Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, a duo of Japanese architects praised for using everyday building materials to create ethereal structures that shelter flowing, dreamlike spaces, have won the 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the prize's jury announced Sunday. Sejima, 54, and Nishizawa, 44, join Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhaas and Renzo Piano in receiving the top honor in the field in recognition of the art museums, university buildings and designer-label fashion boutiques they have designed in Japan, the United States and Europe. “We want to make architecture that people like to use,” said Sejima, who likened the pair's structures to public plazas, where visitors can roam freely in groups or find comfortable spots to spend time on their own. “The jury somehow appreciated our way of making architecture.” The Pritzker jury of architects, academics, writers and designers praised Sejima and Nishizawa for designing structures that blend into their surroundings to provide unassuming backdrops for the activities occurring in their midst. “They explore like few others the phenomenal properties of continuous space, lightness, transparency and materiality,” the jurors wrote. “They seek the essential qualities of architecture that result in a much-appreciated straightforwardness, economy of means and restraint.” Among the projects mentioned by the Pritzker jury were the translucent-skinned Christian Dior Building in Tokyo's upscale Omotesando shopping district and the Toledo Museum of Art's see-through Glass Pavilion. The jury also mentioned the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology's newly opened Rolex Learning Center. Sejima and Nishizawa formed their Tokyo-based design firm Sanaa Ltd. in 1995. The duo was awarded the 2005 Rolf Schock visual arts prize by Sweden's royal academies in 2005. Sejima is currently serving as the director of this year's Venice Architecture Biennale, the first woman to do so. The formal Pritzker ceremony will be held in May on Ellis Island. Sejima and Nishizawa will receive a $100,000 grant and a pair of bronze medallions.
