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.
• 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.

• His career began under the teachings of

the 1987 Pritzker Prize, Laureate Kenzo
Tange. After university, Isozaki continued
an apprenticeship with Tange for nine
years before establishing his own firm in

1963, Arata Isozaki & Associates.

Qatar National Convention Center, Doha, Qatar

• 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).

• 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.

• He was a proponent and pioneer of

architectural representation through the
medium of silkscreen and thermal prints.

The Team Disney Building in Florida (1991)

• 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.

• 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".
• 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.

• In 2011, together with the artist Anish

Kapoor, Isozaki developed the inflatable
structure Ark Nova, to host Lucerne festival.

• 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".
The Ark Nova Domus: La Casa del Hombre, La Coruña, Spain
Nara Centennial Hall, Nara, Japan Kitakyushu Central Library, Fukuoka, Japan

Save this picture!