tossols - Basil Athletics Track

● La Lira Theatre Public Open Space

● The Sant Antoni – Joan Oliver Library

 ● Soulages Museum, Rodez

10.3 DICTUMS

"When we begin a project, we are very interested in visiting the place," - Carme Pigem.

"We are used to 'reading' the place as if it spoke to us with its own alphabet – an alphabet established
between the site and us."

"We like to speak of beauty. We believe in this – architecture that conveys beauty."

"We have believed in trying to do the maximum using the minimum," claims Aranda.

"By using just one material we hope to be able to create an atmosphere. And this is positive for us.

11. Balkrishna Doshi (2018)

11.1 Biography
 Balkrishna Doshi (1927-2023) was born in Pune, India, into an
extended Hindu family with two generations of involvement in the
furniture industry. A schoolteacher introduced him to architecture
when he demonstrated an aptitude for art and an understanding of
proportion at a young age. He began his architectural studies in
1947, the year India gained independence, at the Sir J.J. School of
Architecture Bombay (Mumbai), India's oldest and most
prestigious architecture school.

Doshi's ambition and initiative guided many pivotal moments in

his life, from boarding a ship from India to London, where he
hoped to join the Royal Institute of British Architects; to moving to Paris—despite his inability to speak
French—to work under Le Corbusier; to responding to the responsibility and opportunity of rebuilding his
native country.

He returned to India in 1954 to supervise Le Corbusier's projects in Chandigarh and Ahmedabad,

including the Mill Owner's Association Building (Ahmedabad, 1954) and the Shodhan House
(Ahmedabad, 1956). Doshi also worked as an associate with Louis Kahn to build the Indian Institute of
Management, Ahmedabad, beginning in 1962, and they continued to collaborate for over a decade.

Doshi hired two architects and established Vastushilpa, which has since been renamed Vastushilpa
Consultants and has grown to employ five partners and sixty employees, as well as completed more than
100 projects since its inception. Infused with lessons from previous Western architects, he forged his
artistic vision with a deep reverence for life, Eastern culture, and natural forces to create a personal
architecture laced with sights, sounds, and memories from his past. Along with a deep respect for Indian
history and culture, he incorporates elements of his youth into his architecture, such as memories of
shrines, temples, and bustling streets, as well as scents of lacquer and wood from his grandfather's
furniture workshop.

Doshi recalls one of his most personal endeavors, Sangath (Ahmedabad, 1980), his architecture studio,
among the vast array of completed buildings that include institutions, mixed-use complexes, housing
projects, public spaces, galleries, and private residences. "Sangath combines images and associations from
Indian culture." The campus merges, and memories of places visited collide, evoking and connecting
long-forgotten events. “Sangath fuses images and associations of Indian lifestyles. The campus integrates,
and memories of places visited collide, evoking and connecting forgotten episodes. Sangath is an ongoing
school where one learns, unlearns and relearns. It has become a sanctuary of culture, art and sustainability
where research, institutional facilities and maximum sustainability are emphasized.”

In 1978, he founded the Vastushilpa Foundation for Studies and Research in Environmental Design with
the goal of developing indigenous design and planning standards for built environments that are
appropriate to India's socio-cultural and environmental milieu. It now acts as a vital link between
academics and professional consultants. Doshi founded, directed, and chaired the School of Architecture
and Planning (Ahmedabad, 1966-2012), which was renamed CEPT University in 2002. Later, as Dean
Emeritus, he continued to live in Ahmedabad.

Having been recognized both nationally and internationally, Doshi is the recipient of the Officer of the
Order of Arts and Letters of France (2011); Global Award for Lifetime Achievement for Sustainable
Architecture, Institut Francais d’Architecture, Paris (2007); Prime Minister’s National Award for
Excellence in Urban Planning and Design, India (2000); Aga Khan Award for Architecture (1993-1995)
for Aranya Community Housing; Gold Medal, Academy of Architecture of France (1988); Gold Medal,
Indian Institute of Architects (1988); and Padma Shree National Award, Government of India (1976).
Doshi is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Indian Institute of Architects, and an
Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He served on the Pritzker Prize Jury from
2005–2007, and on selection committees for the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts and the Aga Khan
Award for Architecture.

A retrospective of his works, “Celebrating Habitat: The Real, the Virtual and the Imaginary,” opened at
the National Gallery of Modern Arts, Delhi, India (2014), before traveling to the Power Station of Art
Shanghai, China, (2017). He recently delivered the 27th Annual Architecture lecture at the Royal
Academy of Arts, London, U.K. (2017).

Published texts include Paths Uncharted (Vastushilpa Foundation, 2011); “Community Building in Indore,
India” in Where are the Utopian Visionaries?: Architecture of Social Exchange by Hansy Better Barraza
(Periscope Publishing, 2012); and numerous works in relevant international journals such as A+U
(Japan), Architectural Review (United Kingdom), and Abitare (Italy), among many others.

Doshi served on the International Committee for the Preparation of the International Charter on the
Education of Architects, sponsored by the International Union of Architects in collaboration with
UNESCO (1995), and has honorary degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in the United States
(1990) and McGill University in Canada (2005). He has lectured at prestigious schools and institutions
around the world, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia, the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Rice University in Houston, Washington
University in St. Louis, and the University of Hong Kong.

11.2 Famous Buildings

● Aranya Low Cost Housing, Indore

● Atira Housing, Ahmedabad

● LIC Housing, Ahmedabad

● Jnana-Pravah Centre for Cultural Studies, Varanasi

● Tagore Hall, Ahmedabad

11.3 Dictums

“Today every major city has more than required institutions while there are none in small towns and
villages. It is not just our contemporary practices but our attitude to the heritage that also needs much
introspection.”

“Visit the site often, give a patient ear to its murmurs

“If you want freedom, break away from the normal conventions. Break away from all the rules - forget
history books.”

“Our tools cannot become our masters and should not rule our lives.”

12. Arata Isozaki (2019)

12.1 Biography

Arata Isozaki (1931-2022) was born in ita, Kyushu, Japan, prior to the
outbreak of World War II, and was 14 years old when Hiroshima and
Nagasaki were bombed. He builds with the theory that, while buildings
are transitory, they should please the senses of the users who are currently
passing through and around them. “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 near
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.”

In 1954, Isozaki graduated from the Department of Architecture in the

Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tokyo, and he began his
career as an apprentice to 1987 Pritzker Prize Laureate Kenzo Tange. He founded Arata Isozaki &
Associates in 1963, after the Allied occupation, when Japan had regained its sovereignty and was seeking
physical reconstruction amid political, economic, and cultural uncertainty following WWII's devastation.
His work began locally, with many buildings in his hometown and Fukuoka, and quickly expanded to
Gunma, Osaka and Tokyo. Significant works in his early career include the Ōita Prefectural Library
(1962-1966 Ōita, Japan), Expo ’70 Festival Plaza (1966-1970 Osaka, Japan), The Museum of Modern
Art, Gunma (1971-1974 Gunma, Japan), and Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Fukuoka (1972-1974
Fukuoka, Japan).

Isozaki demonstrated a global vision that was ahead of its time and facilitated a dialogue between East
and West. In the 1980s, he established himself as an international architectural leader with his first
overseas commission, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (1981-1986 California, USA).

In response to the rapid rate of urbanization, Isozaki imagined City in the Air (1962 Tokyo, Japan), a
futuristic plan for Shinjuku consisting of elevated layers of buildings, residences, and transportation
suspended above the aging city below. Despite its failure, Isozaki went on to plan cities in rapidly
growing economies, with his most recent projects in China and the Middle East. He has played an
important role in realizing the concepts of young architects all over the world through his critical writings
and as a jury member for major architecture competitions. Along with his iconic buildings, his work spans
six decades and includes philosophy, visual art, design, music, films, and plays.

He was the recipient of the Annual Prize, Architectural Institute of Japan, for the Ōita Prefectural Library
and The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma (1967 and 1975 respectively, Japan), L’Ordre des Arts et des
Lettres (1997 Officier, France), RIBA Gold Medal for architecture (1986 United Kingdom), Leone d’Oro,
Venice Architectural Biennale, as commissioner of Japanese Pavilion (1996 Italy), Gran Cruz de la Orden
del Mérito Civil (1997 Spain), Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (2007 Italy), and The Lorenzo il
Magnifico Lifetime Achievement Award, Florence Biennale (2017). He was an honorary member of the
Royal Academy of Arts (1994) and the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1998), and a member of
the Japan Arts Academy (2017). He was appointed to the first Pritzker Prize Jury in 1979, and continued
on as a member for five additional years.

Solo exhibitions featuring the work of Isozaki have included Arata Isozaki: Architecture 1960-1990 at the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (California, USA) and Tokyo Station Gallery (Tokyo, Japan);
Arata Isozaki: Works in Architecture at the Brooklyn Museum (New York, USA), Galleria D’ Arte
Moderna, Comune di Bologna (Bologna, Italy), The Netherlands Architecture Institute (Rotterdam, The
Netherlands), The National British Architecture Institute (London, United Kingdom), Miro Museum
(Barcelona, Spain) and Moni Lazariston (Thessaloniki, Greece); Arata Isozaki – Electric Labyrinth at
Castello di Rivoli, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea (Torino, Italy) and Serralves Museum of Contemporary
Art (Porto, Portugal); and Arata Isozaki UNBUILT at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing, China),
Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Centre (Shanghai, China) and Guangdong Museum of Art
(Guangzhou, China).

Isozaki served as a visiting professor at several U.S. universities including: Columbia University, New
York (New York, USA); Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, USA) and Yale University (New Haven,
Connecticut, USA). He is based in Okinawa with offices operating in Japan, China, Italy and Spain.

12.2 Famous Buildings

● Shanghai Symphony Hall 2008-2014 Shanghai, China

● Qatar National Convention Center 2004-2011 Doha, Qatar

● Ceramic Park Mino 1996-2002 Gifu, Japan

● Nara Centennial Hall 1992-1998 Nara, Japan

 ● Art Tower Mito 1986-90 Ibaraki, Japan

12.3 Famous Dictums

“The most important thing an artist can do is confront society with something it has never seen before,
something in a sense improper.”

“I’ve always felt that the most important thing is finding a way of escaping the framework or aesthetic
consciousness with which I am burdened.”

2020
Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara

1.1 Biography

Yvonne Farrell (1951) and Shelley McNamara (1952) met during their collegiate studies at the School of
Architecture at University College Dublin (UCD). They studied under rationalist architects who had
newly arrived to challenge the preexisting thought and culture of the institution. Upon graduating in 1976,
they were each offered the unique opportunity to teach at UCD, where they continued to educate until
2006, and were appointed as adjunct professors in 2015. In 1978, Farrell and McNamara, along with three
others, established Grafton Architects, named after the street of their original office to prioritize the
existence of place, rather than individuals. Significant projects have included North King Street Housing
(Dublin, Ireland 2000); Urban Institute of Ireland, University College Dublin (Dublin, Ireland 2002);
Solstice Arts Centre (Navan, Ireland 2007); Loreto Community School (Milford, Ireland 2006); Offices
for the Department of Finance (Dublin, Ireland 2009); and Medical School, University of Limerick
(Limerick, Ireland 2012).

Only Farrell and McNamara remained of the original five partners. Their first international commission
was 25 years later, with Universita Luigi Bocconi in Milan (Milan, Italy 2008), which was named World
Building of the Year at the inaugural World Architectural Festival in Barcelona in 2008. Grafton
Architects was the recipient of the 2012 Biennale di Venezia Silver Lion Award for the exhibition,
Architecture as New Geography. Farrell and McNamara were appointed as 2018 co-curators for the 16th
International Architecture Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, with the theme FREESPACE. They were
awarded the RIAI James Gandon Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Architecture by the RIAI in 2019
and the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2020.

1.2 Famous Structures

- Institut mines Telecom

- University campus UTEC Lima
- Office for the Department of finance Dublin, Ireland
- Loreto Community school
- Parnell Square Cultural Quarter

1.3 Famous dictums

“Architecture could be described as one of the most complex and important cultural activities on the
planet,”

What we try to do in our work is to be aware of the various levels of citizenship and try to find an
architecture that deals with overlap, that heightens your relationship to one another,”
“Architecture is a framework for human life. It anchors us and connects us to the world in a way which
possibly no other space-making discipline can.”

2021

Anne Lacaton And Jean-Philippe Vassal

Biography

Anne Lacaton (1955, Saint-Pardoux, France) and Jean-Philippe Vassal (1954, Casablanca, Morocco) met
in the late 1970s during their formal architecture training at École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture et
de Paysage de Bordeaux. Lacaton went on to pursue a Masters in Urban Planning from Bordeaux
Montaigne University (1984), while Vassal relocated to Niger, West Africa to practice urban planning.
Lacaton often visited Vassal, and it was there that the genesis of their architectural doctrine began, as they
were profoundly influenced by the beauty and humility of sparing resources within the country’s desert
landscapes. In Niamey, Niger, Lacaton and Vassal built their first joint project, a straw hut, constructed
with locally sourced bush branches, which yielded surprising impermanence, relenting to the wind within
two years of completion. They vowed to never demolish what could be redeemed and instead, make
sustainable what already exists, thereby extending through addition, respecting the luxury of simplicity,
and proposing new possibilities.

They established Lacaton & Vassal in Paris (1987), and have since demonstrated boldness through their
design of new buildings and transformative projects. For over three decades, they have designed private
and social housing, cultural and academic institutions, public space, and urban strategies. The duo’s
architecture reflects their advocacy of social justice and sustainability, by prioritizing a generosity of
space and freedom of use through economical and ecological materials.

Their skillful selection of modest materials enables the architects to build larger living spaces affordably,
as demonstrated by the construction of 14 single-family residences for a social housing development
(2005), and 59 units within low-rise apartment buildings at Neppert Gardens (2015), both in Mulhouse,
France; and in adjoining mid-rise buildings consisting of 96 units in Chalon-sur-Saône, France (2016);
among others. Throughout their careers, the architects have rejected city plans calling for the demolition
of social housing, focusing instead on designing from the inside out to prioritize the welfare of a
building’s inhabitants and their unanimous desires for larger spaces.

2.2 Famous Structures

- House in Bordeaux
- École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Nantes
- Cap Ferret House
 - Latapie House
- Le Grand Sud Multipurpose Theater

2.3 Famous dictums

“The modernist hopes and dreams to improve the lives of many are reinvigorated through their work that
responds to the climatic and ecological emergencies of our time, as well as social urgencies.”

“When you go to the doctor they might tell you that you’re fine, that you don’t need any medicine.
Architecture should be the same. If you take time to observe, and look very precisely, sometimes the
answer is to do nothing.”

“Good architecture is a space where something special happens, where you want to smile, just because
you are there,”

2022-2023

Diébédo Francis Kéré

Biography
Diébédo Francis Kéré is a Burkinabe architect born in 1965. He grew up in a rural village, where he
learned about traditional building methods and natural materials. He went on to study architecture at the
Technical University of Berlin, where he now runs Kéré Architecture.

Kéré's work is significantly influenced by his childhood in Burkina Faso as well as his studies and career
in Europe. His designs frequently combine ancient building techniques and materials with modern
engineering and design ideas. His work is noted for its simplicity, usefulness, and long-term viability, and
it frequently seeks to effect social and economic transformation in poor countries.

Famous Structure
- Gando Primary School, Gando
- Serpentine Pavilion, U.K.
- Xylem, United States
- Lycée Schorge Secondary School, Koudougou
- Startup Lions Campus, Kenya

Famous Dictums
“If we learn to build with local materials, we have a future.”
“Architecture is about people.”
"It’s not because you are limited in resources that you should accept mediocrity."

Application: These principles reflect Kéré's philosophy in making the best use of the resources at his
disposal, as well as his commitment to sustainability and community-driven design. His work usually
combines local materials such as clay and wood, and he frequently engages local craftspeople in his
construction projects. Kéré designs structures that are responsive to the local environment and culture and
can be sustained by the local population in this way.

David Alan Chipperfield

Biography
David Alan Chipperfield is a British architect who was born in London on December 18, 1953. He
founded the architecture firm David Chipperfield Architects, which has offices in London, Milan, Berlin,
Shanghai, and New York. Chipperfield is well-known for his minimalist and modernist architectural style,
which is distinguished by the use of simple forms, clear lines, and a focus on materiality and context.

Chipperfield was up on a farm in southwestern England, where he dreamed of becoming a veterinarian.

He later graduated from the Architectural Association in London in 1977 and worked with award-winning
architects such as Richard Rogers and Norman Foster before founding David Chipperfield Architects in
1985.
Famous Structure
- Anchorage Museum, Alaska
- Turner Contemporary, U.K.
- Kunsthaus, Zurich
- Hepworth Wakefield Gallery, West Yorkshire
- Museum of Modern Literature, Germany

Famous Dictums
“You don't restore 'The Last Supper' by filling in the missing bits - you preserve. You accept the
material that has somehow survived.”
“If you look at a building by Mies van der Rohe, it might look very simple, but up close, the sheer
quality of construction, materials and thought are inspirational.”

“I suppose I'm trying to build an architecture that's as timeless as possible, although we're all
creatures of our age.”

Application: Chipperfield's concept is founded on three tenets: "materials, order, and craftsmanship."
These three tenets inform his designs and are important to his approach to building. He emphasizes the
need of utilizing high-quality materials that are suited for the building's location. The Hepworth
Wakefield Gallery in West Yorkshire, England, is one project that exemplifies Chipperfield's concern on
materials. In his works, he emphasizes the value of order, employing regular geometry and symmetrical
compositions to give a sense of balance and harmony. The Kunsthaus Zurich is an excellent illustration of
this, as it is made up of a sequence of interconnected rectangular forms. He is passionate about traditional
construction processes and believes that structures should be built to last. One project that showcases this
emphasis on craftsmanship is the Turner Contemporary Museum in Margate, England.

References:

https://www.dezeen.com/2017/03/01/rcr-arquitectes-rafael-aranda-carme-pigem-ramon-vilalta-w
in-pritzker-prize-2017/

http://lalolla.com/bell-lloc-winery-rcr-arquitectes/

https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/2022/03/30/a6541-pritzker-architecture-prize-winners-rafa
el-aranda-carme-pigem-and-ramon-vilalta/

https://www.pritzkerprize.com/

https://www.dezeen.com/2017/03/01/movies-rcr-arquitectes-pritzker-prize-architecture-conveys-
beauty-videos/

https://www.architecturaldigest.in/content/photos-9-iconic-buildings-designed-by-architect-bv-d
oshi/

https://surfacesreporter.com/articles/20689/21-inspiring-quotes-from-paths-uncharted-by-dr-balk
rishna-doshi

https://worldarchitecture.org/article-links/epngg/10-significant-projects-of-arata-isozaki.html

https://www.re-thinkingthefuture.com/2019/03/06/arata-isozaki-the-man-of-the-east-and-the-wes
t-wins-pritzker-prize-2019/
David Chipperfield quote: You don't restore 'The Last Supper' by filling in the... (azquotes.com)

10 significant projects of Diébédo Francis Kéré (worldarchitecture.org)

TEMP designs runner's station with stainless steel arcades in Beijing Olympic Forest Park
(worldarchitecture.org)

10 Modern Buildings by David Chipperfield | Architectural Digest

Marbach Museum of Modern Literature, Germany - e-architect