2010 Pritzker Prize: SANAA
29
Mar 2010
▼
Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima, Photo by Takashi Okamoto, Courtesy of SANAA
Today, the Pritzker Prize laureate has been announced: Japanese practice SANAA formed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.
SANAA was following Steven Holl on the polls (my favorite for next year), a name that was very strong for the award since last year.
The awarded duo will receive the prize at a formal ceremony May 17 at Ellis Island, New York.
Works by SANAA at ArchDaily:
RT @DinkyShop @archdaily It's official, Pritzker 2010 goes to SANAA: http://archdai.ly/b5JVrc / #architecture
Congratulations!
yes! congrats!
so glad to hear about this! ^o^ congratulations!
I’m personally extremely disappointed with this choice…
Obviously, even being on the shortlist is evidence that enough people think that the work of SANAA is worth acknowledging, and I’m not disagreeing that the practice has produced some extremely well received buildings… However, in my opinion, several other architects on the shortlist were of a much greater design pedigree than SANAA, and furthermore that some other architects on the shortlist had much stronger portfolios of built work.
The prize is supposedly awarded to architects who consistently produce “significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture”. I think my disappointment with SANAA as Pritzker Laureate, is that I’m unconvinced as to how much they’ve really contributed to humanity and the built environment, that we haven’t seen before.
“I’m personally extremely disappointed with this choice…”
nobody cares…
“a much greater design pedigree”
are you serious???….
you obviously care, as you’ve obviously read it! it’s also obviously riled you enough for you to make a petty post about it too! lol @ you.
i care too. believe it or not, there is a comments stream on every ad article for people to share their opinions!
hummm…I agree…I thought the Prizker Prize acknowledge the contribution to architecture…as difference to great architects.
prtizker its becoming oscar-like… only by the fame.
What have you done??? … talking is always easy
you are unbelievablely envy.
or blind.
SANAAWAAB…congrats anyway
SANAA wins Pritzker – http://tinyurl.com/y9joeae (scoop by @archdaily)
white blobs and glazing – what a contribution!
oh no, wait…
RT @archdaily: 2010 Pritzker Prize: SANAA http://archdai.ly/bDf63w
RT @archdaily: 2010 Pritzker Prize: SANAA http://archdai.ly/bDf63w
Congrats!!!
Congratulations!
祝贺妹岛和世与西则立卫！
にしざわりゅうえ in chinese is 西泽立卫
congrats
interesting avatar WSBY – did you design it?
I’m sure Ito is emotionally confused right about now… If I’m not mistaken SANAA were cut from his cloth and he was a worthy candidate for the award as well?
Totally agree.
Also must agree – there were many good names floating around but I was rooting for Ito – certainly a more comprehensive contribution than SANAA (who I love by the way)
The real question is when will Steven Holl win? His contributions to the world of art and architecture are much more plentiful and stronger than the work of SANAA.
I think many people generally agree with your assessment.
Im also disappointed about it. .
Pritzker should be considered as lifetime achievement award. .
I can hardly agree with your comment that Steven Holl is at the Pritzker level. Is there a work by him that is of true genuine originality…? Meanwhile I could name more than a handle of his work that not only did they not contribute positively, but indeed add negatively to the built world. If you could see how badly his MIT dorm works, how awfully it has aged… juxtaposing against the timeless beauty of Aalto’s across the other side of campus…
they had my vote for sure. nothing wrong with “white blobs and glazing” if it’s done extremely well.
no, there isn’t, but there is countless practices that produce this architecture, many of which have been producing this architecture long before SANAA.
i’ve got no problem with the architecture at all, and I’m certainly not questioning the quality SANAA’s work, i’m just unconvinced that repetitive and established architecture (whether you call it fashion, style, language) is deserving of the highest award in the profession, regardless of it’s mainstream appeal.
Congratulations
Well I think there is a minimalistic trend in the choice for Pritzker laureates. SANAA deserves this award. Congrats
How is it supposed to be pronounced?
Sah-nah
Suh-nah
Say-nah
Sauna.
Suh-nah.
Say na na na;P
so all of the spectacular built work´s that steven holl have been doing doesn´t mean anything?
from masterplaning, to big housing blocks and small houses, cultural buildings and museum´s. yes i would not choose you SANNA.
agreed!
not even just steven holl though – so many more creative and talented architects around…
Don’t say uninformed judgement without knowing all the projects done by the Pritzker prize laureates. I respect them. Check out their projects first. Then you will understand why they were chosen for the prize.
SANAA have also made big housing blocks (Gifu), small houses (lots and lots of them, LOTS of them, many MANY more than Steven Holl), cultural buildings (Kanagawa, for example) and museums (which are cultural buildings.) They’ve also made gambling parlors, police boxes…
just looking through all of SANAA work…
not feeling the pritzker quality…
sooo basic!? too bland for my senses.
their projects certainly look deceptively simple. if you guys haven’t yet, i’d suggest checking out their el croquis volumes to get a better sense of the structural and programmatically complex things they’ve done with such simple forms.
although it might have made more sense for ito to win, i was rooting for sanaa and am glad they’ve won. well deserved.
May be Architecture need not be dealt in so detail that we get overwhelmed with the forms and aesthetics always…sometimes it needs to be answered with a simple, basic terminology understandable by the user.
Yeah ur right..the Work of SANAA is not appealing to the hype of Pritzker Prize, but in a realistic functional way, it might be the best suited work.
I hope one day…one of us will achieve the simplicity and true aesthetic sense of understanding the Architecture as it is always.
Cheers…Pardhu
im really going to stop reading this blog… all the haters. fyi there will be another awarded next year! an awesome japanesse firm won that does great work ive been to a majority of it. congratulations to the office and its cool to see another woman / team win. But i do wish the names didn’t just come from the archi top of the pops. and the award money is pretty funny… where do you think it goes? charity, laser cutter,bills,bose headsets, a motorcycle for the office? maybe a kick ass party for the office? does anyone know what its like working with sanaa in tokyo? more discussion and less negative trash would be nice. thx;)
Keep reading the blog just don’t read the comments! Comments sections are always out of hand if they aren’t moderated.
When I visited SANAAs office I talked to an American who worked there. They work 7 days a week (or at least they did at the time, when Kanazawa was under construction). But she said they’d been working that schedule for the entire time she’d been working there.
yes, they don´t do anything groundbreaking, or new. But they brought that “japaneese elegant minimalism” to perfection – whether they do a “blob” (?? do they ??), or a box, it is always extremely (radically) thin, light and delicate. And for that, they deserve the prize.
I love holl and I would be happy if he won too – but SANAA deserve it equally
yeah, what is the point of the money? 100K. so is the cooper hewitt,but they give out many more awards, the academy of arts and letters gives 100k i think and the noble prize is 1 mil and the genius grant is 1 mil … and are all awards funded by an extremely wealthy families? i don’t really have a point but, is this how taste is made…? and where does the money go? i guess to pay the billz or to build a couple models for presentation.
I think the people who don’t understand why SANAA won also don’t understand the level of skill and unbelievable amount of toil it takes to produce such simple, elegant details.
I had the pleasure of taking a studio in arch. school led by Sejima and Nishizawa (as well as Yo Hakomori of WHy Architecture) and we got to go to their studio and watch their process and visit the museum in Kanazawa when it was under construction. Until you watch something like that coming together you can’t really know how complex their buildings really are. They’re realizing the details that Mies and Corb could only dream of.
ok
i understand you, and i imagine how complex and planed are those projects. i really like then but comparing to holl´s career you can´t say that he would´t deserve it.
it´s to much contribution for humanity and the city´s all over the world to lose for a bunch o delicate, clean e light volumes…
Holl is an all-time favorite of mine and it will be a shame if he never gets it. I’m guessing that he will, though, and soon.
I would have been happy for either of them to have won.
I like Holl but probably it’s been a good choice not to jump into the China craze after some rather dubious Pritzkers. After all, SANAA are pretty good and it’s hard to say anything bad about them – while also avoiding the easy choices and dullness of, say, I.M. Pei and the excesses of, say, Nouvel.
I couldn’t be happier. What’s lost in all the talk about white nothing, and glazing is how breathtakingly original their programming and space planning is.
They’re constantly experimenting and fully deserve this award.
Congratulations
I knew it.
Congratulations SANAA.
你们是最棒的
Are these guys ever going to hug each other!
Great for them, they deserve it, I voted for Holl, but that doesnt mean I’m going to be whining here about it!
when are us architects going to understand that all work built or not appealling or not, is a big contribution and nobody cares about our opinions or even worse ‘personal opinions’ nobody cares!!!! they are meant to be comments people “comments”!!!
well hurra againa for sanaa
“nobody cares” … “nobody cares” …
i enjoyed reading peoples comments about their personal opinions.
you sound like a whining little kid. you’re not speaking everybody, so ironically you’re also just casting your personal opinion into a comment stream.
(gosh, is that allowed!? i thought this was only for comments!)
@ afRe
‘us architects’ are all different. but one thing most architects have in common (not just architects, but most people) is that we do care about opinions.
exactly, it’s also our job to comment and to be critic of what’s been done in architecture, even if it is in an internet blog.
This is a shame!
YOU`RE A SHAME, go home!
Shame shame!
kudos to the dirty surrealist!
I’m very excited for Sanaa in fact they were my personal top choice but I do agree that Toyo Ito or Steven Holl deserve the award more based on their important contribution to architecture but very glad about the final choice
Congratulations!
And Nishizawa become the youngest… 44!! (Portzamparc at 50)
Congrats!
Apart from their signature formal language and detailing, I think some of their space planning strategy are also very powerful and refreshing. For who deserve to win the prize, I think it is always difficult to compare different practices, its kind of like comparing an apple to an orange, especially when we are talking about ARTS & Design
By the way, what were the results of archdaily’s poll?
Well…congratulations!They definitely deserve it, but I am still surprised they got it before Ito (I mean as Japanese representatives,cos there are many others who deserve it as well)
RT @architempo: #Pritzker to SANAA – http://www.archdaily.com/54195/2010-pritzker-prize-sanaa/ #architecture #price
I am actually saddened by the choice. Stronger architects were in on this and yet SANAA won. Most noticeable works during 2006-2009.
When Peter Zumthor won last year the body of works that was highlighted was built before the year I was born.
I’m suggesting that The Pritzker is an award won through a powerful career, not by some modern works built on the economical boom so many countries lack today, and in such a short span of time.
This is not a Red Dot Award or an occasional AIA Award. This is Peter O’Toole’s Oscar, won 38 years later than expected for the entire career. It is that important.
I am sorry to see 2010′s winner. They should have won Pritzker’s 2020. Because of the fact they got it the minute they felt ready for it leaves no room to grow in this domain. Try rasing the bar up after this ceremony and you will come in short handed. I hope next year’s prize wont be under strict scrutiny of geo-political events and economical crisis.
Congratulations regardless, on an achievement of a lifetime.
I totally agree with you.
Congratulations!
Wow! some Steven Holl lovers should re-think about the meaning of the word “inept” when posting comments…
Sanna’s architecture is not especialy my religion, neither the one I understand the best. But as somebody interested in things that don’t necessarily please me, I couldn’t say without feeling ridiculous that their work doesn’t deserve such a price. Learned a lot and still have lot to learn about it.
Sincere and respectfull congrats to the winners.
People, don’t feel offensed, S.Holl should get the medal one of these days ;)
I`got the solution for our problem… We just have to make a bigger prize to give, and the winner is… Steven Holl.
I agree, SANAA work is like perfect, but Holl works are perfect+beautifull+incredible.
http://stashpocket.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/working-at-sanaa/
Always nice to see stars architects, receiving honors, without any regard to the inside atmosphere of their office. i hope i will have slaves one time working for me.
But some will say that they are excused because they are so great, and creative…
Congrats!
May I drop a bomb and say Steven Holl would have gotten the award already if he wouldn’t have been doing such varying quality of work, with some (but a few) poorly detailed projects ? I don’t think
I’m deeply in love with some of his work – much of it being or referring to his earlier designs – but totally saddened with other recent stuff like Princeton or Knokke… And I don’t understand at all how you would come to imagine the linked hybrid or the harbor gateway could work. I would be curious to see those in a few decades !
But yes, Steven deserves the Pritzker for his amazing body of work ! Perhaps I’m too difficult ’cause I’m in love ;)
.
Ben Van Berkel, Delugan & Meissl or Toyo Ito
are very better
archs…!
Sometimes the Pritzker is a lifetime achievement award, sometimes it’s a ‘hey these people are headed in an interesting direction’ award. The awarding of the prize seems to have more to do with the times in architecture than the laureates themselves. Hadid won in 2004 with barely a couple of pavilions, a gallery and ski jump under her belt…
I have to congratulate SANAA on their receiving the Pritzker, but also believe their winning undermines the award’s prestige. SANAA has only existed as a partnership for 15 years – not even half the time that Holl or Ito have been in practice. While they have created a very respectable body of work thus far, I have to agree with Patrulius Marc that the Pritzker shouldn’t be bestowed upon architects whose careers have essentially just begun.
Congratulations! Love the work, but also understand the “lifetime achievement” comments… Holl and Ito will get theirs…
What I’m really suprised to see is the “white blobs and glazing” comment. I’ve seen few blobs, even though I have watched their work for the last 6 years. The Gifu apartments project is a great study on multi-unit residential living (shared public spaces, porosity, independence within a multigenerational living model)… The Moriyama house is an open-ended and flexible mat that is a legitimate challenge to the suburban model. Kanazawa and Almere are studies on choice, polyvalency, flexibility and publicness. etc… etc… This is intelligent, thoughtful work. Definitely the opposite of blobitecture.
I think it’s fantastic that SANAA won! It was complete nonsense for me that Zaha Hadid had won the price and they had not…
For all of those Steven Holl fans – I’d like to ask how many of you have actually visited / walked through a Holl building, not just read through El Croquis. Because we’re talking about built work here – not Parallax and watercolors and models. BUILT WORK. Somehow I think this is lost on a lot of people.
I’ve visited 2 Holl buildings (Cranbrook Science Museum, MIT dorm) and was underwhelmed by both. There were detailing issues, and it’s not the first time the issue of detailing has come up in a Holl building. (See NYT article 2 years ago about a house in the desert, detailing is visibly poor in the photos.) I love Holl’s books and diagrams, have tremendous respect for him, but both times I thought there was a clear disconnect between his drawings and concept and the actual built work.
As for Sanaa, I have seen 2 of Sanaa’s works in the U.S. and have to say they are both exceptional built works. For those of you who say it doesn’t contribute to architecture? Visit this museum and try and tell me it didn’t change your perspective on glass as a material. And it’s the only building where I’ve seen the CD plan and thought it could hang on the wall at MOMA. (I saw the plan at the New Museum)
The Pritzker is about the quality and contributions of BUILT WORK, not watercolors and diagrams. It’s why it was awarded to someone like Murcutt and Mendes da Rocha whom few had heard of before they were awarded the prize.
I agree with your thoughts on Holl. Personally, I think he may be on the of the more overrated starchitects. I also saw Cranbook and echo your thought. Some ramps, and nifty entrance glass does not make a project. Conversely, I was pleased with his Chapel in Seattle. From its citing and built execution it is well done. But the same cant be said for his Museum in Seattle. By all accounts a failure.
That said, I would have gone with Ito. SANNA, Im happy for them. I like the work I have seen, a little confused by Rolex, but I think that is more a programming issue for me. I just dont get it.
Folks, the Pritzker prize is a family’s personal preference to their own Architecture statement. They prefer SANNA.
AAhhh… finally… someone who says the right thing about Holl… his ideas are great… his buildings are poor… having all this talk about phenomenology and light, etc… and then he goes and build your surfaces with dry walls! the Nelson Atkins Museum is a lovely idea… lovely diagram… and in 50 year, well… might not be there… depending on the life span of its plasterboard.
Sanaa… well… their buildings will probably be there, because they don’t talk too much… and spend time BUILDING…
and for those who complain about the simplicity of Sanaa’s building and not being innovative enough… I guess they would have never given the Pritzker to Mies…
‘I don’t want to be interesting… I want to be good’
Mies Van der Rohe…
Tell me what’s so good about new museum in Bowery?…I’d been waiting for that building since it first announced but yeahh… the old one on soho was way better. Not even compare to the MOMA
congratulation……great achievement….))
Cant wait to see the rolex center next week! :)
WTF?
How did these guys win?
Ito, Holl and Shigeru Ban are far more influential than the grandma and his son.
Also, When is Co-op Himmelblau gonna get their’s?
Not too long ago, I spent some time visiting the chapel in Mogno, Switzerland by Mario Botta. Of architectural work in the past 30 years a more sublime building does not exist, and for that building alone, Mario Botta should be awarded the Pritzker Prize.
pritzker is awarded for “…consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment…”
so no, he shouldn’t.
So you’ve been there.
no, i haven’t been there.
i’m sure it is beaut, Pete, but the point i was making is that the pritzker prize is awarded for consistent contributions… therefore no architect will ever be awarded the prize on the basis of a single building alone.
I was actually stunned when I learned of the Pritzker Choice. I mean C’mon!!! Compare the legacy of SANAA to that of Jean Nouvel or of Zaha Hadid when they won. Churning out half-baked projects that look like second year Architecture school projects (And I am being nice here!)wins you the Pritzker??!
Well….SANAA’s speech better be like Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Price speech- where they see the prize not as one lauding their cheesy built works…..but of better more deserving works to come. AND THEY BETTER GET TO WORK!
What are you talking about? Hadid had built virtually nothing when she got the Pritzker and she has gone downhill from there…
Are you really familiar with Sejima’s projects? She has tons of them, some of them are very very good.
I cosign on this….. Drunkmuse—you are what your name suggests
Congratulation to Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa off SANAA! I cant say that i understand your philosophy because there are many of architects write a lot, but your works simply contribute to built environment in a refreshing way, showing us that architecture doesn’t need to be so overwhelming. Your works separate you from the Philip Johnson Glass box aesthetic and bland contemporary minimalist, hard to explain here, just like difference between a piece of stone and a paper cut.
One things is unbelievable here, Mr. Martin Filler is great prophet. In 2008, on an essay titled ‘New museums: The good, the bad, and the horribly misguided’, SANAA was praised, compared to Coop, Foster, Kevin Roche, Rafael Moneo, etc!”…no new museum in recent memory has exhilarated me nearly as much as this haunting, Minimalist icon.”. His essay is actually already given the highest honor to SANAA that time, and thanks a lot for introducing me this great Japanese team..!!The moment i read this essay, i already predict they will win the prize in future..!
I hope i will be able (afford) to visit and experience the museums mentioned!
that sound you hear is Steven Holl putting a pencil through his forehead.
maybe he’s not aloof enough? too close to The People? i mean you can still drink a Brooklyn lager at Storefront openings and bump into him. i have twice.
haha! cool!
the thought makes me smile.
congratulation
yay! congrats!
congrats!! DRUM ROLL
http://informalspaceproduction.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/the-world-most-famous-architects/
I wish ex aequo prizes had started earlier. This would be pretty nice: http://klaustoon.wordpress.com/
I think SANAA are deserving. The Pritzker can propel designers into new realms of creativity, and I for one think that winning this will spur SANAA to do more.
I admit, some of their work could be seen as a little mundane, but they have also created some remarkable buildings – besides, there’s always next year!
it wasn’t a big surprise for me: sanaa OR steven holl and both firms are deserving it.
i am just asking myself WHY Calatrava never got it so far (even i am not a huge fan from his work). it’s really really strange!!!!! he did marvelous work especially in the early years
Boooooo
Congratulations!Maybe now I don’t know them very well,but I think I begin to know them.
10:32 PM Sep 27th
2010 Pritzker Prize: SANAA | ArchDaily http://t.co/4zxBXJV via @archdaily
2:33 PM Dec 22nd
微笑ましい、独特なふたり。2010 Pritzker Prize: SANAA | ArchDaily http://t.co/g46HS5e via @archdaily
5:59 PM Feb 18th
NO WAY http://www.archdaily.com/54195/2010-pritzker-prize-sanaa/
10:22 PM May 13th
http://t.co/NDPvRzD Estos son SAANA. Kazuyo Sejima duerme en un futon debajo de su mesa de dibujo.